Friction Hearts

1.2

A/N: Heads up, don't let that scroll bar get you too excited, there's a 600 word author's note at the end. Still about 12,800 words to sink your teeth into, though, so don't despair. Enjoy.

"Got it? Okay. We'll just do quick summary of the most important members as a refresher then." Mathis Lacoste pressed a button on the lacrima projector. The conference room was cast in darkness for a second as the slideshow reset itself and the silhouette of a pouncing big cat, Liliger Depth's guild mark, reappeared on the far wall of the main guard station. "Liliger Depth. 7-10 mages, roughly 15-20 non-magical members. Core members are –"

Tanken fidgeted, bouncing his knee. He clicked the pen in his hand absentmindedly.

Captain Lacoste continued without pause, but Tanken could literally feel his annoyance. Tanken flushed and stilled himself, forcing his attention back to the slideshow. "–their current leader, taking over the position following the arrest of his brother." He pressed a button and the image shifted to a scruffy man standing with his arms folded. Stick-thin and pale, with a ridiculous bleach blonde pompadour, scowling into the distance. He was so stereotypically 'thug' that Tanken had trouble taking him seriously. "Yosuke, a confirmed Bounce Mage, sub-class holder. Yosuke utilizes bouncy balls to – " Tanken hid his snicker as best he could. Another reason he couldn't take the guy seriously. Tanken couldn't figure out how the captain said that with a straight face. "– Most talented with his magic out of the ten, and smarter than he looks. He –"

Tanken began spinning the pen in his hand, and stopped himself halfway through the motion with a bit of frustration. No one else at the table seemed to have any trouble paying attention. Nobuko was taking notes even. Tanken frowned down at the mess of doodles on his own notepad. Most of yesterday had been spent on filling out forms Tanken hadn't known existed for joining a guild officially, a guild debriefing on each other's magics, dealing with a panicked Willow after Captain Lacoste dropped by again to confirm her stalkers affiliation with Liliger Depth, and then later getting everyone settled into their own rooms. Clarion (was she Master Clarion now? Whatever) and Nobuko had spent some of the night debating if that day had counted in the week agreement. Nobuko had won – kind of. Today had started with a trip to the guard station for a debriefing on Liliger Depth, which had somehow turned into a "quick" debrief of all the major threats in the area, and had now come full circle back to Liliger Depth. Tanken was thoroughly done with debriefs.

He managed to pay attention for all of two more minutes before he found himself drawing shapes on his hand – or trying to anyway, there was very little space left that wasn't already taken up by drawings. Captain Lacoste was still talking, his back turned as he pointed at the slide on the wall. Tanken stopped doodling as the captain turned around, straightening his back and taking in the board, the picture of a model student. He promptly went back to slouching as the captain turned back around. The image projected on the wall now was of a woman in motion, arms raised in an attack. She was dark-skinned, with a mass of purple braids framing sharp, angular features and striking yellow eyes. Fire and great deal of smoke trailed her fingertips. "– Irma Minx. Eyewitness testimony suggests she's a castor fire mage somewhere in the vein of Pyrokinesis or Red Inferno, potentially a combination of both. We haven't yet managed to pin her spells to a specific magic, but it's likely to be one of the two. Not particularly skilled. It –"

Tanken tried to focus, he really did, but it'd been two hours already, the wooden chair was uncomfortable, the darkness was making him sleepy, and he'd heard all this information before. Tanken could feel his eyes glazing over. He glanced around the room for something more interesting, confident that the darkness would hide his wandering gaze – nope, the captain had noticed. Ah, whatever – but the room offered nothing, sporting only the bare essentials of plain, dark wood furniture. There was very minimal thought spared to decoration, which consisted of a generic calendar with yellow flowers hanging on the wall, and a sad, little pot plant next to the door. No, it would be the people that'd offer the most interesting observations.

Tanken felt a brief flash of guilt, but really, this was an information gathering session, and it was for his own safety. Clarion and Oliver owed him for dragging him into this too.

"Shadow Binding: Confusion," Tanken whispered the spell. He directed his magic outward, letting it settle into a diffuse cloud around him. The spell was slow to take hold, took a minute to soak in the magic. Eventually though, Tanken could feel as it began its work, spearing off to attach itself to the others in the room. Tanken pushed at the spell mentally, trying as best he could to force the perception altering aspect into focusing on attention direction, but it was like trying to mould quick-dry cement. With luck, it'd work well enough to mostly hide what Tanken was about to do next though.

Tanken sat still in his chair, cleared his mind and concentrated. "Shadow Binding: Hearing." Magic thrummed through his body; steady pulses that began at his centre and expanded to the boundaries of his skin. Tanken breathed with them, in as his magic pushed out, and out as his magic pressed against him. The pulses were gentle at first, but grew steadily in power until each one physically pushed against Tanken's insides and he felt like he might explode. Tanken could never shake the notion that one day he might. His skin throbbed with magical energy, a sensation that bordered on painful and would get worse before it got better. Tanken gritted his teeth through it and worked to keep his breathing steady, he always got nervous around this point. Getting this wrong would hurt, bad, and if he was going to mess up it'd be here. He breathed. Long seconds passed as more magic built up under his skin. Tanken had to manually un-tense his muscles where they'd seized up from the over-stimulus, but that became harder and harder until it was all but impossible. Tanken was very glad for the cover the darkness provided, the Confusion spell was iffy when he wasn't using the default. He focused on breathing. 'In and out. In and out. In and…' Tanken had fallen into an almost meditative trance when very suddenly and all at once the magic exploded through his skin. He felt it like a shockwave blasting out from him, though he knew an outside observer would see nothing, feel none of it. But for Tanken the relief was joyous, both from releasing all the built-up energy and the successful casting. He'd been getting better at that spell lately, but the memories of all the failed castings forced themselves to the front of Tanken's mind during every attempt. This attempt hadn't failed however, and Tanken could barely hold back his grin.

He looked around, orienting himself in time and space. Tanken always lost track of things like that while casting the Hearing spell. The current slide showed a man that looked to be Oliver's size along with much smaller woman, both pale with blonde hair and round faces, obviously related. "– Gideon Proves. Minor illusionist, too minor to classify. Strong but dumb as rocks. Dangerous paired with his sister, Lyra Price, non-magical but –" Captain Lacoste was wholly focused on the slide. This was his chance.

Tanken closed his eyes and listened, not with his ears, but with another innate sense that was nearly as familiar. Captain Lacoste's voice fell away, but Tanken's sense of his annoyance at him crystalized. Tanken ignored that too. Flares of impressions lit up around him, like candles in the night. All subtly different, but clear in his mind the same way music or colour would be to another sense. There were only ten in the immediate area around him, but countless more outside of that. Tanken held back another smile.

He could count the ten. Captain Lacoste, speaking at the front of the room. The 4 off duty guards (Riley, Decks, Hana-something, and Chen) sitting at the opposite side of table from the Frantic Heart mages. Oliver, Nobuko, and Luminis, studying the slideshow attentively in their seats closest to him near the end of the table. Clarion near the front with the captain, looking bored but appropriately engaged. And Willow sitting worryingly still, expression tight, hanging onto the captain's every word. Tanken could feel her concentration, abnormally distinct in his 6th sense. It was understandable considering her situation. Tanken felt another stab of guilt, and resolved to borrow Nobuko's notes after to make sure he hadn't missed something. Right now, he'd focus on his new sense.

Shadow Binding fell on the more esoteric side of shadow magic. The flares were why. The experts had all sorts of names for them; mirrors, inner darkness, the core, the id. Tanken was sure there was just as many names as there were Shadow Binding users. He called them shades.

Tanken had scoured every library he'd come across (admittedly not that many, but he was 15 and had only been travelling a couple of months, cut him some slack) for texts about the shades. There was always some longwinded paragraph about how shadows, as well as being the absence of light caused by the blockage of light, were a part of someone. Spiritually and/or mentally, it represented something, and Shadow Binding was one of those magics that let you sense that 'something.'

There were arguments over what exactly that was. If it was a person's true core, or personality, or if it was just the parts people suppressed about themselves, or even the complete opposite of each of those (and all that lead to into the arguments over what actually constituted a person, and that was a whole other can of worms). No one he'd read about could agree on what they were, but the one thing they could agree on was that the shades did reflect some part of people.

With all the definitions, Tanken was half convinced the magic worked differently for every mage. Hell, there was probably a theory about that too. Either way, the insights it offered about others were generally agreed to be valid. Tanken matched the shades he could feel to the people in the room, and gleefully set himself to studying his new guildmates.

Two immediately stood out to him, loud in his sense when the other eight were content to stay silent. The first shade was a mess of distant shouting, while the second rang with the sound of clashing metal. Oliver's and Nobuko's respectively, he was a bit surprised to realise. Tanken spared a glance at both of them, if anything he expected Clarion or even Willow to be the strange ones.

Tanken flipped his notepad to a fresh page and jotted down an 'O', focusing on Oliver's shade, letting the others fall away. It was unexpectedly hard to grasp, light as a penumbra shadow, curling up lazily like rising steam and stubbornly evading his shadow sense. Tanken shaded lightly over the 'O' with his pen, and tried to hone in on the sound of the shouting and found it just as difficult to grasp. The harder he tried, the more distant the sounds grew. Interesting, but disappointing. Tanken wrote down some notes and moved on. He couldn't really investigate further without making it obvious what he was doing.

He drew an 'N' for Nobuko under his 'O' and hid a grin. This was one he was really interested in. It was almost impossible to find books dedicated entirely to Shadow Binding out here. Most of what he knew had come from the sole book on Shadow Binding he'd inherited from his brother, and the outdated books Tanken had managed to scavenge on Elemental Magic and the rare tome covering the broad subject of Shadow Magic. 'Kobayashi' had shown up as a reference on at least a quarter of them, and on one occasion, as an author. Not Nobuko Kobayashi, per se, but during the magical debriefing he'd found out the woman was a wind elemental mage. It made Tanken wonder.

Tanken concentrated on the shade in question. The clashing metal sound of Nobuko's shade were downright desperate to be heard compared to Oliver's, threatening to drown out all other senses through sheer loudness. Tanken was forced to shut of that particular part of his sense and focus on other sensations, though they weren't any less overwhelming. Nobuko's shade felt like getting hit by a spell from an ice mage, or touching hot water at the point when you couldn't tell if it was hot or cold anymore, complete with the undercurrent of danger inherent to both situations. She burned. Her shade felt dark, whirring blindingly fast in a tight ball. Tanken tried to translate it to his paper, and blinked when the point of his pen ripped into the paper of the notepad. The captain's shade flared in irritation, but the man just continued with his presentation.

Tanken quickly noted his observations and dismissed Nobuko's shade, or tried to anyway. The shade barked out a sharp, mono-syllable laugh then hissed at him. "What do you want?" The voice was an amalgam of those clashing metal sounds. Neither feminine nor masculine, just harsh, translating that cold-hot feeling into a sound that the spell transmuted directly into his brain.

It took herculean effort to reign in his instinctual flinch. Each syllable scraped at his being. Fear caught in his throat and Tanken's notebook fell to the floor. He scrambled to pick it up, made a jerky, wave-like movement to fend of the concerned looks that got him. The confusion spell did it's work and pulled their focus back to the slide. Tanken's heart raced, pounding an unforgiving rhythm in his chest, hard enough he was scared the others in the room might overcome the spell and notice.

Shades could only communicate shade to shade, or, more accurately, mysterious representation of subconsciousness to mysterious representation of subconsciousness, and due to a lack of corporeal bodies there really weren't many barriers to stop things from mixing – Generally speaking, mixing parts of yourself with parts of others was a terrible idea.

Tanken cut off the spell's magic supply immediately, damn the consequences.

To his horror, the spell held. He could feel the shade siphoning magic from Nobuko's reserves to power the spell because of course. That was just his luck. The shade cackled like a hail of knives. Tanken could barely hold himself upright as the feel of it washed over him. A spiritual flaying. The cold-hot feeling choked him. A primal, animal part of his brain screamed danger, but even as Tanken wanted to run it froze him. His breathe stuttered, catching in his throat.

Amazingly, Nobuko hadn't noticed – the amount of magic the spell used really was negligible. The real drawbacks were casting difficulty and the amount of danger the spell posed to your spiritual health and sanity. The sensing part wasn't supposed to be dangerous – it was the contacting, the talking, the mixing. He could count on one hand the amount of times a shade had spoken to him without his prompting. He needed even less to count the amount of times a shade actively clung to his attention – once, this time.

Tanken's chest burned. Panic seized him. For a second Tanken was sure the shade had found a way to do permanent damage. It took another second for Tanken to realise the burning was because he wasn't breathing. Tanken gasped in a breathe, but his lungs refused to expand. The best he managed were short, quick inhales. Not enough. He felt light-headed. And her shade was still laughing.

"Go away," Tanken spat in a strained hiss of a whisper. Captain Lacoste's shade flared in disapproval, as well as two of the other guards in the room closest to him. Tanken couldn't spare the thought to be embarrassed. Nobuko's shade went this time, barking out words he didn't hear as his mind and magic tuned it out. Tanken could breathe finally, stuttering gulps that still didn't feel like enough. Tension leaked from him and he slumped in his chair.

'Good going, dumbass.' Tanken thought, a touch hysterical. He was amazed that actually worked. He glanced at Nobuko from under his bangs and found her completely at ease. 'What the hell?' Tanken shuddered. Not all of the tension had left him. The phantom of the cold-hot feeling stayed, kept Tanken on edge, was steadily building into a low-level paranoia. Tanken felt-hyperaware of his surroundings, particularly Nobuko's corner of the room. He mentally assessed himself and concluded tentatively that he didn't feel insane. But that didn't really prove anything. He'd need to get checked by a mind healer to be sure. His Mum was going to kill him. And he still had Clarion, Luminis, and Willow's shades to check out.

A minute passed as Tanken considered the wisdom of that move, and then another minute. The spell was still active, now powered by Tanken's own magical reserves. Tanken was hesitant to let it go, it was hard to cast dammit. He hesitated for one more second before cycling through the last few shades, practicing caution this time and trying to get a general sense of them before delving any deeper. He made sure he could hear nothing.

Clarion's shade was odd only due to the fact that hers was one of the bigger shades he'd come to witness. It felt heavy, permeating the air like a smog, but smog felt like too light a word. Trying to analyse it felt like trying to move through a thick mud. The shade was big, heavy, and cold. Not in the way Nobuko's was, bur more in a wet, slimy sort of way that made him feel dirty. Tanken shaded heavily around the 'C' he'd jotted down and wrote his observations underneath it, moving onto the next shade immediately. He ignored how his hands shooks, and hoped the others in the room did as well.

Next was the Light Demon, another one he'd been looking forward to. Tanken approached her shade with trepidation, but Luminis' shade turned out to be the second closest to something normal. Tanken could feel it flitter about the room. The only constant was how it's presence clouded around her head, light and wispy but not without substance. Tanken could feel pockets of her shade flicker around the room, occasionally intersecting with the other's shades, connected to the 'home base' cloud around her head by spider-silk thin threads. Interesting, but not uncommon. He lingered for only a couple seconds before moving on.

Willow's shade, however, was a matryoshka of feelings. As fragile as wet tissue, the shade shrivelled apart and dissipated under even the slightest attempt on Tanken's part to make sense of it – only to reveal a new completely different yet equally as fragile layer hiding beneath, which broke just as easily to reveal yet another layer, and another, and another... Tanken was treated to a gauntlet of sensations. Sand running down his arm, a dizzying wave of heat, the taste of strawberries on the tip off his tongue… It was downright bizarre.

Curiosity killed the cat. Tanken retreated from Willow's shade before it got weirder and tried to pull a Nobuko. He dropped both Hearing and Confusion spells, deeply unsettled but with his sanity still presumably intact, so he considered it a win. The real world came back into focus, and just in time too. "– Last member to watch out for is Shiro Motokawa. Again, non-magical, but not a guy to turn your back on in a fight." The slide showed a man that was remarkably average looking, excepting his light grey hair, but even that was more uncommon than rare. "He's handy with a sword." Captain Lacoste continued. "Team drama sees him in and out of the guild, but he's someone you should be prepared to fight."

Tanken ignored the captain in favour of his notes. He flipped the pages of his notepad to a blank sheet with clammy hands, almost tearing out a page in the process, and clumsily stuffed it into his bag. He couldn't make any conclusions just from this. With as many theories as to what Shadow Binding let you see, it meant there were just as many interpretations of what different things about a shade could mean. He'd have to cross-reference with his other notes on the topic.

Excitement battled with anxiety and left over adrenaline. It made Tanken feel vaguely hysterical. Only four towns into his journey and he'd already found so many interesting people. Granted he'd wanted to observe from a bit more of a distance, but this was part of the reason he'd started travelling and –

" – And we're done." The lights flickered on.

Tanken shot out of his chair. And promptly dropped back down at everyone's stare. 'Stupid.' He flushed.

Thankfully Clarion chose that moment to speak. "Captain Lacoste, I'm going to borrow your meeting room for a bit."

'Uhhgg.' Tanken slumped down into his chair.

Captain Lacoste regarded her. Clarion's was at least a head taller than the Captain and he had to look up to meet her eyes, but Tanken was left somehow sure there was no inequality between them. "That should be fine. I'd like to be informed of your plans regarding the matter of Chief Ockham and Liliger Depth. Please don't hesitate to request the aid of the Home Guard."

Clarion grinned. "Sure."

Chief Ockham. Willow had blanched at the name while Tanken had perked up. Curiosity burned in Tanken's mind. For all they'd talked about him, Tanken still had no idea why he was stalking Willow. He hadn't gotten the nerve to ask either, considering Willow's reaction to even the mention of him. Tanken was also half sure Nobuko would skewer him for it. He didn't particularly want to draw any more of her attention, either. The phantom feel of her shade that still lingered swept over him anew, and Tanken choked. Panic flared to life even as Tanken squashed the feeling in the same moment. Oliver stared at him oddly. Tanken fought the urge to fidget, and prayed he wouldn't ask any questions.

Captain Lacoste nodded to the four guards in the room and they stood, following him out the door. One lagged behind though, staring at the gathered mages with unabashed curiosity. Another guard, a woman (Chen?), pulled him through the door with a lowly hissed "Decks!" The door shut behind them. Tanken stared after them.

Oliver blinked once, then seemed to put the scene out of his mind. "Clarion –"

"– Master Clarion. We have to start getting everyone in the habit now." 'Master' Clarion looked excessively happy at the prospect.

"Come on guys, gather round, chop, chop!" Clarion punctuated her words with actual chopping motions onto the conference table. The mages of Frantic Heart gathered closer together with varying levels of enthusiasm, though all much less than Clarion's.

Tanken didn't hesitate to shoot into the seat between Oliver and Luminis – away from Nobuko. Just in case. He side-eyed her. She noticed. Nobuko gave him a wide, eye-creasing smile and Tanken's adrenaline spiked. He froze like a deer in headlights. He force himself to give her an awkward, aborted nod back and glanced away as fast as he could and still be considered polite. He cringed internally. She probably didn't notice how weird he was being, right?

Clarion did not sit, stayed standing to address them. "Before anything, I think it's important to get some stuff out of the way. Willow."

The girl in question startled to attention. She stood up straight, but didn't turn her head to face Clarion. "Yes?" Willow began tentatively. Her voice was reedy, drawn tight with nerves, and Tanken could relate really, even if they stressing over very different things. He didn't think Willow had gotten any sleep the night before, and it showed. Her already pale skin was stark white now. It made the bags under her look darker than they were, and along with the milky cast of her eyes it gave her the impression of a walking corpse. She looked exhausted, worn out despite the fact that it was only noon. Tanken felt a stab of sympathy for her. Whatever was going on with her shade was probably due to her situation now, he realised.

"Just to confirm, and also because I doubt there are that many blind Willow Jensen's with crazy chiefs after them, am I right in assuming you're that earth mage?"

Willow had steadily gotten tenser as Clarion's sentence went on. Her hands gripped at the fabric of her dress, so tight they were as white as the fabric. She pursed her lips into a hard line. Tanken thought for a second she'd refuse to answer, until she finally opened her mouth. "Yeah," the word left Willow in a breath, more a confession than an answer, and seemed to drain what little life she had left out of her. She looked hollowed out by the admission.

"Tact, Clarion!" Oliver snapped.

The unease grew in Tanken, thoroughly eclipsing any excitement he'd had, though he had no clue what Clarion was getting at. Tanken scanned the gathered faces frantically and found that Oliver, Luminis, and Nobuko all seemed to know exactly what she meant. Luminis' bit her lip, eyebrows furrowing as she stared down at Willow. Oliver was looking at Clarion, aghast. Nobuko was also looking at Clarion, and her expression was murderous.

It did nothing good for his new found fear of her. Tanken's skin crawled with the cold-hot sensation. 'Well, better Clarion than me.' Tanken resigned himself to listening, but couldn't help but keep Nobuko in the corner of his vision.

Clarion bit her lip in a hard wince, looking honestly apologetic. "Sorry, sorry, could've handled that better." She gathered herself. "But, this line of work is dangerous and information is very important – especially going into a situation like this."

Nobuko let out an audible breath, too small to be called a sigh but obviously purposeful, and stared Clarion down with narrowed eyes – but she didn't disagree.

Willow just nodded, a small, tight movement. "Yeah," she said again. "S'okay. I think you all should know if I'm going to drag you all into this."

Tanken perked up with a wary curiosity. Willow took a deep breath, apprehension pulling the lines of her face into a grimace, preparing to speak.

Clarion hummed, giving her a contemplative look. "Well not now, okay? I'd like you to confirm what we learned from Captain Lacoste and I want the full story for context, but how about we talk that over in private and I'll tell the rest what they need to know, yeah?"

Willow's relief was palpable. "Yeah. Yeah, okay."

Facing that, Tanken could only bring himself to be a little disappointed he wouldn't get to know what was going on. 'Argh.'

"Great!" Clarion beamed down at her, and Willow manage a wavering smile back. Tanken watched as Nobuko's metaphorical hackles lowered, and Tanken relaxed the tiniest bit. Nobuko's expression wasn't murderous now, but it certainly wasn't happy.

Luminis' face had softened throughout the exchange. "I always wondered what happened to that little girl."

Willow shrugged and spoke in a small voice. "I travelled for a while. Got my magic under control, then I came back."

Tanken's eyebrows furrowed together as he tried to piece together what Willow was saying with what the others had said earlier, putting together clues to get an idea what they were talking about. Would it be offensive if he started taking notes? –

"The plan, then?" Nobuko interjected sharply. Tanken jumped in his seat at her sharp tone, train of thought promptly crashing.

"– We can settle later." Clarion waved a hand that made Nobuko raise a challenging brow. Clarion continued. "We have at least a day and half's worth of travel to do, and we've just gone through a two hour meeting. Relax for a bit, pack for the journey. Meet back at the guild when you can all concentrate, then we'll talk tactics. We leave tonight after I report to Captain Lacoste. Good?"

Tanken sat straighter, the prospect of finally leaving and subsequently getting away from Nobuko gifting him with a second wind of energy. The others seemed to perk up too as half-hearted agreements sounds from around the room.

Nobuko also seemed appeased. Seemed. "I'd like to settle something first," she said.

'Noooo.' The disappointment was crushing, really.

"Oh?" Clarion looked curious.

"Your name gets thrown around a lot in these mage circles," Nobuko's words were light, but Tanken still got the impression she didn't mean that as a compliment.

"Yep." Clarion's eyes shone and her smile went sharp.

'…Are they picking a fight?' Tanken thought. He didn't really care, but it irritated because it meant he couldn't leave yet.

Oliver sighed, deep with a tone of resignation. Willow leaned back, stilling in a way that Tanken was beginning to learn meant she was listening intently. She furrowed her eyebrows, her hands tightening around the edge of the table anxiously. Oliver glanced down at her and patted her shoulder comfortingly. He said something in a low tone that seemed to relax her.

"You've done business with our mother, right?" Clarion asked, taking a seat on the end of the conference table and tilting her head at Nobuko. Next to Tanken Oliver tensed, a motion so slight Tanken didn't think he'd have caught it if they weren't sitting next to each other. Tanken glanced up at Oliver's face and saw that he was wearing a… complicated expression. Willow seemed to sense it somehow through the hand still on her shoulder, and she tensed as well, digging her nails deeper into the wood of the table where she gripped it. Luminis frowned at them both. Tanken was very tempted to peek at all their shades, old habits die hard, but common sense and practicality held him back from actually going through with it. He'd have to rely on his more mundane senses. He turned back to the scene.

Nobuko lip quirked in an expression that by all accounts should've been pleasant but with Tanken's recent insight wasn't. Nobuko's eyes seemed just a tad too sharp, her stare a bit too intent. A shiver ran down Tanken's spine. "House Morrow has enlisted the help of the Kobayashi in recent years, yes. You showed up in the customary background check." She glanced at Oliver. "Both of you."

'House Morrow?' It sounded vaguely familiar, and not just to him it seemed, taking another look around. Tanken stored the new piece of information in his quickly growing mental folder of 'stuff everyone knows but me.' He swore he was going to study up on something other than Shadow Binding, he was going to do some targeted studying, dammit. He didn't like being ignorant.

Oliver avoided Nobuko's gaze, and the smile dropped from Clarion's face. Tanken started to fidget in the racketing tension. Clarion opened her mouth to speak.

Luminis cleared her throat before she could, and both the other women started. "Please stop." She looked pointedly at an anxious, pale-faced Willow and shot both of them a disapproving look that was just a shade away from a glare.

Nobuko flushed under Luminis' gaze, contrite. "I apologise," she said.

Luminis nodded at that and turned to Clarion. "House Morrow?" She raised a brow at Clarion.

'Not just me out of the loop then.' Tanken felt absurdly pleased, and could have sighed in relief at getting at least one explanation today.

Clarion looked bewildered at the question, mouth left open as she lost whatever she was about to say. It took only another second before a lightbulb seemed to go off in her head. She gave the group a sheepish grin. "Oh. I think Nobuko has a point, actually."

Luminis inclined her head. "Explain," she prodded.

Tanken leaned over the table to hear her better, curiosity pulling him forward. He could see Willow doing the same across from him, though a deal more reservedly.

Clarion gave Nobuko a wry grin. "You were going to say something about how it was hypocritical only Willow had to air out her dirty laundry, so to speak, especially when I'm trying to drag you into my stuff while I'm seemingly hiding something, right?"

"Yes," Nobuko said, frowning.

Everyone stared at Clarion.

Clarion waved the looks off. "'Seemingly' is the operative word there. Short version is: I've made a lot of enemies, primary among them are House Morrow – the head of which happens to be the our " – she pointed to herself and Oliver – " mother. Cosying up with me will close some doors permanently and open others. I'm quite the contentious figure." Clarion said all of this very matter-of-factly, with something analogous to pride. Oliver, however, sat through the explanation with a face that looked like he was going through various stages of constipation.

Nobuko's stare was hard even when her tone was pleasant. "Short version is: you're known for pulling things, and this guild you've come up with is more than likely some overcomplicated revenge scheme that will put the people here at risk up against some incredibly powerful and influential people, and you seem to be leaving that part out while strong-arming people into your guild."

Clarion rolled her eyes very dramatically. "Oh come on, 'incredibly'? They'd warrant a 'moderately' at most, in my opinion."

Nobuko didn't look like she cared very much about Clarion's opinion.

"Oh," Willow said. Her face screwed up in thought. Nobuko glanced at her and leaned back, crossing her arms. Luminis' face was blank as she considered the information.

Clarion raised a brow at the silence and all the faces turned to her. "I never tried to hide my history. Our family's not really a secret, it just wasn't very relevant. And it's not like any of the people that might, might, come after you are the 'slit your throat in the middle of the night' type either, more the 'bad-mouth you at the annual gala to your potential business associates' type really. Petty shit. We're on a tight schedule as it is. Of course, if you didn't know what assumptions people would make about you if associate with me I'd make it perfectly clear. Besides, I'm a fan of the 'the best revenge is living well' philosophy." Clarion grinned wickedly. "I can promise that I have your best interests at heart trying to get you all to join my guild."

Tanken blinked, processing all that, recalling vaguely the ugly sensation of Clarion's shade. But Nobuko's shade didn't exactly feel trustworthy either, but what reason did she have to lie? The impression of both their shades joined the uncomfortable mix of paranoid anxiety and traces of adrenaline in Tanken's stomach. Tanken wasn't really in a state to be thinking things through, he realised. His mind boggled at the situation he'd found himself in. It just kept getting worse somehow.

Luminis however seemed appeased by Clarion's words, then she frowned. "So when was I going to be made aware of this?"

Clarion threw her hands up and made a face. "I didn't know you didn't know. Honest! I thought it was kind of assumed? I've never been anywhere this stuff wasn't common knowledge. I know I'm definitely not the biggest name out there, but I'm the biggest one in Dahlia in a while. They've been gossiping about me for weeks, you haven't heard any of the rumours?"

Tanken had overheard lots of talk about the new guild and could vaguely remember hearing the name 'Morrow', though he'd stubbornly avoided talking to anyone he didn't have to before he was approached by Oliver. Tanken could feel bad about the state of ignorance that left him in, except if he'd been a bit more stubborn about avoiding people he wouldn't be in this mess.

"I don't like to involve myself in rumours," Luminis said bluntly. "I don't much care for others' opinions of you here. You're just as new to them as you are to me, I can judge for myself."

Clarion laughed, high and free in way that dissipated the remaining tension in the room. She considered Luminis warmly. "Of course." The words were spoken more to herself than anything. "I'll give you all the whole story after were done with Liliger Depth and the chief then," Clarion said, then turned to Nobuko. "So, is this why you've been acting like I pissed in your cereal?"

"Clarion." Oliver, burying his head in his arms. Tanken had the odd urge to pat his shoulder comfortingly. He probably couldn't reach though.

Nobuko frowned at her. "Some of us would like to maintain copacetic relations with our business associates."

Clarion ignored Oliver. "I have just as many allies as enemies. Does it matter that much? From what I've heard you're not the biggest fan of our mother." Clarion smiled conspiratorially. "Understandable, really."

"You're both irritating in your own ways and I'd prefer not to do business with either of you," Nobuko sighed, rubbing at her temples. She gave Clarion a strained smile. "However, I can acknowledge that I might be wrong in assuming you were misleading us, and can appreciate your more straightforward method of manipulation, however distasteful." Clarion grinned like a Cheshire cat. "I still don't like you, but if Willow is willing to continue this partnership considering the new information, I am obligated by my word to help." Nobuko stared at Clarion flatly.

"Righteo," Clarion said in response. She turned to Willow.

Willow startled again, stumbling over her words as she spoke. "Um, I don't really care if they're not going to try and kill me or anything like that. I just," she bit her lip, "I want him to stop – And if Liliger Depth's helping him I don't know if Nobuko and I can do it alone," – Willow's eyes went shiny – "and I'm sorry Nobuko, but I really need their help and –"

"It's fine." Nobuko cut off Willow's rambling with a grin, bright, completely at odds with the disposition she had talking to Clarion. Willow gave her a small, watery, smile in return.

They all looked to Tanken then. Tanken stared blankly back before realizing they were waiting for his input on the matter. "I'm alright with it, I guess?" Tanken honestly didn't know if he was alright with it, but he didn't like all the attention on him and he really doubted he'd be staying long, interesting people or not. There was no reason to make a fuss.

"Right then!" Clarion chirped, as if the previous conversation hadn't happened. "Willow, a word?" Clarion motioned to a corner of the room and started to walk. Willow followed silently.

There was a bit of silence as all four of the other Frantic Heart mages considered them. Nobuko looked to Oliver then, face softening into an apology. "I'm sorry for bringing up such a sensitive topic so callously."

Oliver shook his head. "No, it's fine. It's a valid worry and not really that sensitive a topic." His eyes flickered to Clarion, who was having a quiet but noticeably charged discussion with Willow. Tanken almost wanted to listen in, but he had his limits. "For me anyway," Oliver finished quietly.

Luminis followed his gaze. "For Clarion then? Doesn't seem like it."

Oliver frowned. "No, it doesn't," he agreed.

Luminis grinned suddenly. "So, House Morrow? Like a Noble House? Apologies, if I'd known I was hanging around with nobility I would've dressed up a bit. And I can't believe how rude I've been! What would my father say?! Oh please forgive me, your highness!" Luminis' voice dripped with mock sincerity, and she shook Oliver's arm with her last plea.

Oliver scoffed down at her and Luminis let go with a snicker. "Seriously, a Noble House?" She elbowed him.

Clarion snorted from behind them, apparently done talking with Willow. "Grandma wishes. Nah, they're just a House. And it's not our House."

Clarion clapped her hands together, signalling the end of that topic. "So! Anything else people want to clear up about themselves and/or others?" Various 'no's sounded from around the room, and Tanken shook his head. He wasn't really a sharing sort of guy. "Right then. For the record I'd just like to say I did not throw the first punch in that club and am therefore not responsible for the aftermath, a solid three quarters of the tabloids aren't true, and I had nothing to do with the X813 Marigold scandal. "

Before anyone could ask for further clarification, Clarion had ushered everyone out of the room.

The main guard station was placed at the west end of the town square, where a path of dark grey stone led to a small yet well-tended park at the square's centre, imaginatively named Dahlia Central Park. Bright violet caught Tanken's eye as he exited the guard station, briefly distracting him from the immediate wave of mid-day heat. Tiny flowers against dark green grass that was just a touch overgrown, vivid even in the shade of the trees. A brisk breeze blew past, ruffling dark leaves into the air and Tanken's hair from his face. It provided no relief from the heat, but was a rush of earthy scents. Dirt, warm grass, and the faint sweetness of flowers. Distinctly summer. Longing rose from the pit of his stomach to grip him the by throat. Tanken's breathe hitched, his hands going up automatically to clutch at his necklace. He'd been able to calm down after finally escaping Nobuko's choking presence, but now Tanken felt very tired.

Luminis looked at him, eyes questioning but not pushing. Oliver had already gone off to buy supplies, and Clarion and Willow had stayed in the guard station to discuss Willow's mysterious past. Nobuko had insisted on staying with Willow as her bodyguard thankfully. Tanken had booked it out the door, but found himself loitering at the entrance to the guard station, caught between wanting to go back to the guild to study his notes and his sudden exhaustion with the day. Luminis had also lingered for some reason.

She stretched, stepping out of the shade of the guard station and into the light, gold eyes squinting up at the sun. Tanken wondered briefly if light mages could photosynthesize. She looked to be enjoying the light thoroughly, and didn't seem bothered by the heat at all, was in fact wearing a hoodie and baggy trousers. Tanken studied her, the Light Demon of the mountains, a local living legend. Tanken would always hear the few other mages in his village talk about how if she'd ever leave these parts to join one of the big guilds she'd end up a big name. She wasn't what he expected. Luminis was a small women, in stature and presence. Shorter than him, even counting the bun of light blue hair, and definitely didn't dress like how he thought an uber powerful mage would. He knew intellectually that she was a strong mage, could probably kick his ass ten ways to Sunday, but it was hard to connect that image to the woman in front of him. It felt almost funny. Four years ago his brother had bragged to him about meeting her when she'd passed through their village. Tanken had been sick and bedridden for that whole week and he'd been so jealous. Now he was (temporarily) in a guild with her.

'Take that bro.' Tanken smiled, but it was bittersweet thing.

Luminis had finished stretching and now turned to face him. "Feels like such a long day already, huh?"

Tanken startled a little, not really expecting to be spoken to. "Yeah," he said when he couldn't think of anything better to say. A very small part of Tanken wanted to ask her if she remembered his brother. He looked down at Luminis. It was weird, she was something like 10 years older but she had to look up to speak to him. Tanken felt vaguely like he should bend down when she spoke, but figured Luminis might be offended by that.

Luminis considered him. "I'm going restock on camping gear at the east end of town, you going that way?"

Tanken froze. He was thinking of going that way, but he also wanted to be away from everyone, to recoup from the day. Never mind if it was just noon and he'd barely talked.

Luminis took one look at him and Tanken knew she got it. Her lip quirked into an apologetic smile. "Yeah, I know that feeling. Right, I'll cut to the chase then."

Tanken stared down at her, confused.

"Clarion and I got the sense that you don't know the full story, so she asked me to explain. Willow Jenson doesn't ring any bells does it?"

"No," Tanken answered immediately.

Luminis sighed heavily, but she didn't look surprised. "Figured. You'd have been too young when it happened. Not something you'd bring up casually either," said Luminis. "Clarion is right, this mage stuff is dangerous. It's better going into these sorts of things with all the information, so I'm here to inform you."

"Oh," said Tanken dumbly.

"How much do you know about the anti-magic gated communities?"

Tanken didn't expect the non-sequitur and floundered for a second. "Not much?" he managed. Tanken's mother had done a lot to shield him and his brother from any anti-magic sentiment. "They were a bunch of people that hated magic and decided to get together and live without it?"

Luminis nodded, approving. "That's the gist of it. Except you can't really keep magic out of a society. It's not genetic, we've worked that out. So the people that weren't too keen on magic had ways of dealing with it. Most would just kick out their magical children, some pawned them off to the Mage Union, and others didn't want to give more 'soldiers' to the 'enemy' so to speak. It was those types that would take more archaic approaches."

It took a second before it dawned on him. "Witch burnings." Tanken grimaced, even his mother couldn't hide that particular facet of history from him.

Luminis gave him a sad smile. "Witch burnings," she confirmed. "They say 10% of the population will be born magical. 1 out of every 10 children for years, and eventually you'd get one that could fight back. Hard."

The pieces fell into place like rocks in Tanken's stomach. "Willow Jenson," Tanken followed Luminis' logic.

Luminis nodded. "Willow Jenson. She would've been no older than 10 I think, so you'd have been 9. As far as anyone could tell it was an accident, but the casualties were in double digits. Wasn't the first time it happened, or the last, but Willow's case became one of the bigger ones because hers had one of the larger casualty rates, and her magic left one of the bigger, more permanent reminders."

Earth magic would do that.

"So, Chief Ockham…?"

"Sole survivor. He's been after her head for a couple of years now ever since. I think the Mage Union got custody of Willow after the case, and from what I gather she's been shuffled around a lot to keep him off her tail."

"Oh, wow." It was all Tanken could say. 6 years of being hunted. Tanken's heart sank. He didn't really know how to react to that. It was a lot to process, and Tanken's brain was already fried. He wanted to sit down for a long while.

Luminis didn't seem to mind his underwhelming reaction. "Yeah, wow," she agreed. "And now you know."

There was silence. Tanken scuffed his feet. Felt like he should offer something more. "Guess we'll put an end to that this week then, and Willow can go on and live her life."

"Yeah." Luminis smiled. "You're a good kid, Tanken." She looked at him, contemplative, then grinned suddenly. Before Tanken could react she reached up, lightening quick, and mussed his hair roughly.

Tanken stared at her like she'd told him the Queen of Fiore was secretly a mountain troll and also his mother.

"Heh, the Doc was right, that is kind of fun. Seeya kid!" Luminis walked off in the direction she'd indicated before. Tanken boggled at her, more confused by the quickness of the interaction than anything. 'What?'

The moment passed and Tanken sighed, from relief or exhaustion he didn't know and didn't really care to analyse. He was finally alone. Luminis' company had been surprisingly nice, but Tanken had always been a big appreciator of alone time.

An idea struck him, and Tanken followed the stone path into the park and blessed shade. Many other townspeople also had similar ideas, Tanken was displeased to notice. Dahlia, compared to the other towns he'd visited, was generally on the quieter side. The exception was the square. It bustled with people, in as much as a town like Dahlia could bustle. Walking through it'd been almost welcoming once, when he'd just been a travelling mage passing by. Now Tanken was a Frantic Heart mage, and he couldn't help but notice the eyes turning to focus on him. It was disconcerting. Fortunately no one seemed inclined to approach him. Tanken kept his eyes down and his head facing forward. He had a destination in mind now.

Dahlia residents seemed content to sit in the shade and talk amongst themselves. Tanken was half-sure by the glances his way some were talking about him. It made him want to squirm and crawl into a hole and hide. Tanken was too far away to make out any words though, and he clung to the illusion of solitude obstinately. Tanken meandered across the park without care, cutting through stone path and grass in a wandering route that kept him as far away from other people as possible. He stewed in his thoughts.

You're young. You're inexperienced. Don't head straight to the cities, travel around first. Stick to our area. Learn to be independent in a safe environment. You don't know people, they'll take advantage of you – All things his Mum had told him as she sent him off into the world. Tanken could practically hear her voice, couldn't help visualizing the characteristic shake of her head as she told him so. She'd fussed and hummed for weeks before he was due to leave for his journey, but she'd never once brought up the concept of him not going. For that Tanken will always be grateful, but the constant warnings had grated after a while, even when Tanken knew they came from a place of caring. Tanken was now reasonably sure the middle nowhere was where all the crazies hid. And his Mum was wrong… Well, about the last part at least. Tanken did know about people – his magic made it hard not to – way too much about people. Enough to know some of the ones in this guild were weird. And probably not in the good way. In the short time Tanken had gotten to observe the group of people he'd be spending the week with, the more uneasy he felt about them. Tanken stared glumly at the guild mark on inside of his left wrist. The cheery concentric hearts seemed mocking in his current mood.

Doubt ate at him like it did every time he got time to himself. 'Why did I agree to this?' Room and board, the answer came immediately. He was doing this for free room and board. Oliver had mentioned it offhand in his recruitment pitch – free room and board for just considering joining the guild. Tanken had planned on staying in Dahlia for at least two more weeks, and he loathed parting with jewels. It sounded like a great deal at the time. But was it worth it even if he had to help take down a dark guild? Maybe. Tanken had doubts about his own capabilities but the others seemed like perfectly capable mages. They had the Light Demon. But living with them for a week? A voice in the back of his head that sounded suspiciously like his mother said 'no'. The uneasy feeling tripled, and he wondered if any of the others would come after him if he just left right now. The idea died as fast as it came. He couldn't bring himself to leave after hearing Willow's story, not when he'd already sort of committed to helping and said as much to Luminis. He pouted.

His hands went to the necklace at his neck automatically. He felt for the hard edges of the crystals embedded in the little lock and key charm. Again, in as many days since he'd started travelling, Tanken wished he could've started this journey with his brother. He probably wouldn't have let some random lady talk them into joining her stupid guild, Light Demons or no. Tanken gripped the pendent in his palm and took comfort in running his fingers over the teeth of the key charm.

Sudden coolness as a large shadow fell over him. It broke Tanken out of his thoughts. He looks up at the great visage of the town hall, relishing the respite from the sun the large shadow provided. Again, many others had the same idea. Even more people were concentrated at this side of the square than in Dahlia Central Park, strangely enough. Dark wood tables were arranged at the feet of the building, more than half were occupied. All under the supervision of the town hall.

The biggest building in Dahlia at five stories tall, impressive in size, though somehow not imposing. It was a simple wooden construction, and for as tall as it was it also sprawled. The structure was built into something of a 'C' shape, embracing the squares east end, with columns of wood placed at even intervals and flowerbeds brimming with colourful Dahlia's between those. All made of the same dark wood everything in Dahlia was. The town hall blended in with the surrounding buildings, was only really distinguishable by its height and the tall, arching windows reaching between each column above the flowerbeds. They glinted at him as he gazed up, light reflecting off oddly clean glass considering their height and size. Tanken wondered at that but put it out of mind quickly enough, looking away and turning left to walk past the building. He was almost at his destination.

Three turns and 10 minutes later, Tanken entered the quietist edge of Dahlia's business district, which all together was made up of about two and half streets. Tanken stuck to shadows, walking close to shops with his head down. He knew the way.

Tanken stopped at the fourth building at the left. The entrance was small and nondescript, a recess in a wall between two larger building. Short steps lead Tanken down to a plain wooden door. He'd stumbled upon this place on his first day in Dahlia, wandering around for a somewhere to rest that didn't have too many people and wasn't his stuffy little hotel room. The first couple of times Tanken had tried to come back he kept walking past the entrance and had resorted to using Shadow Binding: Hearing. The only indication as to what the establishment held was a blackboard hanging off the door from a worn rope. The writing was small enough you'd have to be standing no more than a meter away to make it out.

True Brew!

Dahlia's Premier Tea Shop!

A different blend every day!

Today's blend: GOOSEFLOWER AND FERRAS BARK

The words where done in a colourful artsy script, but a layer of dust had settled over the writing and dulled the chalks. The 'GOOSEFLOWER AND FERRAS BARK' was the exception. Scribbled out in blocky white text, it was completely at odds with the flowing calligraphy above it. Moreover, the parts of blackboard underneath the blocky text were clean of the dust, were probably wiped regularly, and the effect highlighted the differences.

Tanken urged the door open and slipped inside, tucking himself into a table at the corner of the room closest to the entry way. True Brew looked much larger from the inside than it did from the outside, though not extraordinary so. Natural light flooded the area from windows placed at the uppermost part of the walls. Short but wide, winding around the very upper walls of the teashop, offering privacy as well as brightness. The decorating was eclectic. Bookshelves lined the walls, crammed with teas sets and porcelain figures. They had no order to them, were shoved together with no thought to presentation, facing the wrong way or balanced upside down to fit. Layers of dust attested to how long they'd stayed that way. The furniture was all wood, uniform in design, but only a few were made from dark wood characteristic of Dahlia, the rest were varying lighter shades and scattered all about the room. The weirdest things were the hollow glass jars that served as centrepieces for the tables. Ranging in shape from a hat, to a unicorn, to the giant, unidentifiable blob on Tanken's table, each and every one was filled to the brim with what looked to be the broken pieces of teacups and pots. Tanken had tried to open one once on a whim, and had found that they were welded solidly shut.

There were five other customers inside with Tanken. A couple sitting in their own corner, utterly enthralled with each other, an old man perusing a newspaper near the counter, and two middle aged women gossiping at a table facing away from Tanken. He'd made sure to stay out of their sights, but none of the patrons had so much as looked up as he entered. Two workers were managing the shop, a freckly red-haired girl at the counter who gave Tanken a wide, buck-toothed grin, and a man with short, white-grey hair carrying a serving tray about the room, talking quietly with each group.

The man smiled at Tanken. He was pale, with a lean build and looked to be around Luminis' age despite the white-grey hair that just barely brushed the top of his ears. He had a feminine cast to his face. Something about the bone structure together with the large, pale green eyes. It was a soft expression, and reminded Tanken of his mother in one of her quiet moments. The man approached, depositing a pot and teacup at Tanken's table and walking off without a word. He'd never tried to engage Tanken in conversation, which Tanken appreciated. It was one of the things that kept him coming back.

Tanken picked up the teacup before he poured himself any tea. Fine china, white with blue elephants running around the rim and one of those fancy curling handles. Tanken was given a different teacup each time he came, and by now was relatively sure they didn't own any two matching pairs. Tanken poured himself some tea, and the flowery scent of it hit him immediately. He took a sip and wrinkled his nose. Spicy, not at all as sweet as it smelled. Tanken liked the Mangosteen, Mint, and Seasonal Berries Mix from four days ago much better, but it could be worse. Last week's Bitter Melon and Profaner's Fruit had been heinous. Tanken took another sip. Silent and surreptitious, he began to cast Shadow: Hearing.

By the time he was finished casting and Tanken had once again regained awareness of his surroundings, the couple had left, and there were only six people in the shop. That was alright, the couple weren't who Tanken was here for.

Tanken zeroed in on the shade of the grey-haired tea server. One of the reasons he wanted to stay in Dahlia for at least 2 more weeks. (The other was Dahlia's surprisingly large library).

Tanken hadn't come across a shade like this before, and for once he was sure that wasn't a bad thing. It was so still. Not completely, that would've been creepy. Serene was the word that came to mind. His shade was like sphere of clear water suspended in the air, utterly silent. It rippled with every interaction the man had with his customers, but never with any dramatic change, softly cresting waves that were immediately calming to Tanken's shadow sense. It was steadily washing away the anxiety that had built up in Tanken throughout the past hour or so, more tension than Tanken had realised had stayed with him. He didn't just have that effect on Tanken, all the shades in the True Brew seemed to follow his. It was fascinating to watch, how shades slowed to match the rhythm of the man's own as he worked. If it were possible for Tanken to see his own shade, he knew it would have done the same.

You didn't even need Shadow Binding to see the man had that effect on people, and that was strange too, seeing a shade that matched a person so exactly.

Tanken felt his fingers twitch and wished he'd brought his pencils. He fiddled with his necklace instead, and set his mind on figuring this guy out.

"Arlet has no preference either way when it comes to gender, but I think you're a little too young for him, kid."

Tanken sputtered and blushed despite himself, as much from the comment as from having been caught staring. The man (Arlet?) was pretty, but very obviously male, and Tanken was very straight. "Eh?! But, I'm not – Um, uh, I was just…"

The amusement Tanken could feel in the man's shade and see in the man's eyes told Tanken that he knew already, but Tanken could have just about died at that moment. The man seemed to have seated himself at table next to Tanken's while he'd been distracted. His shade sparked dangerously, explosive and hot to the touch. He had a mane of orange hair that extended down his face into a massive ginger beard and was thickset, with a potbelly and a ruddy complexion made ruddier by the cast of his hair. He grinned at Tanken, an jolly expression that Tanken could make out even through the beard.

"Hah! I Kid, I kid. Patrick," he announced, holding out a hand. Tanken stared at it.

"Manager, please don't harass the customers." Arlet chastised Patrick, passing by with a tray of tea, but there was no fire in his words and Tanken could hear the smile in his voice.

"Ah, Arlet! Come on over here will ya? Seems we got another one."

Tanken paled at those words.

Arlet just smiled, walking over to their tables. "Is that so?"

Patrick glanced at his watch and grinned. "It's just about your break isn't it? Think the little one has something ta' discuss with you. I'll leave you to it. I'll be in the kitchens. Got an idea for tomorrows blend I need to test out."

"I'm sure it'll be wonderful," Arlet said, and the words were filled with so much sincerity it should have sounded mocking, but Arlet somehow managed to sound earnest.

Patrick smiled from ear to ear, meandering off to a door at the back.

Arlet took a seat at Tanken's table, placing down his tray of tea.

"Um, hi?" Tanken said.

Arlet smiled, eminently soothing. "Hello," he said, "You've become something of a regular here, yet I've never caught your name."

"Uh, it's Tanken," he said.

"Tanken, you're troubled." It was a statement, not a question.

Tanken stared at Arlet, opened his mouth, closed it. It wasn't an inaccurate assertion. "...Maybe, how'd you figure?"

"Most people who come here looking to talk to me are." Arlet began to pour himself a cup, but then looked at Tanken, suddenly considering him with more detail than before. "But you didn't come here to talk to me, did you? Would it have anything to do with that spell you've been casting every visit then?"

Tanken's blood ran cold. He dropped the spell instantly.

Arlet blinked, looked abjectly contrite. "I apologise if I've offended. I didn't mean anything by that."

"No – no, you didn't, I just. It was me," Tanken floundered. How to explain that he himself was the rude one if anything, without being offensive?

"I see," Arlet smiled, accepting Tanken's confused explanations easily. He sipped at his tea. Tanken followed suit, taking a second to think.

"…How'd you know?" Tanken began tentatively. "Are you a mage too?"

Arlet nodded. "Yes, but my knowing and my being a mage are incidental. The ability to sense magic is not one exclusive to mages."

"Oh," said Tanken. That was a sobering idea. Shadow Binding: Hearing wasn't as discreet a spell as he'd first thought. Tanken frowned.

Arlet spoke. "If that spell is a different thing entirely, would your current unease have something to do with Frantic Heart?"

"…Yeah, actually." Tanken stared at Arlet, a suspicion growing in him.

Arlet smiled knowingly. "I'm no Mind Mage, believe it or not." Arlet said the words like they were something he repeated often. "if it will assuage your fears I'll tell you that I'm a Melody Mage. Frantic Heart was a safe guess, many in this town are worried."

True. There was a long silence. Tanken decided to take a plunge, if a small one, letting himself be honest. "I'm worried… I'm worried that being in this guild won't really help me become the mage I want to be."

Arlet considered Tanken's words, raised a brow. "And what type of mage is that?"

'A great mage.' The thought was immediate, but that felt embarrassing to announce. Tanken didn't know if he'd take it worse of Arlet laughed or earnestly encouraged him, like he had Patrick.

"…A travelling mage," Tanken said instead, it was sort of the truth. Tanken wouldn't mind seeing more of Fiore, the world really. "I dunno," he hedged. "I want to explore, get a better at my magic, make some money to send back to my Mum. Normal mage stuff. I kind of thought I could do it all myself," he finished lamely.

Arlet nodded, seriously considering Tanken's words. He took another sip of his tea, deliberating over the them for some time. "Normal mage stuff, huh?" he said finally, pale green eyes twinkling.

"If that is your goals," Arlet began with a knowing look. "I suppose it is possible to succeed by yourself. However, mage-hood is dangerous, in and of itself. Thriving would be a different matter. If you wanted to achieve greater things, any light guild would help a great deal. There are advantages to joining a guild, strength in numbers. It will often mean better training, better equipment, an easier time finding missions, backup, people who'll notice when you go missing, and many more things that I'm overlooking.

"As young as you are, I recommend joining a guild, if not Frantic Heart. Or at least, staying with Frantic Heart until you are able to join another guild more suited to your tastes."

Tanken frowned. "If guilds are so great why don't you join Frantic Heart?"

Arlet smiled serenely. "Would you believe me if I told you it was because of a dream? Regardless, I am happy with where I am in my mage career."

Tanken nodded at that, and shrugged. Magic had weird effects sometimes, Tanken would know. "So, the dream said it was a bad idea?"

Arlet looked considering. Tanken wished he hadn't dropped the Hearing Spell. He could still sense faint impressions of the shades without it, but Arlet's shade moved so little. The active spell would've been infinitely more useful in this conversation.

"I can't say for sure. It wasn't good, I don't think," Arlet said.

Tanken's held himself at attention. "Is the not good thing going to happen soon? Like, a week soon?"

Arlet shook his head. "I can't say."

Tanken leaned forward in his chair. "Could you, please, just this once?"

Arlet put his hands up in a helpless gesture. "It's not a matter of me not wanting to. I would help you if I could, but I honestly don't know."

Arlet sounded genuine, but Tanken didn't get a chance to really consider his words before the door slammed open with a crash.

"Arlet! Dude! I'm pooped. Hook me up with the daily brew!" It was man in his mid-twenties. Tan, with blonde hair and blue eyes, about the same height as Tanken but more broad in the shoulders and quite a bit more muscled. He dropped himself heavily into a chair. "Ugh."

Tanken had shoved his own chair back at least three inches at that entrance, but no one else in the True Brew had batted an eyelash. One of the gossipy women gave the man the stink eye, but she went back to whispering in the next instance.

"Hello, Shouta." Arlet smiled in greeting.

Shouta made a waving motion, then squinted at Tanken, who fidgeted under the scrutiny. "Hey, who's that?" He pointed at Tanken.

"This is Tanken, a member of Frantic Heart – "

Shouta shot out of his chair, was in front of Tanken in an instant.

"Hey little buddy, name's Shouta!" Shouta pointed to himself rather redundantly.

"Shouta is one of our regulars," Arlet explained, as if anything could explain this guy. Tanken looked to Arlet for help, but Arlet only nodded him on encouragingly. Like a parent nudging their child into a play-date at the new neighbours house. Tanken edged away subtly.

"Oh! I've been wanting to meet one of our mages forever! Great to finally meet ya' Tanken!" Shouta grabbed Tanken's hand in an enthusiastic handshake that ended up being more of an arm-shake.

"Uh, same?" Tanken squeaked out.

Arlet smiled at the scene. "Shouta, some tea?" He proffered up a cup.

"Oh, yeah!" Shouta finally let go of Tanken's arm, opting to grab at the offered tea cup. Tanken shot Arlet a grateful look. Shouta gulped down the tea, then slammed his cup into to the table. He stood, arms akimbo. "Where was I? Oh, yeah."

He rounded on Tanken. "Welcome to Dahlia! It's a great place, you'll love it! You know I always thought Dahlia should have its own guild. This'll be great!" Shouta practically had stars in his eyes.

That got them a glance from the old man by the counter. He furrowed his brow at them, stared for all of five seconds. "Heh," he scoffed, then turned back to his paper, pulling the newspaper taut with a snap.

Shouta turned to him. "Oh come on, Fletcher."

Fletcher didn't look up. "Mayor Nasak's got the right of it. Frantic Heart is bad news."

Shouta turned to the red-head at the counter. "Milly?"

She gave Shouta a sheepish smile. "Gee, I don't know..."

Shouta frowned. "Betty? Barb? Back me up?"

The two gossipy women, Betty and Barb, turned to Shouta with twin looks of disapproval.

"Mayor Nasak know best."

"Oh yes, yes, poor, boy. You should leave right now." The woman looked at Tanken as she said it, nodding to herself.

Shouta sniffed. "A bunch of killjoys, Man! Don't listen to them Tanken!" Shouta slammed his fist on the table for emphasis.

"Shouta." Arlet's voice was level, but there was a warning tone in it.

"And what does that old bat know? Mayor Nasak can lick my – " Shouta's fist landed squarely on his teacup. It rocketed off and shattered on the ground, tea streaking the floor. Shouta looked distraught.

Milly sighed. "I'll get the dustpan."

"Arlet, man! I'm so sorry!" Shouta scrambled to pick up all the pieces.

"It's fine, Shouta."

"Shouta! That you again?" Patrick's muffled shouting from the kitchen.

"Yeah! Sorry! I'll fix it!"

The gossipy ladies tittered in disapproval, shaking their heads.

"Shouta, honestly!"

"That boy, that boy."

Old Man Fletcher didn't looking away from his paper, but he let out a long sigh.

Tanken stared. "Uh, does that happen often?"

Arlet smiled, tapping one of the glass centrepieces. He traced a zigzagging pattern of a shard of china meaningfully. "Where do you think all the decorations come from?"

"You ready guys?" Clarion was exuberant. She bounced around the group.

Tanken was starting to have trouble believing he was the youngest mage in the guild, or rather, that Clarion was the oldest. His supposed guild master had opted to wear a pastel yellow dress that was questionable camping attire, and had bound her long blonde hair into two pigtails that swished and bounced in impossibly high arcs. Tanken watched Nobuko lean away from one of them as Clarion spun in a way that didn't look intentional (but probably was) and the pigtail threatened to smack Nobuko in the face.

All of Frantic Heart was gathered together. It was almost dusk, and they were all packed and ready to leave for the journey to Liliger Depth's home base.

"So!" Clarion clapped her hands together. The members of Frantic Heart gave her their attention, save for Nobuko who gave Clarion a withering stare instead.

Clarion froze, expression going suddenly serious for once. "Someone just attacked the guild."

Tanken faltered, wondered how Clarion could be so sure.

"Oliver, alert the guards," Clarion ordered. Oliver didn't hesitate, immediately rocketing off under the effect of one of his spells.

"Come on!" Clarion sped off. The rest of the guild ran after her.

Tanken's doubts were soon erased as his eyes locked onto great plumes of smoke coming from the direction of the guild.

Someone in the group swore.

Fire engulfed the entire building, roaring orange flames that somehow didn't touch the buildings to the side of the inn. The air shimmered with heat. Smoke rose up, unnaturally fast, dark as any shadow he could command. Tanken coughed at the scent of the acrid smoke and backed away.

"Nobuko!" Clarion called out over the sound of the blaze. "Can you – "

Nobuko was already in the process of raising her arms. All at once the flames abated, flattening in a great whoosh.

"Thanks," Clarion finished.

Tanken's train of thought had been derailed by the rush of too hot air, and was left bewildered at the sight of their guild/inn completely unharmed. The rest of the guild save the Jones' regarded the building with suspicion.

Clarion waved an arm in the air. "Warding Master, remember? The entire town's made of wood and I had the building for a month, 'course I set up fire wards. Now come on." She began walking, expression dark. "There was someone in the fire."

Tanken's heart sank. Enemy or a victim, he wasn't looking forward to either.

Clarion lead the formation of mages. "Luminis, to the rear. Willow, centre. Nobuko, Tanken, at our sides."

No one argued, though Tanken had half expected Nobuko to. Tanken fell into formation.

Clarion seemed to know exactly where to look though, and it was less than a minute before they found him, laid out at the side of their guild/inn in a scorched maroon guard uniform. Tanken froze, heart stopping in his chest, for all of one second was convinced he was looking at a corpse.

"I can feel his heartbeat," Willow's wavering voice announced. "Through the ground."

Tanken forced himself to look closer, but couldn't make his eyes focus on the body's face. The maroon uniform was prone, unmoving. Ash stained the ground they laid on, the smell of smoke tickled Tanken's throat. The right side of the guard's chest was blackened, the leather burnt and cracking. But as Tanken watched, the cracking leather shifted the slightest. Up and down.

Clarion knelt beside the body. "Solid Script: Smelling Salt." The smelling salts appeared in Clarion's hand as a small block of words. She waved them under his nose.

The man coughed suddenly, his eyes flickering. His head rocked back and forth as he tried to position himself away from the smelling salts, but Clarion moved them stubbornly back under his nose.

"Casper. Casper Riley. Can you hear me?"

His eyes passed over all the faces present, but didn't seem to register any of them. He mumbled, "Get – get Captain Lacoste… Liliger Depth… here."

Tanken felt Willow's shade spike, big enough he could feel it without the help of the Hearing spell. She elbowed her way through the throng of mages to get to him. "Was the Chief with them?" She breathed, eyes wide.

Something whistled, high and sharp, loud enough to hurt. Casper groaned at the noise and Willow flinched. It echoed strangely in the area, impossible to tell which direction it came from. Tanken covered his ears and slipped further into his shadow sense to escape it.

Everyone present had tensed. Tanken felt it as a current flowing through the others followed by a sudden rigidity, saw it in his peripheral vision as hands twitching to weapons and limbs falling into battle stances. Tanken didn't bother, his natural defences would suffice.

Clarion hadn't bothered either. She looked up, towards the centre of the town. The mages of Frantic Heart followed her gaze and watched as thick, black smoke began to rise from three points further into to Dahlia. One worryingly close to where Arlet's teashop should be.

"A signal." Luminis said the obvious for anyone who hadn't caught on.

"Fine." Clarion smiled, more baring her teeth than anything, and dropped her travelling bag onto the dirt. "I hate camping anyway."

I finished this a minute ago - no proofreading we die like men at the feet of our deadlines (It's still September 12th in America or something so I'm just gonna say I made it on that technicality :p)

Hiya :) I'm not dead, believe it or not, and Frantic Heart is continuing! I'm so sorry this took so long! D: If you want to know what was up with me you can find it on my profile (Nothing bad happened if you were worried, I assure you it's not as interesting as you think :P).

Also, another heads up. I think I'll be aiming for shorter, more frequent chapters in the future. 13,000 words a chapter is unsustainable for me. 6,000-8,000 I can do, maybe, and I'd like to put out at least a chapter a month.

The most special of thanks to scarlet .the .hunter, Mary Allen, and Reduced20. The checks ups are appreciated and were a big part in getting this done, sorry for being evasive and not replying straight away every time :P I'm very thankful you kept trying :) Knowing other people were invested in this (which I should of figured, their characters are in it for goodness sakes and that OC form was long) really put a fire under my ass when it came to writing this chapter :P If you enjoyed this chapter you have them to thank as much as me :D

I still need 3-ish OCs for this fic by the way! I'll leave it you to gauge the risk to reward ratio of putting in the effort of making me one considering my reliability thus far D: And my standards haven't gotten any lower :P

Now, if you're a reader inclined to giving constructive criticism and have a bit of time on your hands, could you tell me your thoughts on the following? Because I'm worried about it and could use some advice:

Pacing – I have a lot of issues keeping my chapter's short, and I feel like it screws with pacing. Do you feel like scenes drag on, or that there are too many unnecessary details? Did they go too fast? If so, how would you suggest I fix this?

Exposition – This chapter was fairly exposition heavy, with basically no action. It's a lot of dialogue and explaining, and I find it very hard to make sure a reader stays interested. Did parts end up boring you? Which ones?

Characters – If you have an OC in here, have I done them justice? I often find myself writing in details and anecdotes that I think would make sense for the OCs. I do it to give depth and make them feel more like people to the readers that didn't have a hand in creating them. I do it often enough that I feel like checking up with the creator might get annoying, but I worry I'm running away with their vision (Tanken was not originally a Luminis fanboy, for instance. Btw Scarlet if you'd like my reasoning or have a problem with that please pm me or mention it in a review. I wanted to get the chapter up on time so I left it in xD). Would you prefer I check up with you about everything? Or would you like me to just post the chapters and correct me later? Or are you completely fine with whatever my interpretation ends up being?

Character credit:

Arlet Zenith created by Mary Allen

Review Replies

Mary Allen:

Asdfghjtythankyou. I'm actually very surprised by how many people like Clarion. And I can't wait until I can introduce the rest of the cast! I've got a little bit written for every OC. And yeah, haha, remember when I thought I'd average 3k chapters? HAHAHA *cries* (Really, I just assumed my head was too empty to come up with anything and that I'd struggle for even 1k :,D)

Reduced20:

Short reviews are fine :D Confirmation you're here and enjoyed the chapter is wonderful!

scarlet .the .hunter:

I hope Tanken lived up to expectations here then :P

BloodSentry:

Me OMG? You OMG! (Also, confession, I haven't seen Zootopia yet - but it's on my 'to watch' list! Promise!) Thanks for the detailed review :D Hope 13,000 words of Tanken was enough xD

KorianneAnders/Sakurafire95:

Glad you liked it :)

AltariaMotives:

I'm glad, that was my fight scene debut xD

Grimnack:

Oh yes, poor everyone else :D

Origm2012:

Thank you! That's high praise from a fight scene connoisseur :D

YES. Exactly what I want to achieve with this POV :3

I agree, I messed up a bit. Oliver's not meant to be near S-Class. I can't remember what I was thinking writing this, it was too long ago Dx

I've made a relatable character :O I feel like I've unlocked an achievement! Oliver does have great potential, yes :D Hope to finally write it one day :,D

Oh, she'll show them something.

I do have a clear Idea of what I want :D How to get there tho…

Thank you, sincerely, for reading :)

It's sleep time now for Moon because she had 5 hours of sleep last night and woke up at 6am and now it's 3am. Excuse my loopy-ness. Getting this up was definitely worth it though :) Goodnight.