I was watching Graces videos the other day to try and get some images I could use on the NeoWiki (since I admin it) when I noticed in the F-arc epilogue that Lambda's name appears oddly fresh in comparison to the other names despite how far into the future the scene takes place. It's disproportionate to how faded the original names were after 7 years and are in that scene. So it made me think Lambda's name had to have been added recently instead of soon after their journey to Fodra. So this chapter is the idea I got of what might've happened with Sophie and Lambda and adding Lambda's name to the tree.

~A Side Effect of Friendship~

He remembers this path. It's more overgrown now than it was many years ago, and he is no longer a bodyless being inhabiting the local Lord, but he remembers. They'd walked up here before, sometime after their stint with Fodra, albeit it was mostly The Fool, his Fool boyfriend and her—his sister. He hadn't considered himself part of it at the time. Why would he have? It hadn't involved him, and it was before The Fool's silly proposal to adopt him.

Now though, he's being led back to that tree. Or rather, he's being dragged there. He only came along because it'll be dark in an hour or so and he doubts Sophie will want to miss crablette night at the manor. Yeah, that's totally why he accepted her offer to go to the tree with her.

He finally tears his gaze up from the ground, his lips tugged down into a frown as he surveys their current location. They're almost to the hill, the one that Sophie's taken to using as her garden these days. The smaller girl is still there in front of him, her hair swaying as she walks. She's started experimenting more with her hair in recent years, having worn it down for so long and only occasionally wearing it in her familiar pigtails. The experimenting was mostly brought on by the current Lord's twin daughters who apparently decided today was a braided ponytail day. It's observations like this that remind him he made the right choice in having the Amarcian make his hair short.

"We're almost there!" he hears from farther in front of him than before, and he grunts in a rudimentary reply before picking up his own pace. When in the Hell she had gotten that far ahead of him, he will never know.

It occurs to him, then, that he'd forgotten to ask a vital question before they left—why were they going to Lhant Hill? He'd assumed his sister needed help with something that she was either too weak or too short to handle (though her small stature was fact, her being weak was not, as their monthly sparring matches prove to everyone). He should've grown suspicious when she'd failed to invite the Lhant children as she often did.

"Sophie," he calls as he closes the distance a bit more between them, noticing they're almost at the top of the hill, "what, pray tell, are we doing here exactly? This is unusual, even for you."

Sophie doesn't pause at all in her step, but she does turn a bit to look back at him with a face so innocent that he almost feels like vomiting into the nearest bush.

"Isn't it obvious? To make a friendship pact!" She replies as they reach the crest of the hill, her eyes upturned from the strength of her smile.

The statement perplexes him, his eyebrows furrowing as he follows her out into the field of flowers, just barely watching where he's stepping to avoid her precious sopherias.

The surge of eleth gathered here hits him like a wall he has to pass through, and he inhales before continuing to follow Sophie, his sister having stopped to do the same. As disgustingly colorful as this place is with all the flowers living here, he has to begrudgingly admit that there is a certain calm here that he's never found anywhere else.

"Why?" he finally thinks to ask as they approach the old, weathered tree, its bark a dull brownish-gold and its leaves a dark green. "This tree was already used by them and you. Is it not the tradition to use clean trees?"

Not to mention, do they really need one? Their friendship was pretty much sealed and sworn the day that Fool decided to adopt him and coaxed their growing sibling bond into existence. This would just be redundant, wouldn't it? He frowns curiously at her back, waiting to be enlightened as to the purpose of this visit.

She doesn't answer him immediately, instead stepping closer to the tree and placing her hands over the worn names of their adoptive fathers. Her fingertips trace the outline of each letter of their names as if trying to memorize them. He hears her inhale a bit shakily before she finally answers, "It was something they wanted to do after we renewed ours. Richard proposed it and Asbel thought it'd be a good idea but wanted to wait until you were able to write your name yourself. He knew it wouldn't happen for a long while, so he said we'd do it later, when you wanted to and were able to…" she trails off, her hands lowering back to her sides.

He doesn't remember having heard any of this and figures it must've happened while he was sleeping. He breathes a hum to show he's listening.

"But then…Richard got ill, and he wouldn't get better. And then he died and part of Asbel did too…remember?" she looks back over her shoulder at him, her eyes shining just a little from having to recall these memories.

That, of course, is something he remembers quite clearly. It had been decades since they settled things with Fodra, and the children of their friends had all grown and were starting to have their own families when Richard's health began to fail. It wasn't poison, but the doctors had said they suspected it was a result of his compromised immune system due to a childhood full of poisoning attempts. Everyone had expected that old pervert to go first, but even at almost eighty he was still as lively as when he was forty.

He remembers Cheria, Hubert, and Sophie trying to heal the monarch, but whatever disease he'd contracted had already taken hold of him. The helplessness and frustration permeating their shared world at the time was so acute he had sworn he could almost feel it himself. In the end, Richard became the first of their friends to perish. Sophie had been distraught of course, they all had, but he keenly remembers something within Asbel changing the day Richard died. It was like a light had gone out on his side of the inner world. Cheria had helped him where she could, but he supposes losing the person he spent so much time trying to save and had devoted his life to protecting took its own unique toll on their father.

He nods quickly in answer to his sister's question, having almost forgotten to do so. Her attention turns back to the tree and their carved names.

"After that, Asbel never brought it up again. I don't think he forgot. I think his grief was clouding him too much. And then everyone else left…and then so did he. In the end we still didn't add you to our friendship pact like we'd agreed upon," she continues, lifting an arm to wipe at her eyes, no doubt shedding full tears now despite her back being to him.

He shuffles a little awkwardly where he stands. Consoling his sister when she gets like this is still something he's not good at—and will probably never be good at—but if there's one thing he's learned in the decades of being the only ones left, it's that his presence seems to at least have some kind of positive effect. So he simply remains where he's planted, his hands shoved deep in the pockets of his pants for lack of anything better to do.

When it seems her emotions have calmed he finally deems it safe enough to speak,

"I see…unfortunately, neither of them are here. So, if you insist on making one, it would only be between us and not the four of us, I'm afraid."

It might be a little harsh, but it's the truth. He's sure she stopped grieving herself some time ago, but every once in a while she'd do something that made him question just how far into grief she was in.

"You're wrong, Lambda. They are here."

One of those times would be now, apparently.

He breathes a long-suffering sigh as he removes a hand from one pocket and lifts it to cradle his forehead, his gaze subsequently turning to the ground, "They're not."

She whirls around on her heel to face him just as he lifts his own head, her eyebrows pointed down and her cheeks puffed the way they usually are when she's being stubborn or mad—a trait she picked up from Cheria. He crosses his arms over his chest in response to the expression, quirking an eyebrow at her as if daring her to prove him wrong. This move appears to startle her, the pout disappearing and her eyebrows lifting up in favor of mild surprise before she quickly turns away, her own arms coming up to mimic his current stance.

"The tree. I know they're not with us physically anymore…but their names are here. They carved their names here themselves when they were just boys. So, a part of them still exists within this tree, I think," she explains, glancing over her shoulder at him briefly before looking back up at the tree, "So, if we make a Friendship Pact here, then…in a way it'll be as if we're making it with them too. Right?"

She uncrosses her arms and turns to face him again, her expression soft and imploring. It makes him have to avert his gaze for a moment, staring out at the nearby ocean instead and the way the low-hanging sun dances across its surface. After a moment he returns his gaze to Sophie, the girl's expression unchanged and he breathes a defeated sigh before uncrossing his arms as well. "I suppose."

Her expression brightens immediately into a smile and he blinks only once before he's suddenly being pulled by an overzealous little sister to stand closer to the tree. She stands an arm's length to his side, bouncing slightly on her toes with an almost annoying, patient smile adorning her face. As if waiting for him to mimic her position. He furrows his brow before turning a little awkwardly to face her, his arms remaining stiffly at his sides as he frowns down at her.

This is stupid. Absolutely stupid. Ridiculous. Asinine. But for all the silliness of this little ritual, it does seem to make her happy and he supposes he prefers that over any of her other emotions, even if it is a little annoying.

She gives a brief, satisfied nod of her head.

"Like this," she says as she reaches out for his hand that's facing the field, lifting it and holding it palm up before placing her own hand over his so that the palms of both hands were facing each other. She then raises her free hand and places it on the tree's trunk, right over where Richard's name is carved. She glances between his free hand and the tree, indicating for him to do the same.

He grumbles incoherently under his breath which causes her to quirk her own eyebrow almost threateningly and he quickly lifts his own free hand to mimic hers, placing his fingers over Asbel's name. She smiles pleasantly at that and gives another nod before taking a deep breath.

"Lambda Lhant," the sudden use of his full name startles him a bit and forces him to focus on his sister, "though we've known each other for a long time, many of those years were spent on negative emotions and misunderstandings."

She smiles a bit then, almost fondly.

"And while we've been friends for a long time already, let's stay this way for twice as long or longer than the time we spent as enemies. This is my vow of friendship to you," she finishes, turning her head up to look at him expectantly. "Your turn!"

He'd been listening to her speech attentively the whole time, but the sudden return to him has him caught off guard, a feeling he doesn't like. He tenses as a result before quickly relaxing again, though he's unsure what to say. Sophie doesn't appear to be in the mood to supply him with anything either, her gaze still upturned and expectant on him, her wide eyes blinking slowly as she waits. He considers for a moment before finally deciding on the words.

"I've been your friend for a long time, but it was The Fool who swore me to this life. So, I accept," he deadpans, fighting really hard to keep his lips from twitching into a smirk at the pout his sister stares him down with. "Not everyone's suitable for flowery language, flower girl."

Her pout grows deeper and she lightly smacks at his hand with her own, the smirk finally showing through and a low, amused laughter actually escaping him.

"You're mean," she whines, as if she expected something different.

"And you're a brat," he retorts, though his voice is light and joking.

Her pout remains the same though she rolls her eyes a bit, lowering her hands—prompting him to do the same—and kneeling to pick up a nearby rock, holding it out to him.

"The pact's not finished until you write your name. Write it wherever you want."

He accepts the small stone and turns to face the tree, frowning up at it and surveying it. There is a lot of blank space, but he supposes the point would be for his name to be near theirs, wouldn't it?

"Here," he says, picking a spot a little under where Sophie's worn name is.

He sets about carving his name into the tree, having learned how to write from the many times he watched Asbel do it. His hand writing is by no means neat, but he figures as long as it's readable, it counts. Letting the stone drop back against the roots, he leans back to survey their four names on the trunk, turning his gaze after a moment to the girl, "Satisfied?"

She nods with a happy hum, her grin wide and beaming. The reaction makes him snort as he turns to begin to the trek back to the manor. They've been here long enough and it'll be dark sooner rather than later. When he doesn't hear his sister's softer footsteps behind him he pauses to peer back over his shoulder at her. Of course she didn't follow, because she's too busy still staring at their names. He almost considers just shrugging and leaving. Almost.

"Nora's making your favorite kind of crablettes tonight. Let's go home so they're still hot when we get there. Sophie?" He raises an eyebrow a bit as he watches her, waiting for her to come join him, but she remains in front of the tree.

"More for me, then," he mumbles, loud enough for her to hear as he turns to continue walking back the way they came.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" She shouts from behind him as she rushes up to walk at his side, a small giggle shaking her frame.

"What is it?" He asks, not turning to look at her and instead keeping his gaze ahead of them, occasionally scanning the nearby brush for lurking monsters.

She giggles again at his side, "Nothing. I'm just happy. Their wish was able to be fulfilled even after all this time, so…thank you."

He hums softly in acknowledgement. Her happiness was apparently infectious because he, too, can feel it.

But he supposes that's just a side effect of friendship.