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Firmer Ground

III. It's Difficult Standing On Both Feet, Isn't It

"So if we take these shoes, here, and then we round off some of these gears like this and we attach them like that and we can use some clear fibers for laces-"

"Nikki, I'm... not so sure this is a good idea..." Vayne's expression was more confused than alarmed as he watched Nikki gleefully combining ingredients, though. He did look to Sulpher once or twice, but when Sulpher merely twitched an ear at him, Vayne seemed content enough to synth fibers for Nikki.

From his spot near the window, Roxis merely watched them. If Sulpher wasn't going to interfere, then neither was he. Vayne looked at him a few times, too, with an expression caught somewhere between guilt and hope, but Roxis inclined his head briefly and Vayne went back to what he was doing.

Roxis heard Sulpher laugh at him and felt the tips of his ears burn red.

He hadn't told anyone he could hear Sulpher, hadn't mentioned it even to Vayne. Sulpher showed no inclination to mention it at all.

It was only Eital's affirmation that made Roxis sure he was really hearing Sulpher and not simply hallucinating. He'd done nothing but wish he could understand the cat better. That shouldn't have made it possible.

What was Vayne, the Mana of Impossible Communication?

Roxis actually went and looked it up to be sure that there wasn't a Mana of Communication running around unaccounted for somewhere.

The most confusing thing about this situation was that if Vayne really was a Mana, and Roxis had all but admitted to himself that he had to be, Vayne didn't seem to know it. Vayne was nowhere near duplicitous enough to hide a secret that big from the rest of the workshop.

He'd think, too, that even as much as Eital enjoyed yanking him around that she'd at least think to mention if there were any Mana missing that might, possibly, be amnesiacs attending Al-Revis and sharing her pacted human's workshop. Yet he could tell that she was baffled as he was. She'd finally admitted to him, privately, that she agreed with him that Vayne had to be a Mana.

Because it had never been more obvious that Sulpher wasn't.

Nikki bounced into Roxis' field of vision dangling a pair of skates that looked like they could double as weapons, beaming and dragging Roxis from his circling thoughts before he could become trapped in them. "Roxy! We're going skating, let's go, let's go before everyone else gets here, we only made three pairs an' they'll all want to come!"

Roxis thought about pointing out how that only applied to Jess and Flay, because Anna had more sense and Pamela could float and Muppy had no feet, but thought better of it.

He refrained from commenting even as the three of them made the trek deep into the Old Schoolhouse, but when they reached the farthest room in and Nikki demanded he put his pair on and race them both back to the entrance, he balked.

"We're going to break all our necks," Roxis muttered, even as he laced up the skates. After all, Vayne already had his on and was wobbling cautiously around the room. "We are all going to break our necks. Do you two realise we're about to break our necks?" he demanded suddenly, looking up at them.

"Yes," Sulpher said, which wasn't the support Roxis was looking for.

"Spoilsport!" Nikki crowed, standing up and starting to skate circles around them both. She tugged Roxis to his feet the second he finished lacing the skates. "Come on, come on, come on!"

"It's fun," Vayne said softly, testing his control by edging around before heading for the hallway. Sulpher didn't run after him, but he did stroll quickly out the door as soon as Vayne was past it.

Roxis was never quite sure what made him decide to race Nikki and Vayne down the hallway after all. It was probably just the fact that if Vayne could do it, then so could he. They'd cleared the monsters from the area before attempting to race, which was a foresight Roxis was grateful for- Nikki was the only one of the three of them who was any good at steering, and between Vayne and himself they'd have bumped into every enemy along the way as they raced back to the staircase.

As it was, it was the staircase itself that defeated them.

Nikki stopped just before the stairs, turned with a grin and a wave to show she'd won. The grin fell off her face as Vayne, unable to stop, careened into her. Right behind them, Roxis watched in horror as Nikki twisted her body impossibly in midair to skid along the stone at the bottom, her claws scoring marks in the floor. She broke Vayne's fall, but he still managed to hit several steps on the way down and ended up with one leg twisted under him at a strange angle.

"Vayne!" Sulpher streaked past Roxis, overbalancing him, causing Roxis' world to slow down as he followed his workshopmates down the stairs. Suddenly hyper-aware of his surroundings, he saw the naked panic in Nikki's expression, the pain in Vayne's eyes as the younger boy bit his lip to keep from crying out, the way Sulpher wound around Vayne's uninjured leg meowing plaintively like that would help. He'd look back on that moment later and realise it was absolutely the only time he'd ever seen Sulpher actually panic.

Then he hit the bottom, hard, and wasn't aware of anything at all for quite some time.