Chapter 102: Making amends
"...Byleth."
"...Goetia."
Silence followed the words of greeting shared between the two of them.
She found it difficult to actually think for a moment, her eyes darting between the building that Goetia had all but stumbled out of - the creak of the door swinging back and forth still filling the void of silence between them - and the man in question, who had just finished wiping away a trail of beer foam from his lips.
Byleth was not one to get surprised very easily.
She was, however, capable of being stunned for a brief moment when faced with what she would have considered an impossibility. Which, up until right this moment, she would have described a situation such as this.
Her thoughts were still playing catch up as she realised that the man she had been looking for, who had all but disappeared off the face of Fodlan, was now standing in front of her and had been in one of the few places she would have never thought to look.
A tavern.
Goetia wasn't saying anything to her either, merely staring in that same indifference as though there was nothing strange about this situation in the least.
She tried to connect Goetia with the same image that she had seen countless times before when the men she worked with went drinking, including that of her own father, and she found herself utterly incapable of imagining the two linking together. It was an image that seemed like oil and water the more she thought about it.
Goetia sitting at a table, laughing and joking with a bunch of others while he was surrounded by empty mugs, a testament to his previous exploits throughout the knight. Then she tried to imagine him attempting to flirt with one of the barmaids in a drunken stupor and getting punched in the face for his troubles.
…She could hear Sothis laughing in the back of her mind from the image, an endless torrent of wheezing giggles and a distant sound of someone slapping stone. She was rewarded with the flash image of Sothis sitting on her throne, pounding away at the arm of the chair while leaning back, head upturned and eyes closed, a bellowing laugh escaping her which devolved into a series of empty breaths.
Byleth slowly started to pinch her brows together, the only visible evidence of the outrageous thoughts swirling around in her mind right now. Yet, try as she might, they were the only references she had to go off so there was nothing else she could try and think of.
The idea that Goetia would go for a casual drink wasn't impossible, but she imagined a quiet occasion between a couple of people.
Not a pub in the middle of the town, and certainly not with the smell of cheap booze.
"...How much have you had to drink?"
It was the only thing she could ask, given that it was the first question she would usually ask when she found her father around a tavern. Usually followed by asking how much he owed.
Goetia's expression flickered from indifference to indignation, lips curled down into an almost insulted frown before he replied in a strained tone of voice. "I have had only a single mug. Or do you mean to imply you thought I was inebriated?"
She brought her shoulders up and down. "Can't be too careful. Never thought you would be somewhere like this."
The man straightened ever so slightly, the frown faded and his eyes broke away from her own. Whatever rush he had been in before seemed to take back- saddle for this conversation between them, that was fine with her though. This was important.
And not just because she was curious as to why Goetia was out drinking.
"I was invited and I had no reason to decline their invitation."
She blinked.
"Is it that easy?"
She internally winced a moment later, that had not been what she meant to end up saying.
The frown was back. "Is that supposed to imply something?"
"It implies that it is easy to get you to agree to go drinking." Was it supposed to have implied something else? That would have been news to her, unless he was referring to the other way in which someone could have been described as 'easy' in which case she very much doubted he was.
He'd probably be very useful in a bar fight.
Goetia opened his mouth to reply, then closed it and dropped his shoulders, jaw rolling from side to side as they seemingly debated what they were going to reply with. All she could think about was the sight of Goetia with the foam moustache on his face and how she wasn't going to forget that for as long as she lived.
She would never say it to his face, though.
But she found it rather…funny.
Maybe not in the same way as Sothis found it funny, but it did make her feel a little warm inside.
"That…would depend upon who asked me in the first place." His reply came slowly, she tilted her head ever so slightly. "I would be more agreeable to an invitation to some than others, and it would depend upon the nature of the invitation itself."
She figured that would be the case.
Her head bobbed up and down, yet an odd thought wormed its way to the forefront of her mind.
If what Goetia said was true, then who exactly had asked him out to go drinking that he would not only agree, but be convinced to drink beer as well. She figured he was more the sort to drink wine, if he was called upon to drink anything at all.
Then again, it wasn't like you could order tea inside of a tavern.
Opening her mouth to ask the question, her gaze snapped away from Goetia and to the door of the tavern as it swung open and a pair came bundling out and into the street.
Her thoughts ground to a halt as she stared at the duo, who turned around and looked in her general direction, their eyes fixed themselves on the back of Goetia's head for a few seconds before they landed on her. The first of the two new arrivals moved forwards, bringing a hand up and waving with a wide grin on their face.
"Professor Eisner!"
Alois.
Goetia went out drinking…with Alois?
She nodded back to the man in greeting, idly taking notice of his lack of armour and a more casual attire of the man. Simple tunic and belted trousers. From the stories she had heard from the man directly, he often went out drinking with Jeralt as well.
…Had Goetia gone out drinking with her father?
Her eyes flickered to the door and she waited for anyone else to come out, none emerged from the doors.
With the lack of her father materialising from the doors of a pub, she now turned her attention to the second man who had come out with Alois and her mind drew up a blank, the vague idea that she did know them briefly entered her mind before she quashed it down. She knew for a fact she had seen them before, but couldn't quite place it.
The jawline was rather distinct…
She imagined them with something covering the top half of their head.
'Nothing to report!'
The gatekeeper.
That was who it was.
While she came to that revelation, the man in question came to an abrupt halt and made a choking sound, his raised arm dropped back to his side and then stared right past her to the person she had been walking with. It only just occurred to her that she and Constance had been looking together for this man.
And they had now found him.
She angled her head to the side and directed her voice backwards. "Found him, Constance."
"L-Lady Nuvelle-!" The Gatekeeper bowed his head immediately, she barely noticed the surprised stutter in his voice as he spoke. "I wasn't expecting to see you-wait, didn't you say that sunlight didn't agree with you?"
His head came up with concern in their words. "That seems a bit reckless for you to be on the surface in the day without something to cover your head with." continuing on, the man brushed past Goetia and moved on the young woman with a sense of urgency behind them.
Byleth took a step to the side and allowed him to pass her by, glancing at the two of them briefly as she did so. Noting that Constance had the look of a rabbit in the woods again while the knight fretted over her health.
She turned back just in time to see Goetia and Alois trade a single glance, the latter looking a touch embarrassed as he scratched the side of his neck and made a pointed effort to avoid making eye contact with Goetia. Something the tanned man capitalised on with the skill of a true hunter, moving swiftly around to step in front of Alois and presumably look them in the eye.
"...I maintain my stance." Alois replied, sounding oddly resigned to something.
Which earned an almost incredulous grunt from Goetia and a shake of the head. "Even when the evidence stands before you, the inability to admit your mistake…I will praise you on your stubbornness, even if it is foolish."
Byleth felt as though she missed half a conversation and she probably had.
Turning her eyes back to the Gatekeeper and Constance with a raised brow at the pair and nothing else.
"-nderstand that you have a great many responsibilities that you must take priority over." Constance words filtered into her ear as she focused on it. "And I understand that you are already being overly generous with your help and to ask more of you would be utterly impertinent of me, of which I hope you can forgive me for, but I felt the need to ask-"
"Lady Nuvelle, you don't need to put yourself down like that." The Gatekeeper shook his head from side to side, sounding rather perturbed from her words but not overly so. He had likely dealt with it all before, then. "If it is within my power to help you, then I'm sure I can spare the time to lend a hand. I wouldn't be much of a knight if I turned down a request for aid."
He jerked a thumb into his chest as he finished, smiling lightly.
"You are generous beyond words."
The knight sputtered a moment, a tinge of red on his cheeks. "Gosh, y-you don't need to go quite that far. I'm just doing what anyone else would do…" the man muttered, rubbing the back of their head and turning away.
"I apologise if I have offended you." Constance blurted out again, looking rather panicked. "But as for my request…there was a matter concerning the militia…"
Byleth tuned out the rest of the conversation, it wasn't really her business in the first place. Drifting her eyes back to Goetia and Alois and taking a step towards the pair of them, just enough so that she was no longer in the immediate range of the conversation happening behind her.
Her sudden movements brought the attention of Goetia back to her, he opened his mouth to speak before seemingly catching themselves and closing it once again. Shooting a look away to the side and going silent.
Alois, however, wasn't so shy about speaking to her.
"Is there something you need, Professor?" The man cocked his head to the side before his brows shot up and he snapped his fingers. "You're not looking for captain Jeralt, are you? Smart to check the taverns first, but I'm afraid I haven't seen him in this one…perhaps one of the others?"
She shook her head. "I wasn't looking for Jeralt."
A surprised blink from Alois "You weren't but then who…"
The man fell silent, his eyes suddenly darted between her and Goetia for a few moments, it was easy to capture the precise second that understanding blossomed in his eyes. Especially because it became rather obvious on the rest of his face as well, his lips rolled inwards to hide a smile and his brows shot up, eyes turning their attention to the ground.
"W-well…I will just…" The man gestured to the tavern behind them, taking a single step backwards and raising his eyes up just to glance between the two of them once more. "I'll be on my way before I ruin such a sparkling moment between two friends."
Silence.
She and Goetia turned their heads onto the man.
"Sparkling, get it?" Alois coughed, then pointed to the hair. "Because of his hair…the nickname…"
The pair continued to stare at the man in silence, neither one of them opted to say a single word.
What could she have said to something like that?
She didn't even realise it was a joke at first.
"I'll be on my way then." Alois spoke with a rather toneless voice, wooden even. The jerked movements of the man as he hastily backed away from them before turning around and marching into the pub once more were tracked by both herself and Goetia, their eyes lingered on the door for a few moments before returning to the other.
Goetia seemed to jerk, as if remembering something, before he pulled his expression tight. "I have business that I must attend to. It is-...No, nevermind."
Nevermind?
What did that mean?
What was he going to ask?
He was already moving as those questions fluttered through her mind, she could see him raising his arm and pointing towards an empty space. Her eyes narrowed and her senses fluttered, she moved before he could get his arm halfway up and stepped in front of him, blocking off his view to the portal she was sure he was going to open.
Letting him escape now was impossible, not after she had just found him.
Find a chance and seize it, that was how things worked for her in times of battle.
Her actions had the desired effect, Goetia stopped moving and then pinched his brows a little in clear confusion, it lasted for a few seconds before he dropped the arm back down to his side, remaining silent for a few moments more.
"I was looking for you."
"...It was inferred." The reply from Goetia came slowly, if Byleth did not know him, she would say that he looked uneasy. The pause before he spoke had certainly been proof that he wasn't quite aware of what was happening.
She found that thought strangely comforting, the notion that Goetia was as off balance as she was at the moment.
"...You have business with me then." The man resumed speaking, then he shifted his posture and looked ready to move again. "However, there is a matter which requires my immediate focus, if this is so urgent for you then we can find the time to speak to one another later-"
The scrape of her heels against cobblestone heralded her movement once more, darting in front of Goetia when he looked to turn his body and walk past her once again. She saw the flicker of annoyance cross his face before his eyes closed, a low breath escaped him, the eyes opened and the ruby red orbs focused upon her with an intensity to them that had been lacking.
"When I say my immediate focus, I mean that this is something that requires my undivided attention. I do not believe that you truly understand the weight behind that sentence."
Important was important, she understood that much.
Byleth just wasn't sure that she cared all that much about such a thing right now.
She locked eyes with him, making herself stand up as tall as she could and wholly unwilling to back down on this. But if it was so important, then there was a simple solution. "I'll go with you and we can talk as you work."
A blink from Goetia.
It was a fraction of a second but she saw it, like a single picture painted in her mind for one split moment, and then it was gone. The look of complete surprise on his face and the jerking of his body, then it composed once more so fast that it was as though it never happened.
He stared at her for a few moments, his jaw rolled back and forth as he clearly debated whether it was worth it or not. Though she wasn't going to let him get away that easily, she would just follow him until it became clear that he would have to speak with her. She was going to apologise and that was that.
Goetia made a small noise, his head turned away from her and looked away.
Then he gave a single nod of the head, bringing it back around to face her and waving his hand dismissively. "Very well, I can allow you to accompany me…There might be some use for Sothis as well, given that it pertains to her."
She felt Sothis jostle in the back of her mind, the Goddess mentally perked up at the words of Goetia but kept herself at the back of the mind. She'd retreated for the time being but it was clear that the Goddess would be more than willing to jump out at any second for one reason or the other.
But she kept her place.
Goetia brought his arm up, slower this time, with light trailing along from the tip of his finger, it flowed like water and painted itself across the sky. Pulling apart with a gentle hum and unveiling a location that she was rather surprised to have seen once again. Remembering it from the underneath of the bridge that led from the academy to the monastery itself.
Though she was quite curious as to what would have brought his attention back here all over again.
Once the portal was open, he drew his hand back and to his side.
"It pertains to the discussion in regards to Miklan, something that did not strike me until recently. One would call it a coincidence that the words brought me back to the topic of the man, but now that I have noticed the similarities, it became impossible to ignore and required an immediate examination."
Byleth watched him silently, his over-explanation barely registered to her beyond the fact he could have just said 'I remembered something and want to check it out' and she would have had a much better time following that.
He stepped forwards, moving through the rift and to the other side, she joined him after only a single second of difference between the two of them, hearing the flutter of wind around her fall silent, the breeze against her back cut short, a glance over her shoulder revealed that the portal had closed behind her.
Turning back around, she watched Goetia move on ahead of her without so much as a single word from the man.
…He did have a different feeling to him now that he was wearing something she could consider smart. He looked the part of how he acted, like that of a noble. Not surprising, given his lineage, but it was still odd. She almost missed his simple brown robe, it made for some rather amusing reactions when he looked like a vagrant but spoke like everyone else was beneath him.
Her mind soured for a split second at the thought, their previous talk before everything changed between them resurfaced in her mind.
Only for a moment, her eyes turned to the ground and her hands clenched into fists.
Her left hand moved for her waist, fingers danced along the drawstring bag she had brought along with her.
The best approach would be to just walk up to him and state what her intentions were and then give them to him while extending an apology. But she wanted to make sure he understood why she had gotten upset in the first place.
Were they going to end up doing something like this every time the other said something they disagreed with?
It would get tiresome…
"Still here? I would have assumed Seiros to have removed them by now."
The echo of his words jerked her back into the present, her head came up and focused on Goetia, standing next to the remains of one of the golems, its crumbled body very much where it had fallen. Staring down at it for a few moments, Goetia made a small noise as he continued on, speaking more for himself than for her.
"Though it seems that Seiros idle nature has worked as a benefit for this time. Summon Sothis forth, there is something that I must speak to her with."
Byleth waited a moment, then spoke up. "Why?"
It was worth asking, if he brought her with him only because of Sothis, then she would feel a bit difficult in trying to make amends. He was either ignoring the problems that were between them or he just didn't care. Neither seemed to be very appealing, but she had been keeping a distance between them herself.
…So it might be her fault.
"...I recalled a similarity between the healing of the golems and the healing displayed by Miklan in your memories."
Goetia answered slowly, keeping a side eye on her.
"I wished Sothis to examine the remains more thoroughly and inform me if she could sense any similarities between the two of them."
Similarities?
"What makes you think that there are similarities?" Sothis inquired as she formed just in front of her, the Goddess tilted her head at an angle and raised a brow at Goetia. She didn't sound incredulous, just curious. "I will admit that the golems bring a strange feeling from me as well, but that does not mean that there are similarities between them beyond the surface."
Sothis waved a hand to the body. "Further onto that, I do not believe that these constructs have a life force within them that would make them compatible with regular humans. Unless you mean to suggest they could drink that silver blood of theirs for power?"
Goetia scoffed, rather loudly. "Drink it? Hardly anything so crude, but an infusion would work. It is a magical liquid and it displayed a healing that was the reversal of time. As opposed to repairing the cells, they returned it to a point where it was undamaged."
She knew that much.
Was that what Miklan had done then?
"But…does that mean the Golems could have been immune to it?"
That brought a silence from the man for a few moments. "I cannot say at this time. It is possible that they would be similarly unaffected, but they are nothing more than creations, Miklan was a living, breathing, human."
Goetia cupped his chin chin, his words shifted into a barely audible mutter. "Humans have proven rather vexing when it comes to adhering to what is and is not considered common. Miklan could have just proven himself to be an exception to this, or it was a combination of Sothis' own inexperience in dealing with matters such as these."
Byleth blinked once.
To her ears, that sounded like a backhanded compliment of sorts, or that he was praising Miklan for something, though she wasn't quite sure what it was. Or he was saying that Miklan was only a danger because Sothis was bad, which she wouldn't put past him to do.
A glance in the direction of the Goddess earned her a faint surprise, it looked as though that Sothis didn't care much for the words of Goetia, probably having grown used to all of his subtle jabs against her.
…Wasn't this what people called teasing?
When did Goetia and Sothis become such good friends without her realising it?
"Very well, given that you felt so strongly about it that you would ask me rather than check for yourself, I can humour you on this matter." Floating forwards, Byleth caught a hint of a smirk on the face of Sothis, the Goddess turned in the air until she floated opposite Goetia on the other side of the golem, Byleth in between the two of them.
"After all, it is said that Sothis would offer boons to those who truly needed helped and asked from the depths of their-"
"I can handle this myself if you mean to be obstinate-"
"I didn't say that I wouldn't help you!" Sothis snapped at him, stomping a foot in the air before exhaling. "I was making a joke, but clearly your sense of humour has remained unimproved. I had heard that the consumption of drink was supposed to loosen ones tongue on their true thoughts?"
Goetia squinted. "Do you truly believe that I curb my words in such a way that would require cheap alcohol to loosen them?"
That was a good point.
One that Sothis clearly couldn't respond to, if the flat expression she sent the way of Goetia proved anything. With a shake of the head, the Goddess lowered herself towards the crumpled remains of the golem, her brows tightened and her lips grew thin as she just seemed to stare at it.
Byleth wasn't sure if she was supposed to be feeling anything as well, it wasn't that she couldn't feel a gentle tug to somewhere, but it was no different to when Sothis was outside. If it was doing something, it was limited purely to Sothis herself.
"...I can sense something, upon closer inspection." A slow reply from the Goddess, she floated back to her original spot. "Thus…I cannot deny that there might be a link between Miklan or these things, but I have yet to see what that truly means beyond a surface similarity. Unless you mean to clue us in onto the wider implications."
Silence from Goetia.
He didn't make an effort of responding to Sothis, he merely leaned down and clasped the metal with his bare hand, a terrible grinding sound passed through her as the fingers of the man dug into the metal, rolling it like wet sand and then pulling back, tearing it open and exposing what she assumed had been the guts of the golem.
Or if those things even had guts to begin with, it looked like a lot of gods and gear, more of that odd silver liquid dribbled out from the openings and into a puddle at the base of the ruins. Goetia stepped away from them as though it were toxic, something that had her follow his actions ever so slightly.
Was the silver water poisonous or something? It looked like molten metal but she couldn't see any of the heat one would associate with it.
"It's inert at the moment. Without an active signal passing through it, they remain worthless."
Goetia's words sounded distant, he crouched down and examined the liquid with pinched brows.
A glow came over his eyes, forming green circles in front of them and stretching outwards like cones. She wasn't sure what exactly he was doing there, but it was apparent that the intensity of the gaze was matched by something rather important. The length of time he stared at it stretched by for seconds, then into a full minute of nothing.
She supposed there was never going to be a better time.
"...There's something I want to talk with you about."
Goetia didn't reply, not immediately.
She initially thought he was either too focused to hear her or just ignored her altogether, but then he did reply in a rather distracted tone of voice.
"You said as such, yes."
Her feet carried her forwards, her left hand pulled at the bag on her hip and drew it away from her body and into her palm. Coming to a stop at his side and then extending it towards him.
The lack of a reaction was rather…frustrating.
"Look to the left, imbecile."
Sothis dry comment came from the front, the Goddess looming over one of the puddles and staring down at it with her arms folded. Idly pausing to scratch her chin while trying to look as uninterested in what was going on as she could. Not that Byleth was convinced, she kept stealing glances.
"Imbecile? Given your track record of competency, that remark has more in common with a bad joke than-"
Goetia did as Sothis asked all the same, even as he indignantly defended himself, turning his head and then pausing the moment his eyes fell upon the bag in his face. Rising up to his feet, Byleth watched the green light fade around his eyes and reveal them fully.
She had never seen him look so baffled before, there was something rather…captivating about that expression. The sort of one she would expect to see on the face of a small child rather than Goetia.
His red eyes remained fixed on the bag.
"...What is this?"
"Open it."
A frown came next, his eyes moved to her and then narrowed ever so slightly in suspicion, then danced bag to the small present. His fingers came up, clasping the rope that held the little string back closed and pulled, undoing the bindings and letting it open up.
Like he expected a trap to go off, he opened the bag with a delicate slowness and peered inside of it when it was fully opened.
Once more, his expression shifted into something she had never seen before.
He looked shocked.
Surprised even.
Another image cemented into her head.
"...What is this?"
When his question came, she wasn't entirely sure if he was just unfamiliar with what she had made him or if he was unfamiliar with the gesture itself. She supposed it was worth covering both fronts.
"They're biscuits." She replied, earning a flat look from him, he was midway through opening his mouth before she elaborated further. "They are…for an apology."
His mouth snapped shut, he pulled his hand away from the small back and dropped it back to his side.
"An…apology?" The way his face twisted and his words left him, Byleth thought he was actually trying to taste the word to see if it was palatable. His eyes turned back onto the biscuits and lingered there for a few moments more. "You are presenting me biscuits as an…apology?"
She nodded.
If anything, that seemed to throw him even further onto the backfoot than before, his face flashed through several emotions at a rapid pace from surprise to confusion before finally it landed on what she presumed was understanding. Presumed in that it was a face devoid of emotions, like he was stuffing them all down.
"...You are apologising to me?"
Another nod of the head, she paused for a moment, then added on. "I…overreacted. This is my offering for a peaceful resolution."
Slowly but surely, his hand rose up again but this time it did not reach for the bag, instead it moved to cradle his own forehead as though he was suddenly stricken with a rather painful headache, his twisted grimace and low grunt was rather difficult to interpret. Either he was accepting her apology or he wasn't.
Unless he wanted more from her than that.
"I knew you were different but I didn't know how much more different. It was wrong of me to assume you thought the same way I did and then get annoyed at your for-"
"No, just…" Goetia interrupted her, pulling his hand from his brow and raising it up to show her his flat palm. "...Grant me a moment to think."
He turned his body away from her, moving his hand to cup his chin while he stared down at the ground. Every now and again she would catch his eyes dancing to the very corner and staring at her and the bag, then back to the ground. His finger rubbing back and forth against his chin with a low scratching sound.
Goetia eventually mustered up the strength to speak with her.
"This…was not necessary…" His reply was slow and measured, but still clearly not within his usual point of comfort. If she had to guess, this was a first for him and he was trying desperately to react to an unforeseen change in circumstances.
Thinking of this like a battle situation was making it remarkably easier to understand.
Her tactic had surprised Goetia and she had the advantage now.
"But I wanted to do it." She pressed forwards, this time it was her chance to interrupt him. The words registered and had the intended effect of silencing Goetia and bringing the frown upon his face once again, his brows crinkled and his eyes gleamed with confusion. "It is something done between friends to show sincerity. I do not think my words would be enough. So I am giving you this to show it."
Pushing the back forwards, she was treated to the sight of Goetia leaning his head back and rising up as though she'd just stuck a torch in his face. Looking down at the bag as though it were aflame and ready to set his clothes alight.
"It took several attempts, but I was able to make them acceptable with practice."
Goetia's eyes snapped onto her within the span of that single sentence, boring into her own with an intensity to them which had been missing before. Yet when she saw that gaze, she recognised it. It was the sort of gaze one would give if they were searching for any hint of a lie or misdirection.
He was genuinely having trouble believing what he was hearing.
She'd never really seen him like this.
…It made her feel strange.
…It wasn't an unwelcome feeling, to watch his usually confident aura start to crumble, the outer defences being broken and revealing the person beneath. It made him seem that much more…approachable.
She was glad it was just the two of them out here. Three, if one counted Sothis, but it wasn't like she was going to tell anyone.
"You…made these?"
"I was faced with difficulty. It was not something I had attempted before." That much was very true, she had been used to cooking meat. You could tell when that was done fairly easily and didn't need to worry about adding stuff to it that went beyond vegetables. There wasn't much precision in it.
"I did not wish to face you until I had them ready, then it was waiting for the right time."
A beat.
She started to withdraw the arm. "Unless…you do not like biscuits-"
It was a classic manoeuvre.
Baiting them with an approaching target and then pulling back, if he had any interest in it at all then he would claim it before it could escape him. This was the chance she had been building up for.
"Do not make assumptions on my behalf." There was a touch of annoyance, but she saw through it like the thin mask it was. His single arm came forwards and plucked the bag right out from her grasp in a single swift motion. Not a snatch, but fast enough that she couldn't retreat further with it.
He turned the bag over, looking in on the contents once more.
"...I am…" Goetia fell silent for several moments.
When he next spoke, it was quieter. "I had assumed you would have avoided making amends after my…actions."
"...Your life is different from mine." She replied to him, equally slow and measured. "But you are trying. I don't understand it all that well but…I think you're trying to be better. So…I should try and help you as well."
Goetia pursed his lips.
"...I see."
He pulled his hand away, yet the bag remained floating in the air.
Dipping his fingers inside, he withdrew a single biscuit and then stared at it for half a second before taking a bite out of it. She heard the light crunch as he chewed, then he paused after a moment and looked inside.
"...Are these raisins?"
"Yes."
"...I see."
More silence as he continued to chew, eating the whole biscuit and nodding his head up and down.
"...In the interest of this tribute, I shall…offer my own corrections as well." Clearing his throat, he spoke. "I have…been put through the position of projecting my own thoughts onto an individual I had faith in once more. I allowed the familiarity of your situations to cloud my judgement and I…did not take into account that you are two completely different individuals."
Was he apologising now?
She hummed and nodded along with his words.
"It was my own slight error which led to my actions as well as my…lack of direction which caused my previous approach, which I have since begun correcting."
She heard and could see.
He was a proper Professor now and after their talk, he should have known what sort of expectations she had of him and what was equally expected from his new role. If Goetia did not take them seriously, he would not have joined.
Not to mention his position within Abyss was going to be formalised.
"Moving forwards I…would prefer that we put this incident behind us."
"Fresh start."
She agreed.
A beat.
"Do they taste nice?"
Another blink from Goetia, then he silently went for another biscuit while turning his gaze from her. She watched him consume the second one, the only sound to be heard was the gentle crunching of his jaws, only speaking when he had finished it.
"...For your admitted lack of skill, they are above average."
That was very high praise.
"Thank you."
"Hmph."
Something tickled in her mind, she turned her head to the side with Goetia soon joining her.
Sothis floated with her arms folded, a smug look aimed in the direction of the tanned man. Her chin jutted forwards, with only a single sound escaping the Goddess.
"Heh."
Goetia made a rather irritated face at the Goddess, snatching the bag from the air and placing it under his other cape sleeve before pulling it free; she suspected that he left the bag hovering there or something along those lines.
With a grunt, he turned back to the body of the golem and lowered himself down to the liquid once more-
One could never launch too many surprise attacks, especially when her target was off balance.
"Sorry your evening was cut short."
A brief pause from Goetia, his stillness lasted for only a moment before they replied, bleeding that confidence back into his voice, "It had nothing to do with your sudden arrival, it was something that I was intending to do regardless. Your being there was just a coincidence."
She knew that.
"Do you want to go again?"
Silence.
"...Again?"
"With me."
"...With you?"
"I have more experience in taverns than you do."
She neglected to mention that the experience she had was dragging her drunken father out of the door and then paying their tab for them, but it wasn't as though she hadn't had a drink of her own from time to time. Again, nothing at all like her fathers capacity for putting away beers as though they were water.
"If it was a tavern experience you were after. It would make sense for someone to accompany you."
"You…raise a logical argument." The response from Goetia was as slow as it was measured, it felt as though he was becoming more cautious. Perhaps he was starting to catch on?
No, not yet but he was getting there.
"We do not have to. I have no intention to force you."
"What did I tell you about making assumptions on my behalf?" Goetia shot back rather quickly with a touch of exasperation, he turned his head and narrowed his eyes at her for a brief moment, then brought his focus back around and clicked his tongue. "Though in response to your earlier remark, then yes, it would make sense for me to accompany someone with experience…and I do not believe I would need to concern myself with you in an inebriated state."
Getting drunk made it easier for someone to sneak up on you.
Tavern fights were dangerous places, a single drink could make all the difference in who the victor was in such instances. Not that they were common, but they had happened enough for her to be wary of the possibility.
"I don't like the idea of getting drunk."
If there was one thing to come of her fathers drunken antics, it was that getting drunk was a surefire way of losing both time and money very quickly. She'd spent enough of both cleaning up after him.
"Nor should you." That almost sounded like approval in Goetia's voice. "Perhaps I shall take you up on that offer at some point in the future, so long as it does not interfere with either of our du-"
He cut himself short.
His body went rigid.
She could tell that something was wrong very quickly, with his back to her and still crouched over the puddle, she was unable to catch a glimpse at his expression.
Goetia shot up in a single sharp motion, like that of a panicked deer when it heard the crackle of the woodlands. The man stared off into the distance for a few moments, then he spoke. To himself, not to her.
"Impossible."
A single word spoken with such conviction.
But then she heard it creep in, the doubt.
"That is…impossible. How could it be-" He paused, then turned his head onto her with wide eyes. She hadn't seen him look quite so shocked before and, unlike last time, this made her feel a creeping chill. "Do you understand what I am saying?"
She furrowed her brows.
Was she not supposed to have understood that?
No, something was off about it.
His lips didn't match the words she had heard him speak.
"...I can, how did you do that with your lips?"
She didn't get an answer.
Goetia just stared at her like she'd slapped him in the face.
His head whipped around to the puddle of liquid metal for several seconds before his head came up.
"...I miscalculated."
So much power in two words.
But Goetia sounded almost…scared.
"I have gravely miscalculated."
He turned back around, marching towards her and flicking his hand out, space tore itself open and he marched through, grabbing her with his hand and pulling her along with him. Byleth blinked as she was jerked along, struggling to find her footing.
"What are-"
"I am getting answers." Goetia replied swiftly. "Because if this situation is truly as I suspect…then we are in much greater danger than I previously believed."
There was a beat, then she heard it, quiet as a whisper but as heavy as a hammer.
"Even I."
AN: If there is one thing you never want to hear, its Goetia saying "Oh shit."
This is his 'Oh shit' moment.