Right as her life was beginning to feel like it was turning into something she'd never anticipated, Nah was thrown right back down to reality by means of her involvement at the manakete church. It was Nowi's fault entirely, because Nah had more or less stopped attending regular church services but her mother certainly hadn't, even though she wasn't a weekly visitor to the congregation by any means. That meant that, when Nah was loudly awakened by her mother coming into her room blasting music that Sunday morning, it was the week that Nowi decided she would head to church again. "You're coming with me," she told her daughter, receiving a loud groan as a reaction. "Nope, I'm not hearing that whining, this is what we're doing and that's that."

"Mom, you couldn't have warned me last night when we were playing board games that you were planning on dragging me to church today?" Nah wasn't going to ever be able to elaborate on why she would've appreciated a bit more warning, but the collection of toys under her bed were freshly disturbed and wouldn't have been touched had she known she'd have an early wake-up call. "Couldn't have bothered to drop this on me then, instead of doing it now?"

"I wasn't going to make you come with, but then Lady Tiki called this morning and…well, it'll be best if we go to the church together to hear what she has to say." Shutting her music off, Nowi stepped backward toward the door, before looking around her daughter's bedroom a bit. "If what she warned me of is true, I think you'll want to hear it."

"You're not forcing me to go because she claims that music is the avenue for Grima to overtake our souls and push Naga out, right?" It sounded like a joke, but Nah remembered all too well the time Lady Tiki had tried convincing her that her enjoyment of boybands in her teenage years was going to open herself up to the Fell Dragon's influence. "She wasn't right then, and she wouldn't be right about it now."

Nowi's eyes lingered on the posters on the ceiling for a little bit, before snorting in laughter. "No way, you and I both know that that's just her trying to get people to go back to listening to the oldies. This involves someone you know, that's why I want you there."

Sitting up in bed, Nah felt her stomach sinking at the way her mother had gotten more serious when she'd said that. "I don't know anyone that would be causing trouble for your church, and definitely not anyone that'd be causing problems for Lady Tiki."

"Dinah…you're coming with me."

Rather than retort the use of her full name, or try to argue her way out of having to go to the church and its stuffy service and old folks a-plenty, Nah kicked her blankets off and let out another loud groan. "I'll get ready, but I'm not going to like it. This is ridiculous that Lady Tiki couldn't have let you know about this sooner."

"Trust me, I wish she'd given me the call yesterday rather than at five o'clock today," Nowi replied, turning to leave the room. Before she closed Nah's door, she gave a final message on their day's plans: "Be ready in half an hour so we can get there before the service, per her request. I'll drag you kicking and screaming if I have it."

Once the door was closed, Nah stood up and put her hands on her hips, leaning toward where her mother had just been standing. "I'm not a child anymore, I don't need to constantly be treated like one," she stated, waggling her head with every word. While she understood that her mother didn't want to let their biggest religious figure down by telling her they weren't going to show up, it certainly would've been nice to not need to get up incredibly early unexpectedly to entertain her batty antics.

It was nearly an hour before the posted services began when Nowi and Nah pulled up outside the church, the only other vehicle there belonging to Lady Tiki and her girlfriend, both of whom were still sitting inside of it. "She's allowed to bring backup, why couldn't we bring Dad to even the score?" Nah jokingly asked, to which Nowi waved a hand at her to get her to shush. "Well, it's true. Dad loves having to come to church."

"He would've come if he wasn't going to work a new job here in a bit, you know that. Lady Tiki and Say'ri come to services together every week, they're probably staying here after we're done having this talk and…oh good, Lady Tiki's getting out." At the sight of the elder leaving her vehicle, Nowi began to do the same, but she froze and re-buckled herself seemingly out of nowhere. "She doesn't want me out."

"She doesn't want you out?" Nah repeated, looking toward where Lady Tiki was now standing in front of the car, one hand gesturing for Nowi to stay where she was while the other was beckoning Nah to come to her. "I-I don't know what this is about, Mom. Why does she want me but not you, when she called you about this!"

"I don't know, but you can't leave her waiting." Nowi took a deep breath, before leaning over and patting Nah's leg. "You'll be fine, she's not nearly as scary as people make her out to be."

Nah had spent a lot of time having to talk to Lady Tiki, and she'd never really enjoyed any moments that had been wasted hearing the religious ideology and why following Naga devoutly was the only way for manaketes to find success in life. She was wary of being wrapped up in a one-on-one conversation with the elder, especially under the current circumstances, but every second she hesitated on getting out of the car was another second that she was setting herself up for being chewed out about her choices. That meant that her hand was ultimately forced in what she was going to, because there was no way she was going to be able to convince her mother to throw the car in reverse and get them far away from that parking lot.

The moment she opened the car door and began to get herself out, Nah heard Lady Tiki's voice directed right in her direction. "Hello, Dinah. It's a pleasure to see you this morning."

"He-hello, Lady Tiki," Nah replied, wanting to correct her name so badly but refraining from making things worse. After she'd closed the door and given her mother a pointed, pleading look, she made her way up the curb to face the elder with a shaky smile. "Is there anything I can do for you today?"

"I want to discuss something I've heard rumbles of throughout the manakete community, something that I know you may be familiar with." Tiki took a few steps back toward her own vehicle, waving for Nah to follow. When the younger woman hesitated in stepping in line with her, she sighed and looked back at Nah, shaking her head. "Perhaps this conversation is unnecessary. Your behavior is already admitting guilt to turning away from the church that raised you."

"Hold on a second, you can't just accuse me of that!" It had the effect of getting a pep in Nah's step, as she scrambled to find herself next to Tiki, who then continued walking forward, heading toward the entrance to the church with small strides. "Lady Tiki, I promise you that I've never once thought about finding salvation with any god or goddess except for Naga. Hasn't ever crossed my mind."

"Yet you spend your time in the house of one who is falling into the clutches of the Fell Dragon, unable to be watched by anyone but the people present." There was a grave tone to Lady Tiki's voice, as if she was speaking about a life-or-death matter, not just the religion that their culture found its backbone in. "Come with me, child. I want to know more about what you know."

Nah winced when she realized that this was going to be about Morgan and his strange behavior, but she knew that she wasn't really familiar with what was happening there, beyond Morgan getting himself wrapped up with the wrong people. "I can't say that I know much about any of this at all," she admitted, but she followed Lady Tiki inside the empty church, down into the giant altar room with the statue of Naga on full display. This was a space that Nah had spent many, many hours with her parents in her youth, and while she'd shied away from coming to church as frequently in her adult age, she still felt the importance of the place when she was inside.

An air of silence fell between the two as they both looked at the statue, Lady Tiki bowing her head to pray for a moment while Nah watched her, unsure of if she should pray as well or not. It certainly wasn't out of the realm of possibility that she could whip up a prayer worth giving in the presence of such a notable religious statue—there were students she worked with that needed prayers for their growth, and looking beyond that her social life was a bit messy at the moment, that could've used prayer as well. But when Tiki's prayer seemed to drag on for minutes, Nah decided that she'd throw one that was short and sweet in the statue's direction. She bowed her head and closed her eyes, giving a slight huff before very quietly whispering her prayer to the world.

"Naga, goddess who leads all manaketes no matter how wayward their hearts, please guide my friend back to the light before he shuns it forever. Thank you."

When she lifted her head, Lady Tiki was looking right at her, crinkles in the corners of her kind, tired eyes. "When his parents first attended this congregation, it was in preparation for their marriage. His mother had turned her back on the church of the Fell Dragon, which she'd been born into, and his father had been raised here under my watchful eye." She tilted her head slightly to the side, to the point that Nah thought she was beginning to doze off before she kept speaking. "He and his sister were both raised here, and I always thought that his sister would become someone notable in the name of Naga, but her life has unfortunately carried her elsewhere."

"Yeah, we've talked about that before," Nah reminded Tiki, knowing that it hadn't been all that long ago that she'd been asked by the elder to try and get Lucina back into the folds of the active church community. "Lucina's got enough going on right now that I don't want to add to everything else by asking her to come back to join us for services."

"I understand that. I wouldn't even ask you to ask that brother of hers to join us either, but you need to convince him that spending time with active members of the Fell Dragon's church will do nothing to bring him peace after life." Lady Tiki straightened her neck back out, looking at the statue with her eyes still mostly closed. "But he came to our celebration of the year of the dragon, and that's where I'm certain he fell into the clutches of evil. How could we have failed him like that?"

While she didn't know how to respond to such a question, Nah did look at Lady Tiki, before turning her gaze to the statue as well. Slowly, she went back and forth between looking at the two figures, one living and one simply a deity, and for the first time she realized how much Lady Tiki looked like a physical version of what they presumed the goddess looked like. They weren't identical by any means, but it made sense why the manakete population in Ylisse seemed to revere Lady Tiki like she was a living goddess. "I'll do whatever I can to convince Morgan to stay under Naga's guidance," she said after making her realization, and the elder woman smiled when she heard it. "That's all I really can do at this point. I know he's gotten ideas in his head that I probably can't erase, but I can try."

"Trying is all I ask, Dinah." Lady Tiki held out a hand for Nah to take, which she did with only a second's thought about if it was the best thing to do. "No one in this world is perfect, but if we work to protect the sanctity of Naga's domain, we have done all we can."

Nah shook her head slowly, knowing what message Tiki was trying to give her with that statement but feeling like it hadn't had the intended impact. Now she felt like she'd already failed the goddess by knowing that her friend had dipped his toes into the darkness and she hadn't done anything to stop him yet. Sure, she'd tried to convince him that it wasn't a good idea, and she'd helped bail him out when things had gotten bad, but there was so much more she could've been doing the whole time.

Tiki seemed to sense the conflict within Nah's mind, as she used her hand to send a powerful squeeze to the younger woman. "You haven't failed me, or Naga, or anyone, and as long as you stay true to your upbringing and your church, even if you fail to bring him back, you haven't failed any of us, including yourself."

"I…right, yeah, that makes sense." This time, Nah's head shook faster, like she was brushing off the doubtful thoughts she'd let consume her mind. "Thank you for asking for me to be here this morning, Lady Tiki. It's been helpful to recenter myself where I need to be, what I need to do for the best of the manaketes, all that stuff."

"Now live up to your expectations. Your family, your culture, your church, we all know what you're capable of, Dinah, and we want to see you rise to those goals." That was the last thing Lady Tiki said before trying to turn to leave the altar room, and Nah had to quickly follow her because she couldn't bear to pry her hand out of the older woman's. It did mean that they ended up leaving the church building and walking back to the cars still hand-in-hand, and it was only when they were in front of the vehicles that she finally let go.

Rushing another thank you for the conversation, Nah bolted back to her side of her mother's car, banging on the window until Nowi unlocked the door to let her in. "What was all that about?" Nowi asked her once all doors were closed on the car again and Nah was sitting in her spot, breathing somewhat heavily now that she'd had time to accept what had happened. "I've never seen Lady Tiki lead someone into the church by herself like that. Say'ri and I were discussing how…bizarre this whole thing is."

"Lady Tiki's caught wind of a friend of mine starting to get interested in the Fell Dragon, which I guess is my problem to solve and not his, even though he's the one doing it. I think she just pushed the whole church's needs onto my shoulders with that one. This is apparently a problem of Naga potentially being destroyed if this isn't stopped, so…" Nah leaned back into the seat and buried her face in her hands. "I'm just a special education teacher for one of the most corrupt districts in Ylisstol, and I'm being asked to prevent a battle of good versus evil in the religious sense."

Without batting an eyelash, Nowi replied, "You've had to tolerate Maribelle, and she's a devout Naga worshipper herself. I don't think that 'good versus evil' works here."

"When it's literally between Naga and Grima? Yeah, I think it does." Just saying the name of the Fell Dragon in a serious context made Nah feel uneasy, as if she was only fine with uttering it when she was making a joke. "Although I do think it's funny that you mention Maribelle right now. Maybe I should enlist her son to help me with solving this problem."

"As long as there's no boys unattended in my house, you could ask every person who has chosen Naga as their goddess in this city to help you, manakete or not." Nowi winked at her daughter, who didn't see it because her face was still covered out of her annoyance at what she'd gotten roped into. "I can see it now, Nah. You putting together a giant group of people with the one and only goal of solving whatever you need to solve to put this problem to rest. I know that the majority of people in Ylisse overall worship Naga, so you've got a lot of choice on who you can pick."

"Don't you think I already know that?" Dropping her hands, Nah gave her mother a no-nonsense look that had Nowi stunned from the seriousness. "I know that just about everyone you meet in this city worships Naga, and I know that it's even more likely to run into a Naga fanatic outside of city limits than inside. That's why it's so frustrating to me that one of my closest friends is falling into not being one of those many, many people!"

"I'm sure you'll be able to figure something out. You always do."

It wasn't going to be easy to do it, and having to think about what she'd try while she was listening to the day's sermon only made her desire to get it right stronger. Nah wasn't about to give up on Morgan, though, and she now knew that it wasn't just herself expecting her to make a change in his life. But making that change for him was going to require making a change for herself as well, and that was where she was getting stuck. What did she need to do in order to make it end well for both of them?

Two nights of being able to plan things out was a blessing and a curse. It was good that she'd had enough time to really think through her course of action before she made any sorts of impulsive choices that would lead to costly mistakes. At the same time, however, Nah dreaded what she knew was coming for her after work on Tuesday. She was stressing so much about what would be going down that she allowed for it to impact her leaving time that afternoon. And in fact, it had such a heavy impact on when she was leaving that she probably wouldn't have left when she did had she not gotten a call from Ribbon's father, asking where they were and if everything was okay. After apologizing profusely about causing any sort of concern, she scrambled to pack up her stuff, wrangle Ribbon from throwing basketballs in the empty gym, and get out into the car to get her home quickly.

"Do you think you can convince my parents to let me stay this late with you every week?" Ribbon asked, sounding a lot happier about having been at school so long than a typical teenager would. "I kind of liked being there playing by myself."

"I mean, we can ask, but I don't exactly intend on ever being there this late again," Nah replied, already formulating a plan in her mind for how she was going to handle her problem later that night. If all went as well as she hoped it would, she wouldn't have something to dread on that note ever again, but it was pretty unlikely that it would work out. After all, how was one of her closest friends going to truly take her telling him he needed to stop messing around with the wrong people?

When they pulled up to Ribbon's house, there was an atypical car sitting outside, the sight of which made the girl gasp and begin bouncing in her seat. "Oh my goodness, Yarne's here!" she chirped, clapping her fingers together in her excitement. "Nah, oh Nah, are you going to come in to say hi to him?"

"I can't, I'm already kind of late to getting down to Morgan's house…" While she would have preferred to spend time with Yarne (and the rest of Ribbon's family) than Morgan in that moment, Nah knew that simply not showing up to their first "virtual" session would not fly with everyone else in the group. "Maybe next time he's here, I'll have the time to pop inside and say hello."

"Or maybe you can just go see him at his house. He always tells me that you never see him, and that I spend way more time with you than he does." Ribbon was able to contain her excitement long enough to get herself out of the car before she leapt and jumped all the way to the house's front door, Nah waiting to see her get inside before she drove off. As the front door to the house opened, she saw the familiar figure of Ribbon's older brother in the doorway, but he was more focused on greeting his younger sister than he was seeing who was in the car that was now driving away.

She took the long way to get to Morgan's parents' house, knowing that it was already a decently long drive to begin with and not wanting to get there with any sort of speed. Entering on the far side of the neighborhood and weaving through countless streets that took her in unnecessary directions was enough to add nearly fifteen minutes to the trip, but eventually the extra roads ran out and she approached the familiar house with anxious worries beginning to gather in her stomach. There was no telling who'd be on the other side of the door when she walked in, and if there was anyone there aside from Morgan, talking to him about his behavior suddenly became that much more difficult. She considered just leaving without explanation and leaving him hanging, but that wasn't the right thing to do. There wasn't much of a choice except to face him, in the comforts of his own home.

When Nah opened the door to go inside, she didn't hear anyone walking around or doing anything of note. She could see Morgan in his usual spot at the table, a laptop in front of him that he was focusing entirely on. "Hey, am I good to come in?" she called into the house, seeing her friend turn around and wave for her to enter. "Okay, cool. Kind of weird coming inside without your sister here to jumpscare me or something."

"She left not that long ago. Had to help me get this thing up and running, but it should be good to go for the session tonight." Morgan was already back to focusing on the computer, which was a good sign to Nah's worried mind. "I've been playing around with it with Laurent for a little while now and it's working pretty well. You'll just want to be careful with closing windows on it, since Lucina's background is…"

"Let me guess, her and Gerome?" Nah threw out, scrunching her nose as if she wasn't happy for Morgan's older sister and her one true love. Somehow the actual answer was worse, because the background of the computer was a compilation of different screenshots put together that were all titled with romantic-themed names. "I never would've taken your sister as being a hopeless romantic, but here we are I suppose," she said after seeing it for herself, reading a few of the dry, yet overly gushy, messages and beginning to feel like she shouldn't have been reading them at all.

"Now you get why I said be careful," Morgan replied, putting the window he'd been actively using back on the screen to hide everything else. "Now let me explain to you how this works, because I'm going to be downstairs on my computer and I won't be able to help you if something gets weird for you." He broke into a long-winded explanation of the different features the website had, starting with the fact that he'd made her an account and that he'd need to hand over ownership to her before she left that night.

That struck Nah as strange. "Why not just do it now?" she asked. "I'm right here, you're right here, we can get it done in a second."

"Because I need to explain all of this to you, and then we're getting right into playing. If you'd shown up on time, maybe we would've been able to do it before we started the game, but that's your fault, not mine." The last few words Morgan spoke were a lot colder than everything else he'd said, and when he got back to his explaining, he'd returned to his cheery self yet again. It stunned Nah into a silence she couldn't shake, even when Morgan asked her if she had any questions, before he retreated down to his bedroom and she was left up at the table with Lucina's computer and a whole bunch of unrelated thoughts swarming her mind.

Playing a session virtually instead of all at the table was one of the weirdest experiences that Nah could say she'd had in their time playing the game. Hearing everyone's voices, but not seeing anyone's faces, was something she couldn't quite wrap her head around, and no longer having a physical tabletop board to move pieces on was strange for scene-setting purposes. She dearly missed the way that they'd all played off of each other's energy when getting into the roleplaying aspects of the game, but not being distracted by what anyone else was doing was a bit of a perk to the new set-up. However, no matter how great and flawless Morgan tried to be with running the show, it wasn't going to make her want to play this way forever, even though she knew it was this way or nothing at all.

Partway through the session, they had to take an unexpected break due to the internet cutting out for Laurent and Noire, her texting everyone about what had happened and that they were trying to fix it as fast as they could. "Who knows how long they'll be out," Nah heard Morgan calling up the stairs, "so why don't you come down here so we aren't completely alone right now?"

Chills shot up Nah's spine at the idea of going down to Morgan's room in a house that was empty outside of the two of them, but she couldn't think of a good reason to reject the offer. "I'll be right there," she called back, closing her eyes and reminding herself of what her job that night was, before rising from her chair and going down the stairs in a slow, methodical way that made every step deliberate. When she got to the bottom, she saw Morgan standing there, eyes wide as he looked straight at her. "Is something on my face? Why're you staring at me like I've got two heads?"

"You look like you've got something important on your mind," he told her, going back into his bedroom with her following slowly. "I know that you're a really serious lady a lot of the time, but you're seeming even more serious than usual. It's probably a waste of breath, but do you want to tell me what's bothering you?"

"I…it's nothing much, just stuff with the church." Nah swallowed down several other choice words, not wanting to jump right into what her problem was. "I got asked to be there early this weekend to have a private conversation with Lady Tiki. I guess she thinks that I'm meant for the same lofty roles she thought your sister would get when she grew up."

"Oh, Lucina's told me all about those weird talks she'd have with Tiki. She was expected to replace her as the moral leader of the church after she passes on, but Lucina never wanted to do that and she kind of chose to leave instead of get thrown into that role." Morgan took a seat at his computer, clicking a few things while Nah lingered in the doorway, unsure of how she should respond to such a revelation. "I bet she'd tell you all about it herself, and about how you'd be better off leaving before you're asked to do the same thing."

Nah knew that leaving the church wasn't a possibility for her, given how strongly manakete blood coursed through her veins, but she wasn't going to let that little detail derail everything. "I'll think about it. It's a heavy topic, thinking about Lady Tiki dying someday."

"I suppose it is, but everyone dies. Even stuffy old ladies who think they run a church."

"Why do you suddenly think it's necessary to speak about her like that?" Nah clasped her hands together, knowing that getting heated then would only make matters worse. "Even if you disagree with her role in the church, she's still an elder manakete and you should still respect her to some degree."

"All she does is shill the word of Naga, which anyone with eyes is able to read for themselves. Sometimes, it sounds like she's trying to convince anyone who'll listen to her that she personally knew Naga and had the word delivered to her personally." Again with the clicking, this time more forcefully, until Morgan stopped and looked straight at Nah. "The site crashed, everyone's gotten kicked out and we're trying to get back in. Guess that means we've got the time to keep talking about this."

She inhaled deeply, trying to remind herself that she needed to stay neutral and level-headed, even though it was clear Morgan had lost his mind about some things. "Great, so we get to have the whole religious debate that everyone's been having since the time of the original dragons. You're not on Naga's side anymore, are you?"

"What? Of course I am. I'm just learning more about the Fell Dragon because that's part of my heritage, even if it's an unpracticed part." Morgan paused, eyes shifting around as he had a thought dawn on him. "Wait, are you treating me differently because you think I'm falling into the clutches of the Fell Dragon, like seriously?"

"I mean…"

"Why would I do that? I've been a part of the church of Naga since I was born, I couldn't turn my back on the place that raised me." He looked concerned, brows furrowing as he kept looking from Nah to his computer and back. "I'm not sure why you're treating me like I've abandoned the church, but I haven't. Swearsies."

"Swearsies, seriously? We're not kids, Morgan, we're adults living adult lives. If you want to worship a literal devil, go right ahead." Inside, Nah wanted to believe her friend at face value, accepting that what he was saying was his actual truth, but she wasn't about to let him know that. "Ever since you met with your aunt that time—"

"I haven't met with her since. Swear on my life on that one, since apparently 'swearsies' isn't cool enough for you." Now Morgan pried his attention off of his computer and let it land squarely on Nah, who was staring back at him with doubt painted across her face. "Come on, Nah, you know that I wouldn't keep going back to her."

"I want to believe that you wouldn't, but what proof do you have? Why should I accept that you're just being weird and you're not getting brainwashed into believing something harmful to society?" As she listened to herself talk, Nah understood why people always compared her to being a scolding parent, too serious and demanding answers to care to hear out the other side of things.

"You should accept it because you're my friend and I wouldn't lie to you." Morgan's voice wavered slightly before he added, "And also Mom and Dad found out I met with her and I got in some serious trouble for it. Mom even threatened to drive to wherever it is she lives and go kick her ass again."

Nah gave a small chuckle, which quickly spiraled into full-blown laughter that Morgan joined in with. "I forgot that your mom did that, even though that was what you told me about the night at the rec center. Remember how my parents handled you having to come home with me?"

"Remember nearly killing me in your car driving to your house, Dinah?" Morgan poked a finger in Nah's direction, but when he touched her arm he froze in place. Their eyes met as silence fell between them, his press lingering on her for several seconds before he pulled away and turned back toward his computer. "Sorry, really uncalled for on that one."

"It didn't bother me as much as usual," Nah said with a shrug. "Swearsies."

Realizing what she'd just done, and how she was beginning to feel rather uncomfortable standing there in Morgan's bedroom with no one else present, she turned and ran back up the stairs, throwing herself down in the chair at the table with far too much speed. The wood of the chair creaked under the force she threw at it, and she was thankful that it didn't break with her in it right then, especially since— "Hey, you're back!" Noire called, having heard the sounds of a manakete slamming into a chair as fast as she could. "Our internet's working again and I think they've got the site up too. Perfect timing, right?"

"Y-you can hear me over here?" Nah asked, blinking with her mouth half-hanging open, stunned at what had just happened. "How much could you hear?"

"Uh, I didn't hear anything until I heard you and your chair sliding across the floor. Did Morgan chase you upstairs or something?" Typical Noire, knowing the bare minimum about what was happening and yet being able to formulate guesses that made sense.

Still, Nah wasn't about to admit to anything more than she needed to. "Something like that. I'm guessing he mentioned that we were down in his room talking while I was away from the screen, huh?"

"That'd be correct," Laurent said, through Noire's microphone, their shared space only making it make sense that he'd hear everything too. "He wanted to apologize for the delay in getting restarted after our internet outage, but then the site crashed and we were working on getting back into it. I suppose it was easy to assume you two were talking together the duration of the crash."

"We're not stressin' about them being in the same place right now, are we?" Brady asked, sounding muffled as he was either trying to keep himself quiet to not disturb his mother, or he was using an outdated piece of technology. "I'm sure it was nothin' but talking about what their plans for this game are or something like that. Ain't that right, Nah?"

Her ears grew warm at Brady directly pointing his question at her, but Nah was thankfully about to tell him exactly what he wanted to hear, which wasn't the exact truth by any means. "Completely right, yeah. He knows what I want to make happen for Farona, and he's going to do whatever he can to make them happen naturally."

Their chit-chat lasted for a few more minutes, until Morgan came back into the call sounding a fair bit more serious than he had before things had gotten derailed. He was still experiencing issues with the site, but nothing that he couldn't handle, and once they were all back focused on their campaign, idle conversation disappeared and it was back to adventuring and fighting like they'd always done. Nah kept muting herself because she could hear Morgan downstairs getting progressively more heated and loud as he portrayed a rather vile criminal, and she didn't want his echo picking up for everyone. She really had no idea what character direction she wanted to take Farona in, and she certainly hadn't been downstairs talking to Morgan about their campaign in any way.

And she wished she had, because it would've been a much better use of her time than accusing him of falling into the clutches of the Fell Dragon, just to be told that she was far off on that assumption. Now she'd failed Lady Tiki on getting him back to their side, even though he swore that he'd never left it, and that failure was going to be a stain on their friendship for the foreseeable future. "I said, what's Farona's plan here and is she going to do something, or is she going to get slapped to next week?" Morgan asked, abruptly cutting off Nah's thoughts. "We don't have all day to wait for an answer."

"Her plan is to parry the slap with her weapon," Nah replied, realizing that she'd been so wrapped up in thinking about how things had gone with Morgan that she'd forgotten to keep up with how they were currently going. "She's not about to let this scum get the better of her, not like that."

"Then you better have a high roll coming, or her face is about to be stinging worse than it's ever hurt before."

Stinging. That was when Nah became aware of her arm tingling from where she'd been poked, and she looked at it to see a perfectly-round mark that was raised above everything around it. Why would Morgan touching her cause such a reaction, unless he was downstairs using things that he shouldn't have been? "I highly doubt that's even possible," she verbally replied, clicking the dice roller on the website and getting a pitifully low roll. "Or maybe it is, I don't know."

Their session came to a cliffhanger right as the enemy's blow connected with Farona's face, because that was when the site went crashing again and everyone decided it wasn't worth fighting with for just a little more closure. Nah didn't even bother saying goodbye to her friends before leaving the call and closing the computer, leaving it there for Morgan to deal with as she gathered her things and prepared to hit the road. "Don't leave yet, Nah!" she heard him calling from downstairs, followed by his thuds of running up the steps to burst out onto the main floor. "Mind helping me set up your account for yourself instead of it being on a login of mine?"

"The site literally crashed, Morgan. I fail to see how you'd be able to get anything set up if it's not working to begin with, but…" She trailed off as she saw his pleading eyes, and she sighed in defeat. "You know what? Sure, I'll stay, but not for super long. Unlike you, I do have to work in the morning."

"Low blow," he replied, putting a hand over his chest and wincing, before going to the computer and reopening it. "It's not that I haven't been trying to get a job, but all of the places that I'm interested in working aren't hiring. That, or they want me to leave Ylisse to make working there happen. I'm not leaving Ylisse, no way."

"Owain said the same thing all the time, and now we're having to play games with him virtually to make sure he's still included." Nah scrunched her nose at the idea of leaving the country, especially in pursuit of a job. "I'm sure something will come up that you can do around here. I mean, you've got an actual degree in…whatever science it was that you studied and got super into."

"Computer science, specifically into databases and how to program them. It's a versatile skill set to have, and yet it's gotten me nowhere yet." With just a few clicks, Morgan had the site back up and running to some extent, although it didn't look like all assets were loading in like they should have been. "Here, put in your email and stuff so this account's actually yours and you can get into it whenever you actually get a computer of your own."

Nah grimaced at the idea of being expected to buy a computer for this endeavor. "Yeah, sure, sounds like a great plan. I'm pretty positive I'm not going to be doing that, so it being something you can access isn't actually that big of a deal to me."

"No, I'm serious, I want you to be able to get into this on your own. Come here and…" He stopped talking when he looked over his shoulder and saw Nah standing a few steps away, her face scrunched yet again. "What, is something wrong with you now?"

"I just realized that you smell awful. Is this something new? I don't remember you stinking like this when I was downstairs." The scent was strong enough that it was making Nah's face start to itch, and the sensation was similar to the one she'd felt on the spot on her arm. There was a connection to be made there, but she couldn't quite piece it together. "Whatever you did, I'm not a fan."

"It was…just some weird lotion that Lucina brought home, to help keep me calmed when I'm running a session. Okay, actually, she brought it home because Gerome was given it, and Gerome got it after stopping by Laurent's mom's shop to help out with organizing some of their foreign essentials. So I guess we can blame Laurent for this one." Morgan kept looking at Nah, who was beginning to squint from how much her eyes were burning from the scent and whatever was causing it. "Uh, are you okay? You're not looking so hot."

"Can you go wash it off? I think I might be allergic to something in it, or at least physically not a huge fan of one of the ingredients." Backing away, Nah went backward so far that she just about ran into the coat rack, hearing her foot knock against it and stopping herself before she toppled it over her head. While she sorted that out, she could hear Morgan grumbling about having to go wash his hands off, and she only approached him and the table again after hearing the water run for an extended amount of time.

It wasn't a great solution, as the keyboard now had the stuff on it and she could feel her fingers begin to tingle when she had to type at it, per his request, but she wasn't feeling like her face was trying to swell up around him any longer. "I guess I'm sorry about that," he apologized, sounding half-hearted while he did, "but I didn't know that you had any allergies, especially not to…whatever's in that stuff. It makes me feel really tingly and calm when I wear it."

"And it makes me feel really tingly and like death when I smell it," Nah replied without missing a beat. "Plus when you touched me downstairs, it left a weird mark. Guess I at least now know why that was."

"Sorry about that, too, then." Morgan leaned his head back to look at Nah as she typed things into the fields on the laptop screen, rather than focusing on her keystrokes or the information she was changing her account with. "I'll keep that in mind for next—uh, two weeks from now."

Nah's hands retracted from the keyboard in surprise, glancing at Morgan before going back to focusing on getting her information typed correctly. "We're not meeting next week? What's the reason for that?"

"Family plans. Dad's got some big work thing that we've all got to go to, and I'm not going to risk being late to it because I'm playing games with you guys. Did I forget to tell everyone, or did you not hear it because you were trying to rush out of here?" He crinkled his nose up at her as she stuck her tongue out at him, and they once again fell into an awkward silence that was broken by her retracting her arms after finishing and telling him she was heading out. "There you go, trying to get out of here quickly again. I probably did something that you're not telling me, and it's beginning to feel weird."

"I just want to go home and get ready for work tomorrow, Morgan. I promise that you didn't do anything wrong and I'm not mad at you or anything like that." Properly stepping away this time, Nah got to the door before turning around to see Morgan still in the chair, looking back at her like a lost puppy, waiting for its owner to return. "I'm sorry that you think I think you did something wrong, but you didn't. We've gone over this."

Morgan's mouth opened to say something, but all that came out was a scream as the chair underneath him decided it was tired of functioning and the legs that had obviously bent when Nah slid in it came out in a way no chair's legs should ever move. He hit the floor with a thud and promptly began laughing, Nah laughing as well as she came back to help him up to his feet. It wasn't until she'd fully grasped his hand and had helped him to standing that she remembered that touching his hand, even after being washed, might not have been the best idea in the world.

"I don't know what that was about," he said, bringing their locked hands up to his face, "but I appreciate you coming in to bail me out." Without any fanfare or explanation, he gently kissed the back of her hand, realized what he'd done, and dropped it all abruptly, much like the chair had just dropped him.

She stared at him, stunned into a complete silence to the point that she didn't know what to think. "You can leave now, swearsies," Morgan hurriedly said, shooing her with a hand gesture, and Nah nodded, walking out of the house and out to her car in a daze.

The emotional and mental whiplash that boy was putting her through! She didn't know how to process most of what Morgan did usually, but he'd been on a completely different level that night and she wasn't sure what she was supposed to do about him. In fact, she was now perfectly fine with another extended break between sessions, because she needed the time away from him to think about how she was going to interact with him next.

[]

On the morning of her birthday, Nah woke up to her bedroom floor covered in balloons–a tradition that her parents had followed every year as far as she could remember. She knew that she was expected to search through all of them to find one of her birthday presents, but as she lay in bed she contemplated saving it for after work. Then she remembered that she'd taken the day off, to save herself the mental anguish of knowing she was only hurting the person she went to work on Fridays for, which gave her zero excuse to not go ahead and look for the present.

It took a lot of careful effort to shake each balloon for any indication that something was inside it, so that she wouldn't end up spending her time going through the same balloons over and over again. When she found one that had some heft to it, or had something visibly inside, she would grab her phone and shine its flashlight into it, to see if it was a distraction or something notable. Most of the balloons were filled with confetti or candy, and Nah knew that her parents wouldn't be cheap with their gift to her, as they'd never done that in the past and she saw no reason for them to start.

As she made her way through the balloons, she did begin to question if maybe she was putting too much faith in her parents and if those cheaply-filled balloons were the gift after all. Those worries were quashed when she picked up a balloon that was more opaque than the others and a lot heavier. "Jackpot," she said as she grabbed her flashlight and saw that the balloon contained a very distinct shadow. Without checking anything else, she got up off her floor and took herself, her phone, and her balloon down the stairs to where she figured her parents were waiting in the living room.

To her surprise, it was only her father down there, looking rather pleased to see her. "Good morning and happiest of birthdays, Nah!" Gregor greeted, opening his arms for a hug that she took, even if she couldn't return the favor with everything she was holding. "We had tried to make you breakfast this morning but your mother forgot to cook it long enough and everything was still raw."

"So let me guess, she's running to get us a whole bunch of donuts to celebrate with instead?" Nah suggested, only half believing the story her father had just told her. She knew far too well that Nowi would do whatever possible to go get their favorite donuts. "I mean, I'm fine with it, but when have I ever had a homemade breakfast for my birthday? I'm thinking never, or at least, not anytime in the last two decades."

"That's untrue," Gregor asserted, waggling a playful finger at her with his arms still outstretched as if he was expecting more hugs. "There was one year that ol' Gregor here made you all the donuts you could dream of."

"Wasn't that also the year that we ended up having to leave the house while the firefighters came to air it out for us, since you forgot to turn the fryer off after making said donuts?" Nah's eyes were alight with joy and happiness as she recalled the rather harrowing experience, remembering the house filling with smoke and her first experience with needing to evacuate in case of fire. Of course, while that part of the memory was not so pleasant, what had followed it was her favorite birthday memory of all time. "And then we had to stay in a hotel that night and since we couldn't come home to get things, you and Mom took me shopping for new clothes and toys in case I didn't have any waiting for me here? That was the year I had double the birthday presents, and I'll never forget it."

Gregor blinked a few times, finally retracting his arms in order to scratch at the back of his head in a bit of embarrassment. "Yes, well, Gregor's bank alerts never forgot that birthday either. You're an adult, you can imagine how many calls we got about 'unusual activity' in our accounts that day thanks to you."

"Isn't that what being a parent is about, though? Doing whatever it takes to make their child happy, especially on her birthday?" Saying that made it make sense why her family always spoiled her for breakfast every year, because it brought her happiness and they liked it when she was happy. Well, usually, if one looked past the overbearing-ness and the fact that her parents expected far too much of her.

She waited patiently for her father to respond, but he never quite did. Instead of talking more on the matter, he walked toward the front door, opening it to give the front yard a quick sweep, then came back to meet Nah in the middle of the living room. "There seems to be a package for you outside," he said, confused at what he'd seen, "and it isn't something that was expected here today. Something big and…just go see it for yourself."

"A package for me?" Nah repeated, her heart soaring at the prospect of someone stealthily dropping off a nice gift without wanting to waste time on idle chitchat. She bounced happily, setting down the balloon she'd been carrying around and running for the door. When she opened it, she was anticipating seeing a box with her name on it on the other side; she was not ready for what was waiting there. It was an oversized vase filled with a variety of different flowers in all sorts of shades and colors, with a pick inside that carried a card and a bouquet of balloons floating above it.

She stood there, staring at the display and understanding why her father had been confused to see it too, until she heard Nowi's voice calling from the driveway for some assistance in bringing in breakfast. Nah shook her head to collect herself, went to meet her mother by her car, and came back to the door moments later with a dozen donuts in her arms, Nowi carrying a second dozen as well as a bag of drinks. "Where'd that come from?" Nowi asked when she saw the flowers. "Wasn't here when I left earlier, that's for sure."

"I don't know where it came from, and I'm kind of scared to see who sent it." There were only so many people out there who would care enough about Nah to send her something so big and over the top for her birthday, and whichever one it was, she wasn't sure how she was going to respond to their gift. "I want to take this moment to assure you that I don't have a secret boyfriend who's sending me giant flower displays for my birthday, although I do have some guy friends that would seriously be in the running for the position if they did this."

"Dinah, you're not getting a boyfriend over a birthday present." Nowi was smiling when she spoke, but her words meant business, and Nah nodded as she accepted that some things weren't going to be so easy to change in her parents' minds. "Let's get this stuff inside, Gregor can come out and bring that in so you can see who it's from. Sound like a plan?"

"About as good of a plan as we'll get around here."

After reading the card attached to the flowers, Nah would've rather kept the sender a complete mystery, rather than knowing the truth. It was after they'd had their breakfast and she'd opened her balloon present (which was a box containing an old, beat-up phone with a note that said she could go get a new phone whenever she wanted and they'd front the bill) that she even thought about opening the card inside the flowers. It took some convincing, because staying in the dark seemed like it was fun, but she eventually grabbed the card and saw that it was printed on by a flower delivery company, and wasn't addressed to her by hand, a blow to her thinking that the person who'd sent it actually cared.

Then she opened the envelope and pulled the card out, revealing a little display with a puppy and a kitten curled up together in a basket, as well as the words My Sympathies for your Loss. "Uh, whoever sent this is a real joker," Nah grumbled, although she was amused by how the balloons in the display were clearly birthday-themed, but the card was one for a much darker time. "I'm starting to think I know who it is, though."

"It better not be one of those boys you were talking about," Nowi said, peering over Nah's shoulder to try and get a better look at the card, then backing away when she realized that her daughter did deserve a bit of privacy in the matter. "Whatever, just tell me if it is so I can go talk to some parents about it."

Nah lifted her head from looking at the card, turning over her shoulder to give her mother an unamused look, before going back to focusing on what was in her hands. She opened it and was met with the most garish pink font she'd ever seen in her life, still typed by a machine but at least a little personalized. She had to squint to read what it said, and within the first handful of words she was ready to be done with it. Dinah Balakin, I heard through the grapevine that it's your birthday today, and I wanted to be one of the first to wish you a successful year around the sun. Especially since you've become a bit of a thorn in my side, both professionally and socially.

"Why in Naga's name is Maribelle sending me a flower bouquet for my birthday?" Nah loudly asked, feeling like crumpling up the card to get whatever trash she was about to be subjected to out of her sight. She refrained from any destruction, however, after realizing that finishing reading the card could potentially give her insight into other matters. I wanted to take this moment to extend an olive branch of sorts toward you, since you are doing the district a service and I cannot overlook such noble sacrifices on your part.

Nah's mind was screaming at her to put the card down and forget that she'd even gotten it, but stubborn bitterness led her to continue reading it anyway. This by no means is my way of saying I appreciate you for being you, but it is my way of thanking you for existing and focusing on students and their education rather than becoming a better person. Let us both hope that this next year brings you growth in unexpected and needed ways. It was then signed with a typed version of Maribelle's name, which Nah seethed to see there on the card. The whole thing felt entirely self-centered, like Maribelle felt she was doing something good for everyone by sending that, but all she'd done was remind Nah that she couldn't stand that snooty woman. Perhaps it was for the best that things seemed to be awkward and rocky between herself and Brady, then.

"I'm taking it that you got one of those back-handed compliment gifts that woman likes sending people. Sorry that you've somehow gotten onto that side of her, but think of it this way." Nowi put a hand on Nah's shoulder and gripped it as tight as she could. "She had to spend a small fortune on getting those flowers delivered this morning, and you get to enjoy their beauty while she thinks she wins by making you upset with her. But who's the real winner there, huh?"

Glancing at the flowers, and knowing that there were several in the bunch that made her skin crawl when she touched them, Nah had one way, and only one way, to answer that question. "She is, because she knows this is going to bother me and that's her goal with all of this, to bother me."

"I don't know, I think you're the winner here. Pretty flowers and knowing she spent a bunch of money on you."

"Mom, stop. You can enjoy the pretty flowers all you'd like, but I'm not going to enjoy them even a little thanks to her." That was when Nah left the room, storming out and upstairs to her bedroom to find a way to cool her head a bit. She was tempted to reach out to Brady and see if he could put her through to his mother, but she knew that wherever he was at that moment, it wasn't going to be in the same room as her. The last thing Nah wanted to do was explain to her friend why she was mad at his mother again, so she simply chose to leave him out of things. If he reached out for a birthday message, then she'd possibly tell him the underhanded behavior his mother was dishing her way, but even then it might not have been the best time to make that sort of thing happen.

By lunchtime, Nah was back downstairs mingling with her parents, trying her hardest to not acknowledge the flowers that were now sitting in the middle of the dining room table. They could both sense that she was still upset, but no one wanted to address it and certainly no one wanted to try and do anything about it. At least, not until Gregor decided that it was time to go get lunch as another part of celebrating his daughter, made it all the way to the front door, and opened it to find another present sitting outside, unannounced and unexplained. "Surely they could knock upon delivery," he grumbled, bringing the much smaller box inside to give to Nah, who looked at it with suspicion. "Go on, this one has your name on it."

It did, in fact, say Nah Balakin on it, which was a better way of handling her name than the horrific card had done, but was still far from what she preferred. The box may have been small, but it had some weight to it, and Nah set it on the table to pry open its taped edge to get it open. What she found inside was what looked like a wine bottle, and she quickly closed the box back up before either of her parents saw it. "This is something that I'd asked a friend to get for me, to get for the two of you," she quickly stammered, grabbing the box and heading for the stairs yet again.

Nowi followed her in haste, with Gregor not far behind. "You're not hiding something, are you?" she asked, putting a single foot on the staircase as she looked up at her retreating daughter. "This isn't part of some elaborate announcement of any kind, is it?"

"Mom, seriously? It's just a gift I'm working on for you guys. Let me get it in its place and I'll be down to go to lunch." The truth was, there wasn't any sort of gift at all that Nah was working on, and now she knew she'd need to come up with one, but there was time to do that once she'd gotten rid of what was actually in the box.

She wasn't shocked that she'd received that bottle of wine, all things considered, especially since it was labeled as a special manakete blend, but she'd heard far too many things about the quality of the brand and what it was meant for to trust showing her parents she'd gotten it. After she'd pulled the bottle out and tucked it under her bed, Nah shook the box until a little card came tumbling out of it, simply signed Hope you like it! – Morgan

"If he's trying to make amends after what happened at his house and what I accused him of, he's going so far in the wrong direction without realizing it," she said, ripping the card up and throwing it back into the box. "I bet he asked Laurent if he knew of any good gifts for manaketes and he suggested that because of the word on the label." Nah paused, raising a finger as she thought about what she'd just said. "No, wait, that wouldn't make any sense, Laurent knows what kind of wine that is, he wouldn't be offering it off to a friend to send to another friend just for the fun of it. Morgan must've searched for it himself, and by being naïve and unaware of what things are, bought it because it's advertised as being for manaketes, without knowing that it's for manaketes to drink to make babies."

She shuddered to think about Morgan actually knowing that fact about the Laguz Gardens wine, and intentionally sending it to her with that fact in mind. "No, there's no way he knows the truth, this is all a big accident that he's going to laugh about when I tell him the truth of what he bought me."

Except that would require telling him the truth, and Nah wasn't sure she wanted to ever have to utter those words anywhere near him. Unless, by some stroke of fate, he realized it first and wanted to bring it up with her, but what were the chances of that?

About the same as her getting a gift from anyone else that day, probably. Nah's family obviously was spoiling her off and on all day, but outside of the two special deliveries, there wasn't anything else that appeared at the door for her. While it didn't make her feel any better about the flowers she'd gotten, it did make her appreciate Morgan's attempt at getting her a present that much more, and at the very least she'd need to properly thank him for it. If he asked her if she'd drank any of it, though, she'd tell him that she was going to save the bottle for a special occasion, because of its significance to manaketes.

Over dinner that night, while fielding questions about her lack of love life and her career direction, Nah heard her phone ring in her purse and she froze, grimacing at the sound of a jaunty tune blaring through the restaurant. "I'll take that, sorry," she apologized, grabbing her purse and leaving the table to get somewhere private to answer the call. Privacy wasn't easy to come by in such a public place, though, so Nah ended up answering while sitting on a raised curb outside of the restaurant. "I'm having dinner with my parents right now, is this an emergency?" she asked, hoping to get hung up on so she could get back inside.

Instead, she was met with the warbling of several voices, Ribbon's loudest of all, singing her a very off-key birthday song that lasted far long than it needed to. "I wanted to be able to do this for you," Ribbon explained after the singing had ended, "and I convinced my dad to take me to Yarne's to make it happen. Did you like it?"

"Of course I did, Ribbon. Anything you do for me is something I like." Untrue, but when she didn't know who was listening in to the conversation, Nah was going to choose flattery every time. "Sorry I wasn't there for you today, but with it being my birthday I wanted the day off for myself."

"I get it! I'll just see you on Tuesday like normal! Happy birthday, Nah, you're my closest friend and I love you!" With that, Ribbon ended the call, not even giving Nah a chance to respond to the statements made. It was concerning to a high degree that she was considered the closest friend of a teenage girl, given that she was a twenty-four-year-old woman, but Nah was sure that someone there in the room with her was going to talk to her about that being a problem. She was also curious about why she tacked on the love part, but it might've just been equated with friendship in Ribbon's mind.

Nah walked back to the table with her phone, now on silent, back in her purse and her mind focused on finishing dinner without further disruptions. "Who was calling you at this hour? Was it a boy?" Nowi asked, playing the role of helicopter parent far too well in the moment. "I hope it wasn't a boy, he should know better."

"I mean, it was a call from a phone belonging to a man, but it wasn't a man calling me. Ribbon wanted to wish me a happy birthday and roped most of her family in to make it a spectacle. Which, honestly, isn't a problem with me. The girl's weird, but she's a good kid." That may have been as close to a thanks for arranging the whole ride-giving situation that Nah had ever given her mother, but she wasn't going to go any further with it because she would've inevitably gotten to know the girl working with her anyway. "Seriously though, Mom, you need to back off with thinking everything I've got going on has to do with boys. I'm an adult, I'm allowed to date if I want, and—"

"Dating means marriage, and marriage means babies, and I am not old enough for you to make me a grandmother!" That was a complete and total lie, given that Nah had friends with much younger parents who had children of their own, but Nowi always liked to pretend she was younger than she actually was. "I'll let you get a boyfriend while you're living in my house under one condition, and one condition only."

"Is it that there's no grandbabies?"

"Nailed it in one. Is that a condition you're willing to agree to?" Nowi tilted her head as she stared her daughter down, while Nah sighed to herself before nodding. "Excellent. Then I take back what I said, if it had been a boy calling you it wouldn't have been a problem after all. Does that make you feel better?"

Nah's mouth opened slightly as she thought about how to respond, but it was Gregor who spoke next. "Nowi, love, is that truly the agreement you want to make with Nah over her birthday dinner? That is the sort of agreement most people make with teenage children, not adult ones."

"I'm not most people, in case you haven't noticed." Scrunching her nose at her husband, Nowi reached toward him and playfully pushed his arm, which he responded to by pushing her right back. They began knocking each other back and forth, while Nah sat across from them both, watching them with a blank stare.

She truly felt like she was about to start living a double life, one half being the perfect daughter they expected her to be and the other half being the person she wanted to become. And, deep down, she knew how that split was going to become fully developed, and it all came from something that had happened earlier that day. One side could be the person that society (and her parents) expected, while the other side became more reckless. More impulsive. More prone to making mistakes. More outgoing and fun, spontaneous and wild, and willing to throw everything away for a taste of freedom.

She needed to reach out to one of her friends to arrange something.