Chapter 4: Supper

IMPAVIDUS

POV: Mianna

June, 1916

Mianna gazed across the table at Albtraum as she sipped at the mug of tea in her hand. He looked back at her expectantly, his hands folded on the table before him.

"I would… rather we didn't do this."

"She knows me, though," Albtraum said softly, his voice lightly pleading. "Very well, clearly. Perhaps spending some time with her might help to bring some things back."

Mianna felt herself bristle, burying her face in the mug again. "If that were the case, I'd imagine all the time you've spent with me might have brought something back."

He frowned, a pang of regret flickering through his expression. "I… I know it's probably been frustrating that I still don't remember–"

Mianna sighed, shaking her head. "No… No, Albtraum, I know you cannot control what you remember." Nevermind that his missing memory had turned out to be a fortunate thing - it had made him easy to deceive. She hated herself for thinking it, but she had to protect him - by any means necessary.

He reached across the table, taking her hand. "I do remember that I love you. Everything in my mind is a fog, but… that, at least, has always been clear."

She looked back at him, feeling her heart clutch up - his earnestness reminded her of how he had been when they'd first married, when he had nothing but hope for the future, and all he needed was the thought of having her at his side. Their love for eachother had never waned, not once - but in the months before his death there had been the strains of their financial station, the exhaustion brought on by the grueling work he carried out each day. He had grown withdrawn in those final days, listless - seeing his eyes alight this way again made some of her fears dissipate.

She sighed. "What if she is lying about knowing you, trying to swindle us?"

"She hardly seemed the type, Mia… Besides, we hardly look like good folk to swindle, rough as we are at the moment… And how on earth could she have known so much about my childhood if she wasn't telling the truth?"

As she drew a breath to answer, he winced, his face contorting in pain and his shoulders drawing tight with tension.

Mianna gripped his hand tighter. "Your head?"

Albtraum nodded, trying to compose himself. The headaches had grown more frequent in the past days… sometimes they were mild enough that he could brush them off, other times he was in such pain he could hardly stand or speak. It was not surprising - it would have been surprising if he had managed to come through all this without some sort of physical ailment… but it worried her all the same. More than a week of arduous travel by car and train, sleeping on uncomfortable inn beds or hard train car seats had hardly done him any favors.

"Albtraum! Mianna!"

Mianna turned at the sound of her name, finding the woman who had approached them earlier. She smiled brightly on seeing she had caught their attention, rolling her wheelchair over to the table where they sat.

"I spoke with my husband," she said somewhat breathlessly. "And he has agreed that two of you can stay with us for a few nights!"

Albtraum looked to Mianna for an answer - his face was pale, and his eyes were ringed dark with exhaustion. A spell sleeping in an actual bed, eating actual food seemed to be something he sorely needed…

"Thank you, Missus Wakahisa, that is very generous of you both. We'd be delighted."

"Please, you may simply call me Suzette," she said with a light chuckle. "Well… Do come with me, then, our dinner should be ready in a short while."

Mianna and Albtraum gathered their bags and followed after her, leaving the din of the tavern behind.

Though the concoction ladled into her bowl was strange - a creamy stew of chicken, shallots, and apples - Mianna found it was far preferable to the meals of hard sandwiches and cold porridge they had eaten over the past days.

She once again glanced across the table at Hikaru, Suzette's husband - a large, imposing man, who constantly regarded them with a stern, scrutinizing expression.

His features were distinct - stark white hair, one half of his face marred such that he was missing an eye… Mianna felt a nagging sense that she had seen him somewhere before.

"So," Suzette piped up, distracting her from her thoughts, "Mianna is an alchemist - how interesting, just like Hikaru! And you were a schoolteacher, Albtraum? I know you always spoke of wanting to be one when we were children."

Albtraum nodded. "I do not remember, of course, but… I do think I should like to get back to it, now that I'm unable to do anything else. Mianna told me I taught history, though, so I will have quite a lot of studying to do once again. My knowledge is… very fuzzy, now. Of course, when our financial luck ran out… that was when I went to work at the mine."

Suzette looked back and forth between them both, frowning deeply. "It is unimaginably bad luck, what happened to the both of you…"

"Yes," Albtraum agreed hoarsely. "I… It kills me that I was still unconscious when Mia had to endure losing her leg. Perhaps if I'd been with her–"

Mianna gently grabbed his arm to stop him. "There was nothing for it," she murmured. "It was simply bad luck."

"At least we've gotten away from it," Albtraum sighed. "Life should be simpler here."

Suzette turned her attention over to Mianna, her gaze much softer in its inquisitiveness than the cold stare her husband still regarded them with. "And you, Mianna? What do you do for work? Something to do with your alchemy?"

"Ah, well…" Mianna looked down at the dwindling portion in her bowl, mulling how to answer. Surely here, they were far enough from rousing suspicion, and she could not tell them a different tale to what she had imparted to Albtraum… "Until recently… I was a state alchemist, actually."

A hush fell over the table - not a reaction she was unused to.

Hikaru was the first to speak. "Well," he intoned, "that might have been nice to know before we invited you to our home."

Suzette looked over to him. "Hikaru?"

"I do not deal with dogs of the military," he muttered, his eye narrowing.

"Hikaru, please…!" Suzette exclaimed with a frustrated frown. "Do not be so rude to our guests… I know you have no love for the military, but surely referring to all state alchemists as 'dogs' is taking things a bit far, yes?"

"Suzette, the military is the reason you're…" He trailed off, looking pained.

"It was an accident," Suzette insisted. "And if you shall recall, it was also a soldier who saved me… a state alchemist, no less! I recall by the pocket watch on his belt…"

"It could have been anyone," Hikaru snapped roughly. "It could have been any pocket watch."

"I know what I saw, Hikaru," Suzette said firmly.

"In any case," Mianna interrupted. "Luckily for you, I'm off my leash. I was discharged after losing my leg - I suspect they were already displeased with my performance, distracted as I was with Albtraum being… so badly injured. And they had been cutting my research funding for years… That was how we fell upon such hard times to begin with."

"What she means," Albtraum added helpfully, "is that… we are not particularly fond of the military ourselves."

Hikaru merely gave a grumble and a slight sigh in response.

"Oh... ignore him," Suzette said, waving a hand at him dismissively. "He is simply beside himself with worry because our daughter is away on a trip with her class, and this is the first she has been away from home. That is why he is acting so boorish."

"I understand your hesitation," Mianna said softly. "But… I can promise we are simply trying to find a quiet place to live out the rest of our lives."

There was silence for a long while, the only sounds being soft clinking of utensils against stoneware as all at the table finished their meal.

Finally, the quiet was punctuated by a brief hum. "Well, I hope you are able to find something swiftly, then."

Mianna's mouth pressed into a hard line as she pushed her empty bowl to the side. "I am certain we will. Money is no object, and this town certainly seems safe enough… We may also consider Dublith. There are some places to live on the outskirts of town there…"

"Oh, well…" Suzette clasped her hands as Hikaru stood and began to clear the table. "I do not wish to sway you, certainly, but… It would be so lovely if you were to stay here in Wickerworth. After all, you have at least have one set of friends here!"

Mianna watched Hikaru carefully as Suzette spoke - she seemed undeniably genuine… Unfortunately, so did Hikaru, and his feelings toward them were clearly anything but friendly.

"Friends would… certainly be welcome," Albtraum murmured. "I don't believe we even had that in Xenotime from what Mianna has told me, long as we lived there…"

"No, we did not," Mianna sighed. "The town was never able to move past its long-held image of Albtraum they formed when he was living on the street. Being married to me hardly helped matters… Of course, no one likes a dog of the military."

It was hard not to feel bitter resentment rise to the surface again - particularly for Xenotime's treatment of Albtraum, when he had done nothing to warrant it, even as he taught their children and bettered their community. A bitter place, weighed down by recollections of its short lived glory days and every denizen's suspicion and callousness for their fellow man.

Suzette made a soft sound of disappointment. "I suppose my memories of Xenotime might be rosier than the truth, especially given what came after… Ah, but, also because the people I knew there were so very dear to me, especially you and your family, Albtraum. It has been a great sorrow to me all these years, thinking that I might never see you again… I cannot possibly tell you how glad I am that we had this chance to meet again, even with the circumstances being what they are."

Albtraum nodded. "I'm glad for that, too," he said softly, a slight smile forming. "The idea of being somewhere quiet, and safe, and having friends nearby… I have to say, staying here does sound appealing."

"And the townspeople here are ever so kind!" Suzette exclaimed. "So I am certain if you do decide to stay, you will meet many more friends, not just us!"

It was hard not to be taken with her enthusiasm - Mianna smiled. "Well… Dublith did seem terribly drab when we passed through…"

Suzette chuckled, slowly rising from the table. "No need to make a decision so quickly, of course - you are welcome here as long as you like. Alexa will not return until the end of summer - her school had the opportunity to travel all the way to Central for a study program, a rare opportunity for a town this small. Oh, and…" She had started to make her way to the hallway, but turned again. "I am certain the school here might have need of another teacher, Albtraum!"

"Well, let's not get carried away," he said with a grimace and a slight cough of nervousness. "I'm hardly in any state to teach anyone anything at the moment."

"You wouldn't have to work, anyhow," Mianna said, taking his hand in hers. "We have enough to live on for quite a while, and I'm certain my alchemy will come well in handy in a place like this."

Albtraum did not seem relieved by her reassurance, his face falling into a slight frown as he looked away.

"Well, I imagine the two of you are exhausted," Suzette said. "You are welcome to take a bath while I prepare the bedroom, or make yourselves comfortable in the sitting room - I shall not be terribly long!"

"I can take care of that, Suzette–" Hikaru called, stepping out from where he had been working in the kitchen.

"No need!" Suzette chirped, rushing to the second bedroom and waving him off.

Mianna watched them, feeling that perhaps she should be more alert, more on edge than she was - yet Albtraum seemed contented and somewhat carefree for the first time since long before he had died.

She sighed, squeezing his hand. For now… she would attempt to put aside her worries.

"Why don't you go and have a bath first, darling? I can wait a moment more."

He glanced over to her and answered with a slight nod. "Alright, if you're sure."

He stood, nuzzling into her hair before he stepped away - something he'd always done, even before they were married, ever since she was stealing moments with him while they worked together under the same benefactor. For a moment, it was as though nothing had changed - for a moment, they were simply two people searching the countryside for a better, simpler life.

Even with his memories gone, something in him still remembered - and perhaps he was right. Perhaps an old friend might be what he needed to draw it out.