Chương 53: Determination

Ophila had been a bit worried, but Senna's house was easy to find, as it turned out. All she had to do was simply ask a woman hanging laundry, who'd pointed her down two streets and told her to look for the door with a wreath made of pressed flowers. And the wreath was exactly where the woman said it would be, a beautiful arrangement of pale yellow and white things. Ophila rapped on the door twice. The door opened almost immediately.

Senna was in her Union uniform, her auburn hair pulled back into its characteristic ponytail. As she spotted her, Senna's face turned into one of pleasant surprise.

"Ophila," she said warmly.

"I wasn't expecting you."

"I brought some cake," Ophila said, grinning as she holed up the small cloth-wrapped package she'd acquired from the market on her way over.

"I got it from a stall near the eastern plot. Honey and Ironpulp." Senna looked both delighted and flustered.

"You didn't have to—""But I did," Ophila interrupted cheerfully.

"Can I come in?" Senna beamed.

"Of course!" Stepping inside, Ophila found Senna's house to be exactly as she'd imagined, being a larger reflection of her work table at the Union outpost. Warm, cozy, and neat. They sat at the table, Senna quickly whipping up some mint tea and Ophila distributing the honey Ironpulp cakes. The cakes were extremely good, dense and fragrant. The Ironpulp had a certain tartness that the honey softened without eliminating it. Senna ate hers, her eyes widening.

It was clear that the girl didn't let herself have too many sweets. The conversation was easy to settle into as well. Since they'd talked enough at both the dinner and the outpost to have gotten past the early awkwardness of just being acquaintances, they were able to chat animately as friends. Ophila found Senna funny in a dry, slightly self-deprecating way. Having worked at the Union outpost, she always seemed to have an unlimited amount of hilarious stories.

Right now, she was recounting a time when a Delver had tried to file a salvage claim on some Floor 3 fungi, and the argument about how fungal structures couldn't be loot had lasted three hours. In hindsight, it wasn't objectively very funny. But Senna told it in such a way that by the end, Ophila was laughing so hard that tears were leaking out of the corner of her eyes.

"Three hours?" Ophila repeated, wiping her eyes.

"Three hours," Senna confirmed, giving a small traumatized shiver.

"In fact, Greaves fell asleep in his chair halfway through and I had to do his work as well." Ophila broke off another piece of cake, still smiling, and looked around at the pressed flowers on the wall.

"Did you collect all of these yourself?" she asked.

"Most of them," Senna said, following her gaze.

"Some were gifts." She coughed.

"Actually, Lio gave me one. It was when I decided to stop delving and stay in Trestfall. As a celebratory gift, he found it on Floor 4 and brought it up." Ophila looked at the wall, raising an eyebrow.

"Which one?" she asked. Senna pointed at a small pale blue specimen near the center, mounted on a square of dark cloth.

"He said it reminded him of me," Senna said, with a small smile that threatened to become much bigger. Ophila studied the flower. It was clear that it had been taken very good care of, almost to the point of obsession. Then she glanced at Senna. She sighed. It was so clear that Senna was absolutely head over heels for Lio.

"How long have you two known each other?" Senna asked, turning back to face her.

"Not long," Ophila said honestly.

"We only just partnered up for this descent." Senna nodded, turning her cup in her hands.

"He's never mentioned you before," she said. Then, realizing how that sounded, she quickly added, "Not that he mentions much about anything. He's very…"

"Private?" Ophila offered.

"Yes," Senna said, accompanied by a laugh.

"Very, very private. It took me years to learn anything about him." She shook her head fondly.

"But when he does say something, he really does mean it. He doesn't lie about that." Ophila smiled. Though underneath it, she was feeling tense. Lio? Meaning something truly? No. Even if Ophila had barely known Lio for a couple of days, one thing was clear. She didn't believe that anything Lio had said was the complete, honest truth. After all, she had watched him talk to Lupin with that warm, open friendliness that had made William's jaw drop. She had watched him manage Erygn's compassionate instincts.

She had watched him with William, with the vendors, with Acacia before the fight, with every person they'd encountered since leaving Crater City. She was not naive enough to deny what she'd seen. Lio had the full capacity to change his personality whenever he wanted. Ophila didn't know what his true self was like, but she had a feeling that she didn't want to find out. And what worried her the most was that he was always the warmest around Senna. Ophila knew that Lio was doing this to get something out of Senna.

But what? Ophila didn't know. And to make it even worse, Senna had no idea about who Lio truly was. Again, that was definitely presumptuous of her. But Ophila knew her type. Senna simply trusted people too completely. She gave in too quickly. And Lio and her had some sort of relationship where she trusted him too much—too wholeheartedly. Ophila thought of a girl she'd known in Millhaven. Tansy. Her childhood friend, and the girl who had given Ophila her the marbles.

The same marbles Ophila considered worth as much as her own life. Senna reminded her of Tansy. Tansy had also been someone who had trusted too completely, and had paid for it dearly because of it. She looked at Senna, who was smiling as she refilled Ophila's cup with more tea. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Ophila smiled back. No, she wasn't going to let something like that happen again.

If Lio was doing what she thought he was doing, Ophila was going to stop it. She didn't know how, but somehow. One way or another. ◈◈◈◈ Unlike the manner with Senna, William Bone had found out that the guard captain of Trestfall was the exact opposite. The man was extraordinarily hard to track down. William had checked the guard post first. Obviously. It was the most no-brain starting point. However, the two guards stationed outside had told him that the captain was doing rounds around town.

So he'd gone looking for where the rounds were, which had taken him in a large and unhelpful loop around Trestfall before someone told him that Erygn had already finished rounds and gone back to the post. But when he'd gone back to the post, Erygn wasn't there. The guards looked apologetic as he told him that Ergyn had just stepped out again. With a vapid expression, William stood outside, his hands shoved in his pockets, staring at the Union banner hanging limply above the door.

Then he noticed a stall across the street selling Ironpulp strips. Well, he could try again in a few minutes. The strips were, as always, extraordinary. He ate them leaning against the building on the main street, feeling marginally better about everything. His ribs had mostly stopped aching, now almost completely healed. Nobody was actively trying to kidnap him. Things could be worse. And he could find one guard captain. He pushed off the wall, and went back to the post, brushing the crumbs off his shirt.

But still no Erygn. This time though, the guard offered that Ergyn might be at the Mayor's residence, and gave William some directions. It was a twenty minute walk, and when he arrived, he found that the Mayor's residence was a large and impressively grown fungi building near the settlement's center. Two considerably more serious looking guards than the guard post ones stood outside it. William approached, hoping that he didn't look as nervous as he felt.

"I'm looking for the guard captain," he mumbled. One of the guards looked him up and down slowly with an unimpressed expression.

"He's in a meeting."

"How long will that take?"

"As long as it takes," the guard replied. William crinkled his nose. Wow. So helpful. He found a couple of Trestfall kids by accident about twenty minutes later, playing in a small courtyard, kicking a battered rubber ball between themselves. William had never really thought about it before, but these were kids of Delvers—children born inside Ghenna, who had probably never seen actual sunlight. The idea of it was strange enough that he slowed down to look.

Then one of them shanked the ball badly and it came bouncing directly over to William's feet. He looked down at it, then over at the kids, who were all staring at him. A boy at the front, looking maybe nine years old with an enormous gap between his front teeth, pointed at the ball hopefully. William blinked. Then he grinned, shrugging his coat off, and kicking it back. That had been more than two hours ago.

By now, William was sweating through his shirt, his cracked ribs—even if they screamed at him whenever he twisted wrong—completely forgotten. Although the teams were uneven, the rules changed at every foul, and at some point a girl had started following William around to kick him in the shins whenever he got the ball, William was having the best afternoon he'd had since descending.

When the kids finally were called in by various parents for dinner, William was left alone in the courtyard, beaming as he breathed hard. He then retrieved his coat from the post, wiping his face aggressively with his sleeve. Then he remembered Erygn. Shoot! He found his way back to the guard post, already preparing himself to be told again that the captain was somewhere else entirely. But then the door opened and Erygn himself walked out, nearly colliding with William on the front step.

Both of them stopped, William blinking in surprise. Erygn recovered first.

"You're the Delver from yesterday," he said, recognition crossing his earnest face.

"William, wasn't it?"

"That's me," William confirmed. He straightened up, clearing his throat.

"I've actually been looking for you for quite a while." Erygn glanced at the state of William's shirt and pants, which was covered with grass stains. William was also sure that he stank. But Ergyn said nothing about it, which he appreciated enormously.

"Walk with me," Erygn said, smiling. William fell into step with Ergyn, who began heading toward the guard post. Above, the spore-light above was beginning to turn a deep amber now, followed by the long shadows of evening and the sound of residents returning home from their jobs. Without wasting a beat, William blurted it out.

"I want to ask about leaving. We've all given our statements, we clearly have no connection to the murders, and we have a descent to complete." He glanced sideways at Erygn, checking the man's expression.

"We can't afford to stay here indefinitely." Erygn walked without answering for a few seconds, clasping his hands behind his back.

"I appreciate you asking directly," he said finally.

"But I can't release your party yet. Not while the investigation is still active." William frowned.

"Why not? Like I said, we're not suspects."

"It's not about suspicion," Erygn said patiently.

"It's about having all potential witnesses available should something develop."

"We've told you everything we know," William said. Ergyn looked apologetic.

"I understand that."

"So we're being kept here for nothing?" William demanded.

"No, it's for caution," Erygn corrected gently. William clenched his jaw, irritation flooding his every sense. He'd been trying to track down this man all day, just to be told no? And the guy hadn't even provided an adequate explanation!

"Look," William scowled.

"I do get it. This situation is all fucked up." He ground his feet on the ground.

"But I've been in Trestfall for just a few days now and in that time I've been kidnapped, knocked unconscious, and involved in a murder investigation." His tense voice edged on the verge of yelling.

"So with respect, I am so done with waiting." Ergyn bit his lower lip.

"I understand your frustration—" he began.

"Do you really?" William interrupted.

"Because from where I'm standing, you're keeping us penned up here." He raised an eyebrow.

"Unless there's a reason you specifically need us to stay, I demand for you to let us go." Ergyn opened his mouth again.

"Oh, and before you say you understand my frustration," William added, shaking a fist, "just know that if you say that I'm going to lose my mind completely." Ergyn awkwardly closed his mouth. Then he groaned, running a hand through his curly hair, a look of agitation flashing across his features.

"Fine," he spat out.

"Fine, you want the truth? I can't release you because the investigation has gotten damn more complicated since yesterday." William frowned.

"What do you mean by more complicated?" Erygn looked away, clearly wrestling with how much to divulge.

"The woman who kidnapped you escaped," he finally forced out, grimacing like the words tasted bad. Which they probably did. What? William stared at him, horror setting into his bones. He grabbed Ergyn's shoulders, shaking him violently.

"W-what do you mean by escaped?!" Ergyn looked ashamed.

"I'm sorry. I—""And why haven't you locked Trestfall down?" William shouted.

"There's a kidnapper loose in this settlement and you're just letting everyone walk around like nothing—""You think I haven't tried?" Erygn turned on him, and his composure was entirely gone now, replaced with a raw fury.

"That's why I went to that damn Mayor and his security council! I asked for a full lockdown." His hands had balled into fists at his sides.

"And guess what they told me?" William didn't say anything.

"They told me no!" Erygn snapped.

"Why not?"

"Because Trestfall isn't damn Crater City. Rogue Delvers are a dime a dozen down here. Because unless there's mass structural damage or a huge body count, the security council won't authorize it." He gave a short and humorless laugh.

"After all, Trestfall runs on Delver movement and trade. And apparently profit matters more than the damn residents!" He stopped himself, breathing hard. He was already looking regretful at having such a humiliating outburst. William glanced at Ergyn, gingerly studying his ocean blue eyes that were still blazing with indignation. Wow. He felt a sudden and unexpected sympathy for the guy. But William was still a very selfish person.

"So can we leave or not?" Erygn tiredly glanced at him, and some of the fire banked down.

"Tomorrow morning." He shook his head.

"If nothing significant happens tonight, I'll let you go." He pointed at William.

"But you and your party have to stay in your lodge. Absolutely don't venture anywhere! Got it?" William blinked. Me and my… Party? William cursed mentally. Fuck, Lio was so going to do something random again, wasn't he?

"I'll do my best," he said honestly, already resigning himself to fate. Erygn nodded, his thoughts clearly elsewhere. Then waving a brisk goodbye, he strode away, his shoulders still rigid with frustration. William watched him go, then turned toward the lodge. He groaned. Tomorrow… He just had to keep Lio out of trouble until tomorrow. He was already so tired.