Though Ladybug, after connecting their communicators so they can contact each other more easily, seems content to leave the conversation for the night, Chat Noir has other plans. "Hey, what about us?" Chat asks, as Ladybug turns to leave. "I've still got a whole bunch of questions!"

"Then ask them, Chat Noir." Anais rolls her eyes. "But Ladybug can leave if she wants to. We can catch her up later."

"I can stay a while longer." Ladybug says. "What did you want to ask, Chat?"

"Yes!" Chat cheers. "I wanted to talk about our secret identities!"

Ladybug groans, so Carter takes the reins on the conversation. "What for? She seemed pretty clear where she stands on that front."

"Yeah, but you two know each other!" Chat protests, gesturing to Carter and Avery. "You're partners, right? Soulmates! Just like me and bugaboo! But she insists on these stupid secrets so we can't be together."

That is a concerning statement. Those "stupid secrets" really are kind of stupid, in Carter's opinion, but blaming Ladybug won't help anyone. They're the guardian's secrets, by and large, not hers. And on the matter of identity in particular Carter knows her kwami and the guardian have repeatedly told her to keep it secret. No one can blame her for that. Still, he can't disagree with the feeling behind Chat's complaint. It's something he's talking to the guardian about, after all. But that's an issue better addressed alone. There's too much nuance with how it's affecting them and how they're responding to it and whose fault it all is, and if Ladybug is here to defend or rub in her position, they'll only get riled up, and Carter doesn't know either of them well enough to know for sure that Ladybug won't do that.

The soulmate bit, however, can be addressed if he's clever enough about it. Carter takes a moment to consider how to approach this, and then shakes his head slowly. "Avery and I are not soulmates." He says.

Chat blinks dumbly for a moment, taken aback. "But you love each other, don't you?"

"Of course, we do, but that's not something that happened to us. We weren't drawn together by magic or the universe. Our Miraculous aren't at all related, and even if they were, the relationships between the kwami don't affect the keepers." There's a flash in Chat Noir's eyes, a hesitance. Carter has a feeling he just hit one of the right notes. "We're friends. We trust each other. One day, we chose to love each other."

That, it seems, truly baffles the poor kid. Even Ladybug seems taken aback by the statement. "You don't just… choose to love someone! Are you sure we're talking about the same thing? Ladybug is perfect! She's amazing! I couldn't stop loving her if I tried!"

Carter chuckles. This is a good opportunity. Maybe they can get a better idea of the dynamic between Chat and Ladybug if they pay attention as they tell the tale. Plus, telling them a personal story will go a long way in earning their trust. "Do you want to hear the whole story? About how we fell in love? It'll be a good break from all this serious talk, and it might help you a little, if you pay attention."

"Yes! Yes, tell me, please!" Chat Noir and Alya are lapping up this topic, but Ladybug rolling her eyes does not go unnoticed.

"Alright, alright, make yourself comfortable." Carter shares a loving look with Avery, who rolls his eyes, and begins his tale. "Avery was in a few of my classes in school, but we didn't talk much. We actually only really met once he got his Miraculous. I am the senior keeper, so I had to take him under my wing, so to speak. In truth, our mentor did most of the actual teaching. But I watched over him, helped him along wherever I could. For a while, that was the extent of our relationship. Friends. And partners in this." Carter touches his Miraculous, a totem hanging around his neck, and smiles.

"What happened to make that change?" Chat Noir asks. "You weren't interested in him at all?"

Carter chuckles. "No. Our relationship was totally platonic. Actually, what happened was Avery started dating Morgan – I mentioned him before, right?" Chat nods, so Carter continues. "Now, you have to understand; we love Morgan. We love him to bits. But back then he was…" Carter bites his lip, searching for the right words.

"A complete and utter ass." Avery says. "Also, a thief and drug addict in and out of jail weekly."

"Right. That." Carter shakes his head.

Chat Noir gasps dramatically. "Why did you date him, then?"

Avery shrugged. "He's hot, he likes me, and he's fun to be around. When he's not breaking the law, anyway. Sometimes then, too."

"Bärchen." Carter warns. "We're supposed to be good influences."

Avery just snickers. "Nothing wrong with breaking the law. So long as it's a stupid law."

"Shh." Carter hisses. "No. Let me tell the story." Avery laughs and waves for him to continue. "Anyway, as you can tell, Morgan was a very, very bad influence. Even he knew their relationship was toxic for both of them, but Morgan at the time was… desperate for positive attention. Avery gave him that. According to him, he was always just waiting for Avery to throw him to the curb. Was trying to get him to throw him to the curb, all the while feeling guilty that he was hurting Avery through it." Chat Noir grimaces and turns his eyes to the concrete. Carter sighs. "I remember one of their arguments so clearly."

Avery nods, too. "'What'll it take for you to notice I'm horrible for you?'" He says. "I had no idea what to say to him after that. Still don't."

Even Alya seemed shocked. "He really asked you that?"

"Yeah. He said after everything that he was too afraid of being alone to break up with me, but he didn't want to hurt me, so he kept trying to push me away. That hurt me. But it was so obvious what he was doing that I kept at it." With a sigh and a hand carded through his thick hair, Avery says, "I may also have been lonely, and afraid that I'd never find anyone else if I lost him. It was a bad situation all around."

"So… how did you break up?" Chat asks timidly.

"He cheated on me." Avery says. "For the… fourth time?" He looks over to Carter.

"Fifth. It was the fifth that I finally convinced you not to take him back."

"Fifth." Avery corrects. "And Carter talked sense into me."

Alya wrinkles her nose. "And you're friends with him?"

Avery laughs. "He's still fun to be around."

Carter smacks his arm. "After everything happened, we actually didn't see Morgan for over a year. When he came back he was… well, he's still a mess, but he was a lot better. He took the time to figure himself out and grow and now we're proud to know him. He got clean, did some soul-searching. He's a good guy now. Always was, really, just misguided and on the wrong path. Took me a long while to forgive him for what he did to Avery, but that was years ago, and they've both moved on, so I let it go, too."

Alya hums thoughtfully. "So, how did you end up getting together?"

Carter laughs. "Simply put? I got jealous. I mean, I still maintain that my concern over Avery's relationship with Morgan was totally valid."

"It was." Avery adds.

"But I was also very jealous. And not all of my actions during that time were totally appropriate." At this, Carter spies Ladybug duck her head with a sick expression on her face. That's interesting. And something to look out for. He glances to Anais, hoping for input, but she doesn't give away anything with her expression, only the fact that she trains her eyes on Ladybug. "My friends called me out on it before it ever significantly affected Avery, thankfully, but it happened. That was the start of my interest in him. I'm still not sure exactly what clicked, but somewhere along the line seeing him be all affectionate with Morgan made me wonder what it'd be like to do that with him myself, and then all of a sudden, I wanted to. Again, not a good situation. We lovingly refer to that whole period of our lives as a disaster, and I certainly wasn't an exception."

Alya giggles. "Trust me, dude, we totally understand what it's like to be a disaster."

Carter laughs along with her. "Everyone does. Everyone goes through that. Anyway, our friend Annie, the saint that she is, put up with my pining and kept me in check for a while. That went on for… embarrassingly long, until our friend Asher took me aside and talked to me."

"Asher," Avery says, "is, like, the wise-beyond-his-years mom friend. He was about our age now when we were around seventeen – that's when this happened. Also, he didn't pull Carter aside. Carter totally asked him for advice."

Carter nods. "He said to me, 'Attraction is normal, and crushes are good, but love that lasts – the kind old grandparents still devoted to each other have – that's something you choose.' He said, 'The choice to love someone is a choice you make every day. Every time you see that person, you choose love. Every time they annoy you, you choose to love them anyway. Every time they love you, you choose to love them, too.' He was trying to prepare me for a serious relationship, since Avery was already such an important part of all of our lives, and the whole disaster with Morgan. But that really changed my perspective on what love is."

"It's a choice?" Ladybug whispers. She frowns, as if unconvinced.

Carter chuckles. "I know it seems strange to you. You all are at the age where you're still exploring your very first loves. It's all exciting and fast and dramatic. But us? Me and Avery? It's none of that. Well, it's exciting sometimes, but for the most part it's quiet. After Asher told me that, I stepped back a bit. Examined my behavior and my crush. Realizing I had gotten… uh… protective over him, I decided that since that was unhealthy behavior, I wouldn't put Avery through another toxic relationship. Until I was confident that I wouldn't be acting like that anymore, I resolved to give up my crush on him. And I did."

"You did?" Chat Noir gasps. "Like, you didn't love him anymore?"

"No, I didn't. Not romantically. I won't lie and say things were back to normal, but I was happy just being his friend. I was happy just loving him as we were. Platonically."

"How?" Ladybug asks. "How'd you do that?"

"It was all about perspective." Carter answers. "Asher told me that the kind of love I wanted, that long-term love, is a choice. I trust Asher with my life. I know he wouldn't tell me anything he doesn't truly believe, and I knew he was telling me that because he wanted to help me. I also didn't want to be so possessive of Avery, and I knew actually being in a relationship would only make that worse. So, I chose to give up. I focused on my behavior, worked on fixing it, and by the time I was at a place I was satisfied with, I realized Asher was right. My choice to give up on him actually did end up with me not interested in him that way anymore."

"Wait, so, what happened, then?" Alya asks. "If you weren't interested in him, how did you get together?"

"We decided to choose each other." Carter shrugs. "Like I said. We were friends. We trusted each other. Eventually we chose to love each other. We already did by then, platonically. We had a long talk and decided that we want to spend all our lives together anyway, so, we may as well give romance a shot. See if it works out. Said that if either of us lost interest in it, we'd stop and go back to a strictly platonic relationship. Then, we never stopped. Been five years now, so I think he loves me."

"Course I do, mein Lieber." Avery nudges him playfully. "But that's the story. Not super climactic, but I think if you're going to love someone even on the most boring days, that's probably a good thing."

"Huh." Alya scratches at her chin. Ladybug and Chat Noir both stare at the ground like it's the most difficult puzzle in the world. Watching them, Carter thinks maybe fixing this whole love situation with them will be easier than he thought. Chat is clearly already listening to him, and whatever situation Ladybug is in, this has clearly offered her another perspective, too. That's good, if she really is jealous and possessive like her reactions tell him.

Carter is reluctant to pull them out of their thoughts. He is the keeper of patience, after all, and he knows reflection is usually a good thing, so he's inclined to let them think. But Alya moves on, and that snaps the two keepers out of their reverie, and Carter knows the moment is over. "So, uh…" Alya asks hesitantly. "How much of all this can I share, anyway?"

"I don't see why anyone would be interested in our relationship." Carter jokes "But just be careful. You already said Ladybug could comb through it. Otherwise, use your judgement. Names, obviously, other identifying stuff. The magic community is hidden, and they won't appreciate you revealing them – nor will the public believe you, so you might want to keep that quiet too, for your own reputation."

"What do you mean they won't believe me? We see magic every day! It's not that hard to believe there's more of it!"

"True." Carter concedes. "But there's a reason the community has stayed hidden so long. Just consider it a warning. If you do decide to post about it, you'll end up discredited and you will lose any good faith the community may have in you. So, you can either learn about the community and have those relationships and connections – they're not the most friendly to non-magics but there's plenty of us immersed in it – but keep it a secret, or you can have them all hate you for a post that won't even be believed."

Alya scowls. "Why even tell me, then?"

Carter smiles. "We have a reporter friend. Her name's Chase. She's in the same position as you, a non-magic working within the magical community. The community adores her. Can you guess what she does?"

Alya crosses her arms and taps her foot impatiently. "Aside from hide the biggest scoop in history?"

"She reports on current events." Carter says. "Draws attention to things. Movements, bills, tragedies, stuff that affects the community. She advocates for them, without revealing them. Draws attention to corruption that hurts us, people that screw us over. You can make a difference, a big one, without revealing people who don't want that attention."

Alya stills, going quiet and pensive. "I guess you're right."

Carter hums. "Any other questions? Or are we done for the night?"

"I think…" Ladybug says shakily, "that's enough for tonight. We all have a lot to think about. Thank you, Polar Bear, Otter, for coming to help us. And for sharing that story with us."

"It's our pleasure." Carter says. "And remember, all of you, if you have any questions, anything at all. Anything we didn't get to or that occurs to you later, please contact us. We're more than happy to answer anything we can."

"I'm heading home. Goodnight, everyone."

"Night, L.B." Chat says softly, joining the other's parting words.

"And you two?" Carter asks, turning to Alya and Chat.

"I…" Alya starts, but cuts herself off. "Sure. We can talk more another time."

"That's for the best." Anais says. "Go on, now. Be safe. It's getting late."

"Of course. I'll see you guys later. Thanks for letting me be here. I know I wasn't necessary, so… thanks."

Carter smiles and nods to her before she turns her back to leave. Chat Noir is still frowning at the pavement. "You should head home, too, dear." Anais says, gently touching his shoulder. He jumps, but Carter can't be sure if that's because her touch caught him off guard or if he just still isn't used to how it feels to have a spirit touch him.

Chat shakes his head roughly. "Right. I'll go, then. See you all later."

As he leaps away, Anais turns to Carter. "Clever boy." She says. "You're even smarter than I imagined."

"Ah, not really." Carter chuckles. "I didn't do much."

"No? You picked out their whole ridiculous love dynamic and told a story highlighting all the faults in it."

"Pfft, hardly. I just told the true story of our own lives. None of those issues are unique, or even rare. Kids act like that all the time. They're still figuring it out; no one can blame them for that. I didn't even highlight anything. I just told the story as it is, and any similarities they recognized was all them. If this helps them, then that just means they're smart."

Anais gives him a doubting look and turns to Avery. "Is he always so insufferably humble?"

"Oh, yeah." Avery says immediately. "But he's not wrong. If he was directly addressing that ridiculous love dynamic, he would have lectured them. Actually, I'm pretty sure he told that story to try to figure out the dynamic, not because he already knew it."

"My love," Carter says, "once again proving he's the smart one."

Anais gives him another critical once-over. "Hm. Clever. Fine, then. Let's continue this conversation at your place. It's about time the adults talked."

"Of course." Carter looks to Avery. "Ready?"

Avery nods. "Let's go."

Anais stays quiet, mostly, on the way back to the apartment, and neither Carter nor Avery feel the need to make small talk out in the open, so they end up back inside the apartment in relative silence. It's only after the door is shut behind her that Anais speaks up again. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste." She says. "And I have a few concerns about them."

Carter purses his lips and shares a look with Avery. Arrel and Iinar are out and about now, but Iinar just gets a wicked glint in its eyes and pulls Avery's attention away. That's usually not a good thing. "Those are Ladybug and Chat Noir's names, I assume." Carter says. "What's so concerning?"

"Simply put, Marinette is held to an impossible standard, is overworked, and is incapable of turning people down except for when they want her to take a break. I know you noticed, but she's also obsessive over her crush – on Adrien, by the way – less in an entitled pushy way like he is with Ladybug, but definitely in a jealous stalker way. I don't blame her, she's still so young – I don't blame him, either – but someone needs to explain to her what she's doing wrong.

"Adrien is in an abusive household with a widowed father who treats their relationship like it's business and has no real concern for Adrien's well-being. He gets no love or support and is either entirely alone or having his life dictated to him by his father's secretary. Plus, as you've noticed, he doesn't respect Ladybug's boundaries. And that's just the start. Quite frankly, I'm pissed that the guardian chose them to be heroes."

That is… concerning. Unfortunately, Carter isn't sure he can actually do anything about Adrien's father. Marinette might get to a better place with some work, since it sounds like it's at least partly her own behavior – no doubt encouraged by the adults in her life but her behavior nonetheless – but if Adrien's problems stem from his father… there's only so much Carter can do in a situation like that. He can't exactly step in to intervene with the boy's father. That'd be difficult even if he could explain why he cares at all about Adrien in the first place.

"So, what's your angle in this?" Iinar asks, flipping upside down in the air teasingly. "Strange spirit, stalking a couple o' kids?"

"Excuse me?" Anais gasps. Avery sighs and covers his face. He tried, Carter knows, to get Iinar to back off, but that's a fool's errand on a good day. "I already said! I want to help them so that they can finally put an end to that fool Hawk Moth!"

"Sure, sure." Iinar says, clearly just brushing her off. "But what do you care about Hawk Moth? Huh, free spirit?"

"My name is Anais and I care because he's hurting the city." Anais hisses. "Some of us don't need more than that, kwami."

Despite her derisive tone, Iinar snickers. Carter's seen this kind of behavior before – Iinar is a bit troublesome, but when it pushes people like this, it's because it knows it'll bother them. It's getting a rise out of her, but it also means that Iinar knows something Carter doesn't. That doesn't stop Arrel from chastising it. "Iinar, do not harass our guest!"

"The only harassment around here is what you do to me, old man." Iinar sneers. "And the kids to each other, apparently, hehe."

"How many times do we need to talk about this behavior?" Arrel groans. "It's entirely inappropriate!"

"Oh, shush! What's inappropriate is how you still don't trust me!"

Carter clears his throat awkwardly as the kwami continue bickering. "Apologies." He says to Anais. "They're… just like that."

Avery snickers. "You should've seen them when we first awakened Iinar."

"My point is!" Iinar raises its voice to be heard over Arrel, and Carter and Avery's own diversion. "That's no ordinary spirit!"

"No?" Avery asks, eyeing Anais, who ducks her head, grumbling. "I thought she looked weird, but what is she, then?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out."

"I'm standing right here, you know!" Anais exclaims. "And before you ask, I don't know, either." With a proud huff, she crosses her arms and turns her nose up at them. "And what do you mean I look weird?! Can you be more rude?! I heard Julian said you guys know pretty much everything about spirits and magic, so I hoped when you got here you could tell me. Clearly he was wrong."

"Definitely." Carter agrees, still keeping his voice soft and calm, trying to defuse what Iinar started. "We don't know everything, and we wouldn't claim to. But we do know a lot, and Iinar and Avery could tell right away there's something different about you. Since it's them, it probably has to do with their powers – they can actually see you like another spirit would, unlike me. But, if you really want our help, we can explore it more. Then, maybe we can figure it out together, yeah?" Anais grumbles and glares at Avery and Iinar but does nod approval to Carter. "Do you want to go over that now, or should we talk more about Ladybug and Chat Noir first?"

"The kids are more important than me." Anais says quickly. "But… thank you. I'd appreciate the help. I'll answer whatever you need to know, and you can… look it up or something? Where do you learn everything, anyway?"

Carter chuckles. "We do have a library, but that's mostly stuff directly relevant to the Miraculous. Mostly we just use our brains – our mentor taught us a lot about magic. Though we do record things just for our own reference. In case we forget something. If learning more about your situation doesn't clue us off as to what's happening, then something in our records probably will. But you wanted to talk about the kids first, right?" When she confirms that for him, he asks, "Their situations are bad, so what would you recommend we do about it?"

Anais wrinkles her nose. "Isn't that your job to figure out?"

"Aha. Well, you've been following them for a long time now. You're the one that knows everyone involved. Part of figuring out what to do is listening to the people who have much more information than us. So, what would you do?"

"Well, first off," she says, "I'd teach the guardian a lesson."

Carter nods approvingly. "We already talked to him once, and plan to keep an eye on him. Trust me, if he doesn't shape up, we'll take the Miraculous from him. This isn't going to happen again."

"Just take them now and get it over with." Anais says. "He brought children into a fight to save the world!"

"He's also a guardian." Carter sighs. "That's not just an honorary title. There are a lot of magics involved in the naming of a guardian, and to circumvent them won't be easy – especially since we're not even aware of everything involved. If he was just some guy collecting the Miraculous, I'd be more eager to take them, but not knowing every safeguard the guardians have makes approaching that recklessly dangerous for everyone. If possible, no matter how frustrating it is, it's better to focus on bettering him than removing him. We will, if he proves unwilling to change, but the risks of ousting him and the potential benefits of having his knowledge on our side makes me think it's more sensible to give him a chance. Does that make sense?"

"He had a chance when he was choosing his heroes! He had a chance when he chose not to even tell them what the Miraculous are! And he had another chance when Ladybug found him and he chose to still keep Chat Noir in the dark about him even existing! He doesn't deserve more chances!"

"That's probably true." Carter concedes. "As far as I'm concerned, he ruined every chance he had when he decided child soldiers is a good idea. Even still, can you understand why I'm reluctant to storm his place and just take the Miraculous from him?"

Like it physically hurts her to admit, Anais growls out. "I suppose."

"I know it's hard to watch him go unpunished for what he did." Carter says. "And the truth is I'm not entirely selfless in this. This is the only known guardian still alive. He might be the only one who can tell us the details of the old guardian order. And remember, I am still a historian – recording what he knows and preserving it, even if we never intend to revive the order, is my responsibility just as much as looking after those kids is. I can't do that if I burn all bridges with him right away. We've already given him a warning, so I'm hoping we can at least learn something before we're forced to remove him. If it comes to that."

Anais scowls. "So that's your angle."

"Learning, and preserving knowledge, has always been and always will be my goal. I agree with you that the kids are the most important thing here, so if I'm forced to choose, trust that I'll choose them, but I will never pretend that I'm not doing my own thing here, as well. Is that unacceptable to you?"

"Hmph. I suppose not. So long as you'll do what you need to for the kids in the end."

"I can promise you that. The kids take priority. Always."

"Good. You need to do something about their teacher, too."

"Their teacher? What's the story there?"

Anais groans. "Okay, so she's not awful, but if she keeps getting away with what she's doing she's going to seriously mess up those kids. Especially Marinette. She prioritizes peace in her classroom, over justice or even sense, sometimes. Last week is a good example – just know she's literally always like this. So, last week was her birthday. The kids all love her – not totally undeserved since she is at least nice – but Marinette got her a gift. Chloé Bourgeois – who, honestly is a whole other beast to tackle – vandalized that gift after the class called her out for not bringing anything for their teacher."

Carter makes a face. "Is bringing gifts for a schoolteacher normal here? I mean holidays sometimes, sure, but I don't remember ever bringing birthday presents for teachers. Or even knowing when they are."

"Why should I know? That's not the point!" Anais yells. "The bully vandalized the gift, and the teacher accepted it as if it came from both Marinette and Chloé. When Marinette got mad about the vandalism, the teacher took her out of the room to lecture her on forgiveness and setting a good example."

Avery furrows his brow and curls his lip at the thought. "Wait, so she blamed Marinette for Chloé vandalizing her present?"

"Not quite, thankfully." Anais growls. "But pretty damn close. She didn't blame her for the bad behavior, but she essentially told her that it's her responsibility to put up with and fix the troublemakers. I can't be sure Marinette didn't take it the same way you did. If you can manage it, I'd try talking to the teacher. I really do think she just doesn't realize what kind of lesson that's teaching her students. From what I've seen, she'll work to get better if she realizes what's wrong. Unlike Adrien's dad."

Carter hums. "Finding an excuse to talk to her might be difficult. Do you know if there's any of the community in her class? Maybe someone who would let us pose as relatives? Or whose relatives could work with us on this?"

"Or a graphics wizard who could help us with documents?" Avery adds.

Carter laughs, remembering the last time they had Minnie's help on a project. That was a night to remember – all because of a magical forgery. "We could talk to IAME, too, but I'm not sure how much presence they have in the schools here."

Anais rubs her chin. "There is one kid in that class, actually, Juleka Couffaine. Some kind of spellcaster. I've never met her family, though, so I don't know if they'd help us."

"Worth a shot." Carter says. "We'll start there. Any idea where to find them?"

"The river." Anais says. "I can't say for certain that it's the same family – I haven't checked – but an Anarka Couffaine is pretty well-known. She lives on a houseboat on the Seine and is infamous for being very noisy. I don't know much else about her, unfortunately, I just heard her blasting her music one day and Britt told me about her. Honestly, I'm not even sure if Anarka herself is magic or not."

Carter hums. "So, confirm that Juleka is her daughter before bringing up magic stuff."

"Would be smart."

"Got it. We'll start with her, then go to IAME if we need to. Hey, Bärchen? Do you know where the IAME office here is?"

"Julian does." Avery says. "How do you plan to approach Anarka?"

Carter shrugs. "Good question. Do they have a door to knock on?"

"Ooh!" Iinar giggles gleefully. "I can do it! We know the girl is a spellcaster, right? So, I'll introduce myself to her and make sure that the lady is really her mom. And tell her to expect you."

Arrel makes a pained sound. "A fine plan, but, ah, perhaps I would be more suited to the role. Diplomacy is hardly your strong suit."

"At least I won't put her to sleep. You heard the freaky spirit; the mom is loud! That alone means she's got more fun in her pinky than you have in your whole stupid principle!"

"Our principles are not things which hold volume. And besides that, patience is just as capable of fun as your particular brand of irresponsibility and insincerity."

Iinar just laughs. "It's like you can't even hear yourself." It looks over to Carter again, ignoring Arrel's protests. "Come on, cub. Give the word."

Carter crosses his arms. It's true that Arrel is much more suited to diplomacy, but Carter isn't entirely sure that's necessary here. It's just an introduction. Although, Iinar is also instrumental in finding Hawk Moth, and though it's a short interruption, they might be better served using its energy towards that end rather than bothering some poor family. "Anais," Carter says, "what do you think?"

"Me?" Anais curls her lip. "Well, Britt did mention that Anarka often acts like a pirate…"

"Yes!" Iinar cheers. "I love pirates!"

Carter shares a look with Arrel and sighs. On one hand, anyone who acts like a pirate is sure to get along famously with Iinar. On the other… who in their right mind would let Iinar become friends with a pirate? Carter, apparently. "Yeah, I think that's all we needed to hear. We'll head by the school tomorrow. Iinar, find Juleka and introduce yourself as soon as you can. Try to stick with her if she'll let you. It'll give you a chance to see how the classroom works, too. Ask her and her mother if they'll let us over, and we'll head over as soon as you get back to us. Or, if they set a meeting for later. Any time works."

"Oh!" Anais says. "If you're going by there anyway, you should stop by Tom and Sabine's Boulangerie and Patisserie. It's Marinette's parents' bakery, but it's also apparently just really good. It's like, right next to the school, near the park. Marinette might see you, but you can just tell her I told you her identity unprompted. You didn't ask, so she can't blame you for it."

"Ah. That's why you told us so suddenly. You didn't want to give us a chance to ask."

Anais shrugs. "Wasn't sure if you would. But if you did, you'd break her trust. And either way, you needed to know. This way, she can trust you and you don't have to dodge around that ridiculous identity thing."

"Good thinking. We'll have breakfast at the bakery, then. Sound good, Avery? Arrel?"

Avery nods. "Yeah. Good a place as any. We should invite Morgan and Rhys, too."

"Good call. You want to text them, or should I?"

"I'll do it. If we've got our plans figured out, though… Anais. You said you want help figuring out what you are?"

Anais scrunches her nose. "It's better to know than to be surprised, so yeah. I guess."

"Hmm." Avery moves closer to her, eyes narrowing. Iinar likewise floats up to scrutinize her. "Well, you're a spirit, obviously. A free spirit, so you aren't part of a body, but… you're so… Hmm… what's the word?"

"All spirits exist in a liminal state." Iinar explains. "That's why I like them so much. They're literally part of my principle. It's why Avery can see like a spirit – we are spirits, sort of. We're basically in a constant state of 'almost' everything. Or, I am, anyway. You're much more similar to Avery than you are to most free spirits I've seen."

"That's what it is." Avery snaps his fingers. "She's like me."

Anais scoffs. "What do you mean I'm like you?"

Avery grumbles. "Not exactly, obviously. I'm a regular person who's living simultaneously in regular person world and the plane that you spirits inhabit. That's not unusual, per se, since everyone has a spirit that inhabits that plane, but, uh… When you interact with physical objects your spirit is temporarily inhabiting the physical plane. I do the same thing, and I can also uniquely do the reverse. It's what allows me to see the world like a spirit does, through the spiritual plane. Truthfully, it's not exactly as a spirit does, since I'm seeing primarily through physical eyes but… whatever, that's not the point. The point is, you're not entirely here."

Anais makes a face. "What on earth are you talking about? Of course, I'm here!"

"No, no, of course you are." Avery says. "But you're also not. I'm not quite sure how to describe it… You're… stretched, so to speak. It's not visual so much as feeling, but it's sort of like… a glitched out game. You get the image? Like the animations are spazzing out and your model gets stretched all freaky."

Anais worries her lip and shifts her gaze quickly. "So, what? What does that mean? How does that help?"

"Not sure yet. Forgive me if this is too bold a question, but do you happen to know how you became a spirit?"

"How I became a spirit?" Anais parrots. "How did you become a human? What a ridiculous question!"

Avery frowns and turns to Carter for backup. If she truly doesn't know, then… Carter isn't really sure what to do with that information. A lot people don't know why a spirit lingers, but almost everyone knows that they are ghosts. In fact, most don't know that there are other ways for free spirits to exist besides dying. But free spirits are pretty rare, and Carter's own best friend, Shiloh, remembers intimately how he died. Carter had never heard of a spirit just not knowing. Perhaps, in this situation, blunt is best. "Do you not remember?" Carter asks. "Most spirits remember having a physical body. The circumstances of death can have a big impact on the spirit, both emotionally and in more obvious ways. Avery was wondering if maybe how you died could tell us why you're the way you are."

Anais stares at him, jaw dropped, with thinly veiled horror. "I… died?"

Carter hurries to explain. Free spirits are notoriously fragile. They can survive in perpetuity so long as they take care of themselves, but they easily get attached to things, often without even realizing. A home, a person, an object, those things become the spirit's anchor. If those things are destroyed, so is the spirit. Carter has read so many stories of spirits disappearing after a dear friend has died, or after a building was torn down. Depending on how impactful an event is to them, it could quite literally kill them. Carter himself has never met a wholly unattached spirit, though his mentor apparently has. As far as he knows only one or two have ever existed.

For that reason, something like this, some horrible trauma, could easily end in Anais dying. It's perfectly safe for her to feel it and work through it, that's why he tells her, but only if she has something else to attach to, something to keep her here if she wants to stay. Most likely, her obligation to help stop Hawk Moth will do, but this still makes Carter very nervous. "Most likely." He answers her, finally. "The only way I know of for a spirit to be born without a body is massively complex, and massively illegal, spellwork. If that was what happened to you, you would have been made with a reason, so I'm sure you'd know it."

Anais frowns, clearly unsettled. "Could my reason be stopping Hawk Moth?"

"Unlikely." Carter says truthfully. "There are… very few problems that much simpler spells, or even summonings, wouldn't solve much more easily. To summon a spirit, to craft one, that is, would only practically be used towards necromancy. Not to mention, I'm not familiar with the community here in Paris, but if someone were actually powerful and talented enough to pull off a spell like that, I have a hard time believing we wouldn't have heard of them. To my knowledge… maybe three people in the world could do that alone. None of them are in Paris. I suppose a group could, but… and where would they even find the spell? No, it's just too unrealistic. I hate to break it to you, but… the truth is you almost certainly have died at some point."

Anais, understandably distressed, growls, "And how would you know? How did you learn about that spell if it's so unlikely for people to find it?!"

"My best friend, Shiloh, is a bakeneko. A type of yokai. Nearly all bakeneko have some talent for necromancy. I did a lot of research, and I only learned about that spell in old Miraculous archives. I've never found even a hint of it outside our order's library, and even that doesn't have any instructions. I just know the theory behind it, really. It's not impossible, but it doesn't explain your situation and it's unrealistic to assume some long-lost necromantic ritual was involved. I'm sorry, but we have to assume the simpler explanation."

"I… But…" Anais sighs. "Then why don't I remember?"

"That's a very good question." Carter says. "Avery?"

Avery huffs a little. "Impossible to tell without knowing more. What do you remember? If you have no memory of a physical body, your memory must start somewhere. Maybe that could give us a lead as to who you were, and from there we can figure out what happened to you, and why you're the way you are now."

"I just… Just Britt. I woke up and she was taking care of me. I didn't know who I was or how I got there. Not even my name. Britt gave me the name Anais. That was at her place, but she said she found me by the river, right next to the bridge nearby Marinette's school. You don't think…"

"No." Avery says. "I don't. There's no reason you'd lose your memory if you had jumped from there. There's more to the story for sure. We just need to figure out what it is. Around when was this?"

"Last year." Anais scrunches up her face again. "No, more like a year and a half. It was August the year before last."

"Okay. We'll investigate, try to find some leads, bring you back anything that looks promising. Carter, you focus on figuring out who she was. I'll look into what kind of magic might have affected her like this. Arrel, since Iinar will be with Juleka, I want you with me, too."

"Can do." Carter says as Arrel chirps his own agreement. "We can get started on that after breakfast tomorrow, soon as Morgan and Rhys leave."

Anais frowns at them for a moment, and then smiles and shakes her head. "You guys do this a lot, don't you?"

Avery chuckles. "Oh, yeah. It's what keepers do."