Chapter Text
It's an everyday sight. The early morning light peering in through the curtains, a cup of coffee cooling on a counter, a conspiracy board laid up against the coffee table, heavy with clues and mysteries.
Riz is in the center of the living room, staring intensely at the conspiracy board that's covered in papers, scribblings, and strings connecting it all. He's drinking a cup of coffee and muttering to himself about clues as he affixes the string to another point. Another connection. Another clue.
He's tapping a claw against the cup in a steady motion and paces for a moment before the board.
“Uh, Riz? What's all this?” Gorgug's voice snaps him out of his focus.
“Ah! Gorgug! Finally, you're up!” Riz has one of Gorgug's headbands on to push back his hair and has a couple pens and pencils sticking out from behind his ears and in his hair.
“Did you sleep at all?” Gorgug makes his way into the kitchen, searching through the cupboards for something.
“Of course-” Riz starts.
Gorgug preemptively smiles at him.
“Not, well not for very long. I can't, don't have the time.” He finishes. He did pass out for a bit when they got back from the club. But after his watch’s buzzing woke him up, he didn't even try to go back after that. He couldn't.
He finally has important work to do.
“Riz-” Gorgug starts to say with a grimace.
Riz scrambles around the mismatch of different things scattered around him, holding up the significantly smaller balls of yarn than were there before, “So you didn't have any red string, but you had pink and purple-”
“Riz, I need that for knitting.” Gorgug takes them with a frown.
“Oh, sorry. That makes sense. I was wondering why you have that, you don't do this, ha.” He gestures to his board.
“Yeah. No one does this. And is that my scrap metal? And my draft paper, Riz, come on-” Gorgug finally takes a closer look at the board.
The board is made up of sticky notes and taped papers stuck to a giant sheet of metal leaning against the coffee table. And the metal is covered in sharpie marker scribbles and a spiderweb of strings.
He starts to say at Gorgug's stare, “Ok so I can explain-”
“Riz. I really need these supplies for Augefort, if you needed something you could've asked.” Gorgug pinches a hand on his forehead and folds up the less scribbled upon draft papers containing complex clockwork and intricate gearwork creations, “He'll kill me if I don't finish his commission on time.”
“Wait.” Riz’s focus switches to a loose newspaper next to him. He grabs it, one of the headlines stands out to him.
“Oh! Oh aha! I figured it out! Shut up shut, sh-hold up hold it, I've got it!” He frantically points around at the board then back to the newspaper and scribbles on sticky notes.
“Got what?” Gorgug puts the yarn and papers down on the counter and goes back to digging through the cabinets muttering, “Where’d all my cups go?”
“Ok, ok so. There's this whole the Nightmare King thing, but then that's the old Cass, and then there's the reclamation of the forest in Sylvaire, right? Right?” He desperately gestures around the board.
“Ok?” Gorgug says, voice echoing deep in the cabinet.
“And then I haven’t been able to get in contact with the Interplanar Taskforce, weird, huh?” He switches to the other side of the board.
“Sure.” He shrugs.
“And then the IPTF’s ‘connectivity problems’ are all connected, they have bad connectivity, why? How does that add up? What does that have to do with the rest of this? How could heaven have technology issues?” He gestures to a pink string connecting the two.
“Heaven having tech issues, really? That's interesting.” Gorgug ponders, sticking his head out of the cupboards.
“Unless they actually don't.” Riz holds up a finger. He ignores the shakiness of it.
“That’s confusing.” Gorgug glances round the room for a moment before sighing and starting his search through the bottom cabinets.
“Right! And Aember, how all of this is connected!” He gestures to the bottom half of the board.
“Wait Aember, like Kristen's ex Aember?” Gorgug’s voice echoes from inside the cabinet.
“Yeah, yeah her. So I was going through the financial sections in your newspapers, and I found this!” Riz points to a spot on the newspaper as Gorgug pokes his head back out.
“Hmm, ‘Pirates treaty in the air after Third Ring interference’ thing?" Gorgug reads off, squinting at where Riz has pointed.
“What?” Riz looks at the paper.
“No, no, not that, the other thing. ‘Forestwind’s land deal falls through in Sylvaire’, see?” Riz moves his finger to point in the correct spot, “Aember’s sisters-cousins-in-law Forestwind that's weird, right?”
“Uh, yeah, I guess, hey do you know where all the mugs went, I could have sworn I just did the dishes?” Gorgug gives up rooting through all the cabinets.
“Oh, uh…” Riz stares at the unfortunate collection of mugs he's curated next to the couch. He gulps down a sip of cold coffee from the one clean mug, “No clue.”
“Huh. Ok, I can just use a regular cup for coffee, I guess.” Gorgug stares at him then grabs a glass cup from a shelf.
“Coffee, why would you want that?” Riz’s eyes snap to the empty coffee pot, and the empty bag of coffee grounds next to it.
“I’m sleepy.” Gorgug frowns at Riz.
“Why not…tea? That's better for you, anyways right?” Riz thinks it has to be, why else would people drink it.
“You know what? I’ll just figure this out later.” Gorgug shrugs, puts his cup down and shuffles about in the kitchen making something else in two different cups.
Riz taps against the sheet metal, looking for the connection with Aember and Cassandra and Sylvaire and Kalina, “It’s Kristen, of course! Hm, but why…”
He goes back through the unsorted pile of papers next to him.
“What does it all mean? Is any of it…hmm, how, what is it?” He mumbles to himself, attaching the newspaper clipping to the board with tape, and attaching the strings to that. Kristen.
“I know, it has to be Kristen, she's the connection, but how?” He puts the now empty coffee cup down and paces in front of the board.
“Look, look, it has to be connected, it all is I just need to figure it out. There's something here, this Forestwind thing and the other thing can't just be a coincidence. It has to do with Kristen, it's gotta be, she's the connection, but what does it all mean? Why would she…” His muttering trails off with his thoughts.
Staring hard at all the connections, he can't shake the thought. Why? Why would Kalina do this to him? What could she gain from it-
“This is all a little, spring break gold gardens.” Gorgug gestures to Riz's tattoos and the clue board.
Riz puts his head in his hands, “No, you don't get it.”
“I really don't, no.”
“So, just think, if Kalina is back-”
“Wait, she's back?” Gorgug yelps.
“Yes keep up,” Riz groans, “so if Kalina’s back then what does that mean for Cassandra, for reality? If Kalina is back as a plague, or what? Well, if she's back as a plague, then she can see through us, she can alter our reality to fit whatever she wants to, so that means we can't trust reality, what we see or hear or feel. And how does that connect to this?”
Gorgug looked at him, concerned,“I don't know Riz, this is kind of-”
“If we can't trust reality, then that means that nothing that's happened could be real!” He says louder, pacing. The ring hangs heavy around his neck. He dutifully ignores the weight.
“I don't understand.” He sighs.
“Gorgug! Gorgug nothing could be real! Don't you get it, nothing! It would make so much sense. This would fix everything!” He grips the metal board so tight he leaves claw marks in it.
Gorgug winces at the sound, “Riz…have you had anything other than all the coffee?”
“No, no just that.” He waves away Gorgug's concern, then turns around to actually think about it, “Wait, I think I had some of the energy drinks in the fridge too.”
“Well, I'm going to make us something to eat. Get Kristen up ok?” Gorgug asks.
“I just gotta figure this out then I can-” Riz turns back to the board, he's almost there, he's got it he can just-
“Take a step back from it, and give Kristen the hangover cure I made.” Gorgug shoves one of the cups into Riz's hands.
“Oh, right, that's why I have a headache, right.” Riz remembers.
Getting Kristen awake and aware is its own ordeal. But once she's responsive enough, Gorgug says he's dropping her off at Mordred before going to work, and Kristen resolutely agrees.
All of Riz’s attempts to ask, not interrogate, ask very nicely about Kalina are thwarted by Kristen's own hungoverness.
Gorgug makes them all quick breakfast sandwiches, and drops an extremely hungover Kristen off. He promises to pick up some conspiracy board supplies for Riz after work.
And Riz keeps working.
-
Riz doesn't mean to, but he loses track of time pretty soon after.
It's much darker by the time he looks up from his board and out the window. In the back of his mind, he thinks it's odd that Gorgug isn't back yet. But the front of his mind is occupied with the lack of response to his message to his dad. Nothing. He'd sent it immediately after he heard his message. And no response.
He’s pondering what all that means when he recognizes the sound of someone teleporting in the room.
“This looks…interesting.” Adaine says from behind him, looking at his board.
“Hi Adaine.” He vaguely responds, still focused on why none of his IPTF messages are going through.
“Gorgug had to stay after to supervise some timed project test for Augefort, I dunno. But he asked if I could stop by to drop off stuff for you, and I could use a break from all the stupid Court of Stars drama.” Adaine rolls her eyes at how ridiculous Falinel could be.
It was a difficult task to completely restructure the government of the high elves, but if the only person they'd listen to was the Oracle, then Adaine figured she had to try, no matter how much the Court of Stars tested her patience and sense.
“Hmm. Have you noticed anything odd about the ethereal plane lately?” He asks.
She blinks at him, “I dunno, maybe. Why do you ask?"
Riz nods, “Well, that’s something at least. Uh, my messages to my dad aren't going through.”
“Huh. That is weird. I can ask around at Astral State, I'm going there next week for a lecture, and I’ll email my old professors at Ashgrove too.” She offers with a shrug.
“It’s a start,” He shakes his head, “It’s just so dang weird, you know?”
“Yeah, so is that what all this has to do with too?” She motions to the board with a tight lipped look and leans her arms on his head.
“Well…” He goes through his attempts to explain the board, in a better way than he had earlier to Gorgug.
But by Adaine's flat quizzical stare, he still hasn't explained himself properly.
He doubles down, “She could be back in our heads and controlling what we see and hear. What is and isn't real anymore, and if none of this has happened? What if it's all a lie? What if everything is fine? What if none of it happened?”
He vaguely registers that his stomach hurts.
“What do you mean?” Adaine grimaces.
“So Aember and Kalina are out to get us, they're plotting for our downfall.” He states.
“How do you know that?” She tilts her head at the scribbles.
“I just. I do. Neither of them like us, and like, it would make so much sense. They both have a means and a motive. And…” He flounders, “uh. I haven't really figured it all out yet.”
She hums an affirmation, then looks at him and asks, "Have you been taking your meds?”
He puts his head in his hands and groans, “Oh my gods, you don't believe me either.”
“It's just, this is a lot to process, why don't you go through it, a little slower and all and I'll just listen…ok?” Adaine says.
“Wait.” His stills, eyes wide as he frantically scrambles around in his pockets.
“Riz, what-”
“Shh!” He dumps the pockets out searching for a spring, as his lighter, crushed pack of cigarettes, keys, and various things tumble from him onto the ground.
“What are you-”
“Adaine.” He grips the copper spring tightly into her hand. “Here.”
“What do I do with this?”
Riz mimes zipping his lips, then stares intently back at the wire.
“Riz?”
He grabs her hand and writes out the letters M-E-S-S-A-G-E C-A-N-T-R-I-P on her palm with his claws.
“Oh!” She realizes, and flicks the copper spring, eyes glowing an icy blue as she casts the spell.
“Thank you.”
“Why the message cantrip? What's going on?”
“Kalina!”
“Kalina?”
“Yes! So, my going theory is Aember wants to get back at Kristen, and me, for exposing her cheating. And somehow, I don't know, magic.”
“Magic?”
“Uh, she made Kalina come back, but different.”
“Different now?”
“Um. As a baby. That's not important! She's out to get us still, we can't trust her. Or anything actually, Kalina being back means that she can affect what we see. And what we see, me and Kristen, this, I don't think the rest of you were infected. So, everything we see is just what Kalina wants us to see.”
“What does she want us to see?”
“Bad things. Really bad scary things. Nightmare stuff. I don't know yet. She's biding her time. But she's back, she will be trying to hurt us. And we can't trust anything. She could know what we're saying and planning and doing. She could be changing everything we see. And hear. And touch. She could be here right now killing us and we wouldn't even know it till it's too late.”
“Riz, we don't know for sure-”
“She's going to kill us we're going to die everything it's going to be over Kalina is killing us she's back and we're dead that's it the mystery is over she got us and the world is going to end-”
“Riz, you're shaking.” Adaine says out loud.
“Huh?” He suddenly feels dizzy, head spinning. His breaths come out in short sharp gasps of panic.
“Sit down before you pass out.”
He lays face first on the ground.
“Or that, that works too I guess.” Adaine lays on the ground next to him.
“You want some water?” She asks.
He nods.
She gives him a water bottle. He gulps it all down far too quickly.
“Only thing with your theory is we cured Kalina. I can still get Kristen to cast a greater restoration or detect poison and disease on you later, if you want though.” She takes a sip of her own water.
Oh.
“You're right.” He blinks. She's right.
“Yeah I am.” She nods.
“This all sounds insane.” He realizes. He feels played, like he's an idiot for trusting his brain, knowing it turns on him like that.
“I mean, I'm sure it all makes sense to you, and that's ok-” Adaine tries.
“No, fuck I thought, I really thought I was getting somewhere, but this is all nothing.” He should've known better than to believe his brain. Usually he will quadruple check everything so this doesn't happen.
“The last time she came back, she had already lost all her powers and was just Cass’s familiar. There's no reason her being back now again would bring the shadow cat corrupted nightmare king version of her powers back, especially when Cass is still Cass.”
He sits up and starts indiscriminately tearing his claws down through all the clues. The not quite red string tangles up in his fingers, “I really thought I had something here.”
She thumbs a copper piece from out of her pocket, flicking it in the air a few times and mutters something to herself.
Riz keeps talking out loud and pacing. Thinking. Thinking more. Definitely not spiraling.
Adaine suddenly looks at him and she says, “Hmm hey, Riz here take Boggy.”
“Um thanks? But why are you giving me him?” He takes the smiling frog.
She says “Just sit down and take a breath ok?”
“Fine.” He grumbles and plops down on the floor.
“So I have to go get my meds refilled soon, do you want to take a break and come with me, and, I dunno, maybe get yours too?” She says, in a casual not so casual way.
“I haven't had anything happen in a while, I don't need it anymore.” He dismisses.
Her eyes dart over to his now destroyed conspiracy board.
“What?” He grumbles.
“What was all that then?” She says.
Riz scoffs, “Look, I think I know by now the difference between anxiety, mania, paranoia, and psychosis, Adaine. I might be prone to bouts of them, but I'm not an idiot.”
“I'm not saying you are, just that it's ok to fuck up, I mean I get it, I still get panic attacks sometimes, I still have an anxiety disorder, and it's ok. But you know it doesn't just go away if you ignore it. You work through your problems and get better.”
“Yeah, I know.” He muttered, having been told that by everyone more than enough times by now.
Riz resisted ever actually working through anything and kept up the tried and true method of pushing past and ignoring everything till it inevitably broke him down.
It worked so far, for the most part, kind of. Sort of.
And sure, his blood was 80% coffee because he doesn't sleep, he doesn't have the time and he can't stop thinking enough to sleep and if he sleeps he stops working. And sure, he is in a pretty constant state of panic and pressure because that's the only way he knows how to function. And sure, he is definitely way too paranoid but there's no such thing when it's kept him alive this long. And sure, he knows he sees and hears things that he has proven to not be there, and sure sometimes he connects the wrong clues together in a tangled web of conspiracy that literally does not exist, and yeah, he overthinks social scenarios to the point of nausea, and he has to do certain things for reasons he can't fully comprehend or else, and he still doesn't know why the only way he can connect with people is through Mysteries, which unfortunately tend to be some of the worst times of a person's life, and sure, his biggest fear is still stuffed in his old briefcase under his bed because he can't face it not now not ever, he knows he understands he gets it he's never going to be as important to anyone as they always are to him he knows, he doesn't need Baron to spell it out for him again and again.
And sure, he knows he's definitely spiraling at the moment, but once he starts thinking about just how unchangeable all his self made problems are, he'll never stop because all his problems is just a part of who he is and this whole ‘getting better’ being healthy thing just feels like trying to change the core parts of himself that makes him him.
And it's literally fine, he's self aware enough to know these are behavioral patterns that've been a part of himself for nearly as long as he's known himself to exist. All he can do is make himself more manageable. There's no way to change or fix or get better, that it's all just an intrinsic part of who he is. This is just him. He works himself to the bone, he ignores anything that will slow him down, and he gets results. He doesn't sleep, he has things to do, he has things to do, so he doesn't sleep, it's a self fulfilling prophecy. He has to, otherwise why would anyone care. If he isn't working as hard as he can all the time about everything what the hell is he doing with his life.
Adaine had an incredibly pained, winded look on her face as she stared at him with wide teary eyes, “Riz, you know everyone always loves you, regardless, even when you aren't doing something for them.”
“I know, you guys tell me all the time.” He mutters, not really believing it.
“Clearly we don't say it enough, I,” She grimaces, “You know how Jawbone said-”
Riz stills as his eyes sharpen to thin slits. He does not want to hear about Jawbone and how he should just try therapy how it'll solve all his ‘problems’.
“About my anxiety.” Adaine quickly adds.
“Oh. Yeah.” He blinks.
“How in freshman year, he said that I am not my anxiety, I have anxiety but it isn't me. It's a part of me, but that's not all I am?”
“Yeah.” He remembers Adaine telling them about that.
“Yeah. You aren't just…everything, you know.” She softly says.
He sits with it for a moment. He doesn't think all he is the most frustrating parts of him, but. Well, it certainly all adds up.
He isn't all these things wrong with him, he is what he does. His actions matter most, what he is only matters as much as it can impact his work. Which is why he can't sleep, when he is sleeping he isn't working. He isn't doing.
“It's different though,” As he says that her eyebrows scrunch up, “your anxiety stopped you right?”
“Yeah, I mean panic attacks don't just stop me, the anxiety also affects how I do things, avoid things that I want to do, it makes me second guess everything. Managing my anxiety is its own thing.” She says truthfully.
“Mine, this,” he gestures around, at the mess, at himself, “it’s the only way I can function. This is how I manage. This is managing." He stated. It's true, he doesn't know how to function without this pressure on him, without the constant nipping at his heels to do more do better go faster. He needs it like he needs a mystery to solve. He doesn't know what to do with himself without it.
“That's not...” She gulps back her words, clearly wanting to say more but stops, “Riz, you know it's ok to slow down sometimes.”
“I don't have time to slow down, I can't.” None of them understood it. He literally couldn't. If he stops he dies, he doesn't have the luxury of time. If he stops running from his problems, stops ignoring them, stops for one moment everything catches up to him and he's 9 years old and his dad left and died and then Penny left and then Sklonda- “Gods, I don't want to talk about it, will everyone stop fucking asking me to talk about it!”
“Ok, you don't have to, I just, I don't know what to say.” Adaine looks at the ground.
“Look! I'm fine.” His forced smile is still too sharp. He needs to work on that.
“I just want to help-” She reaches out.
“I don't need any help! I don't want it, will everyone just get out of my goddamn business?” He finally snaps, eyes wide and frantic.
It's just everything. Gorgug trying to help, Kristen trying to help, Adaine trying to help, all of them trying so hard when he doesn't want any of them to know just how badly off he's been doing. They can suspect it all they like, he's not going to budge, but they can't prove it if he doesn't say so. So he has to be okay. If only they could just stop trying to help him be okay then he could just act like everything is okay he needs to hold himself so tightly together that he doesn't have the chance to fall apart. If he falls apart he knows there's no turning back. Not now, not ever.
“I'm fine.” He vehemently insists, fists clenched so tightly his claws nearly break skin.
Adaine's sharp eyes pierced right through him, “If you want to keep lying to yourself, sure. But don't lie to me.”
Adaine purses her lips and gets to her feet. Only in her absence does he notice that her eyes had been glowing a faint blue. She doesn't slam the door, she leaves quietly and quickly to the balcony. Somehow, that makes it worse.
And for the moment, he's alone.
The moment he's alone, the dread, guilt, and regret sinks in. And he's alone with the fear.
“Fuck.” He hisses, nausea crawling at his throat.
His feet are cement blocks rooting him to the spot, but if he does in fact vomit, he'd much rather it not be on Gorgug's nice rug. He takes a few stumbling calculated steps to the bathroom. At least it’s a nice bathroom, the amount of time he's spent in shitty bathrooms, this one is nice. Lemon themed. Bright. Gorgug knows how to furnish a bathroom nicely. The lemon shaped soap dispenser with lemon scented soap is a nice touch.
As his eyes flit around the lemon themed bathroom, he makes the mistake of looking at the mirror. And sees that he does not want to see.
“Oh Riz Gukgak, why do you push away your friends.” A faint voice from beyond the mirror whispers.
And it becomes that much harder to ignore the things in mirrors he knows aren't there when they start talking to him. He does not look.
“Shut up-shut up-shut up, I know you aren't real. You are in my briefcase under my bed. You aren't here, you aren't real,” he repeats again, “you aren't here you aren't real.”
“We both know that's not true, Riz Gukgak.” Baron pushes skeletal hands against the mirror. Enough to make it wobble, but not enough for it to break.
Riz flinches back.
“You aren't here. You aren't real.” He says, and squeezes his eyes shut tight. If he isn't looking it isn't happening. If he ignores it it’s not real.
“Because you know they will be leaving you again. Once they find out all those nasty secrets you keep. They will not want you to hang around them anymore. Just like in the last of times. They will always leave you.” Baron tutts and tsks.
As always, the creepy little skeleton boy in the mirror repeats all of Riz's fears back to him.
And Riz is sick of hearing them again and again, those same fears bouncing around in his head and now out loud. Or still in his head, but just louder.
He hisses out, “Baron if you don't shut the fuck up-”
“Ah, Riz Gukgak, you scorn the truth because it hurts.”
“I know.” He bites back.
He's panting as the mirror breaks. Fuck.
This is why he doesn't look in mirrors anymore.
The scarring on his hands will never really heal will it.
He frantically casts mending on it, cleans up the mess, makes like it never happened. Because it didn't.
It didn't.
He didn't mean to-
Baron just wouldn't shut up-
He didn’t-
He leaves the bathroom.
It’s sunny on the balcony. Riz is grateful for his sweater in the cool breeze.
“Hey, Adaine?”
“You know being rude to your friends is not the way to go about this, do we want to try again?” She’s sitting on the plastic chair, knees pulled to her chest.
“Sorry for being rude.” He apologizes.
“Apology accepted, but I'm still mad at you. Now why the hell haven't you been taking your meds?” She purses her lips tight.
“Look, I can't even remember the last time I had a major thing, so I just didn't need the meds anymore, that's all.” He shakes off her look.
“Riz, you know that is not how it works.” She stares harder.
“I just. I couldn't….” he winces, “It was either I pay my rent or I get meds, it's expensive without health insurance.”
“Riz-”
“So! I figured, better to have somewhere to live and maybe lose it just a bit, than to not and all. I don't know.” He shrugs sitting next to her. It’s cold.
“If you'dve asked, you know we would have helped-” Adaine assured.
“I know, I know, ok. But you know how embarrassing it is, to ask. I don't have safety net to fall back on when I fuck up. I just have to work harder.” He pulled his knees to his chest next to her.
“Yeah. Sorry. I know. Jawbone and Sandra Lynn, I'm glad they don't mind supporting me, but yeah. It still feels like I can't afford to fuck up. I do get it.” She leans next to him.
“Yeah.” He shuffles closer and their shoulders press tightly together.
“But since you refuse to go to therapy-”
“Adaine-” Riz warns.
“I'm not going to make you do anything, just saying it does help. But meds are the next best thing, if you still want to do that. And since you don't go to doctors-”
“Since I don't trust doctors.” Riz corrected.
“Since you don't trust doctors, you'll just have to go to me, and I'll refill them for you.” Adaine scrolls around on her crystal for a moment.
“How much do I owe you?” Riz asks, calculating the expenses in his head quickly.
“No money, just make sure you take them.” Adaine waves his question away.
“Agh, alright, fine.” He grumbles.
“We really should consult with someone before this but I know you're not gonna do that.” She pulls some generic off brand medications of pill bottles out of her trusty jacket.
“How do you get all this information anyways?” Riz looks at the bottles, asking because he never said anything about it to anyone ever.
“I mean, a lot of it I kind of assumed, like the sleep, anxiety, hyperfixations, and paranoia were obvious. I had suspected the OCD and mania. Um, I had looked into the long term effects of severe sleep deprivation a while ago, but I didn't know you…that. Really not good for you, Riz.” She frowns.
“I know.” He knows. The long term side effects of severe sleep deprivation have been burned into his brain since he was ten. He accepted it long ago. Shame his brain and body never got the memo.
He really doesn't want to think about the fact that his dad as he knows him has been dead for longer than he had ever had the chance to know him in life. It’s fine, he still occasionally talks with him. It’s fine. He's been dealing with the lack of sleep since he died 17 years ago. He should be used to it by now. He doesn't know why he still isn't.
It's fine though.
“But all the specific doses and medications, a bit of research…and, uh, your hospital records.” She mumbled the last thing.
“My what.” He says flatly.
“Look, I went to the hospital, turned invisible and copied them on my spreadsheet, see?” She shows him a meticulously detailed spreadsheet of all the bad kids medications, the different kinds and dosages and everything on her crystal.
“Oh wow, that's. Huh.” He admired the thought quite a lot actually. While it certainly was an invasion of privacy, it was a necessary one. Because there's absolutely no way Riz was ever going to say shit about any of his problems. And Adaine knew that.
Adaine rambled on, “Well, uh, I know how you hate going to the doctor, and I figured it would come up sometime anyways, and it's something to help with my anxiety to know if any of you guys need something I'll know exactly what to do and-”
“It's cool. That's very pragmatic of you, thanks.” He says.
“Thank you!” She grins.
Riz smiles back.
“Now to the pharmacy! I still have to get mine refilled. I really don't feel like walking, and I don't have the spell slots to teleport again, so to the bus we go.” Adaine exclaims as they head out the balcony door together.
As much as he doesn't want to leave his mystery, he would never say no to the chance of hanging out with a friend. They put on their outerwear and shoes, closing the front door behind them.
Riz picklock locks after they leave. And adds an extra tripwire just in case. And another quick alarm spell. And a snare-
“Ok that's enough now, come on.” Adaine drags him down the hall away from the door.
He goes along easily though, “All spell slotted out already? Busy Monday at the Court of Stars?”
“Ugh, you could say that,” She puts the copper piece back in her jacket pocket as they get into the elevator, “they won't stop arguing with each other and me. I'm about to take a level of barbarian and go into a rage, I swear.”
“They’d deserve it.” He mutters, pressing the first floor button much harder than intended.
“I don’t even want to think about my stupid job right now.” She groans and leans back against the wall, “Let’s just go to the pharmacy. I honestly hate going by myself, the whole thing is so nerve wracking.”
“No problem, I don't mind tagging along.” The elevator dings and they leave the building into the parking lot.
“Hey. We could really get wild and hit up the library after the office supply shop? Max out both our library cards, huh?” Adaine smirks and nudges him conspiratorially.
“I like the way you think Adaine.” Riz gives an identical grin back to her.
At the snowy bus stop bench, Riz wanders a few feet away to smoke. Adaine props open a book on her lap and wrinkles her nose at the smell.
“I know, I know, it's bad for me.”
“The smell just makes me gag.”
“Sorry.” He mutters.
She shrugs, “Not my lungs.”
“How longs the bus gonna be?” He shivers.
Adaine's eyes glow a bright blue as her hair starts to float, whipped around by an invisible wind, “Should be here in two…no five. Six. Eight minutes.”
“That’s the Elmville bus line for ya.”
“Divining the bus routes is almost as hard as divining Kalina was.” Adaine complains.
Riz chokes a sharp laugh at that, stomping out the cigarette once the bus arrives.
It’s a short ride from Gorgug’s to the small shopping center near the middle of Elmville. And the Irwings Fountain and Pharmacy was located a couple minutes walk from the bus stop, along with the Fantasy Staples nearby. The library was a bit of a trek from there, but Adaine's trusty scooter made it go by quicker.
They had to spell it to go over the snow, and spell it to stop so they didn't hit any snow banks. Riz doesn't hold on tight enough and gets flung off at one of the sudden stops and right into a snow pile.
Adaine can't help but laugh.
All in all, it's a decent rest of the day of doing errands. They head back to Irwings for some food, and take stock of all the things they are now laden with. About 20 books and things to research from the library, an entire fresh new corkboard, some red yarn for Riz and some more other colorful ones for Gorgug, Adaine's meds, various other office supplies for conspiracy boards, the leftover food from Irwings, and the completely necessary purchase of two neatly organized and cutely color coded stationary sets and mini calendar books, perfect for both scheduling and mystery solving.
“Wait. How are we going to carry all this stuff back?” Riz suddenly realizes. They don't have the hands for all this stuff, even with a couple mage hands helping out.
“You don't have your briefcase of holding?” Adaine says in shock, already in the process of filling out her own incredibly neat color coded stationery set.
“It's a…it’s a long story.” More of a very short one he doesn't feel like trying to explain. Baron.
“Gorgug has to be done by now right?” Adaine bites at her lip nervously.
“He has to be. He can't not be.” Riz insists.
Gorgug can in fact, not be. He's so busy he can't answer their calls.
“I mean, waiting for the bus isn't so terrible,” Riz attempts, then looks out the window, “if it wasn’t snowing so heavily.”
“Ugh, I do not want to fantasy Uber anywhere.” Adaine huffs, “I guess we could use the wizard synod…”
“If only I had….my car.” He can’t help but facepalm. His car. That he had left. Somewhere just on a road. Which road, he doesn't even know. “Adaine. I hate to ask, but can you divine something for me real quick?”
“Sure, what’s up?” She asks with a questioning look.
Riz glances out the window of Irwings, and in sight is the Super shopper whatever mart, “Nevermind I totally figured it out.”
“Okay?”
“You wait here with the stuff, and I'll grab the car. Might take a minute though.” He prepared to trek out into the snow, glad for all the layers he had.
“Here, don't catch a cold.” Adaine offers him her frog gloves, frog beanie, and powder blue knitted scarf. Boggy had his own little outfit of a knitted hat and scarf on as well.
“Thanks.” He takes them and sets out.
Snow compressing under his feet, muffling all sounds. It was beautiful, in the kind of way that snow when it's dark always is. The streetlights glow a soft yellow on it and Riz can't help but look in awe.
He looks back in the window, seeing Adaine sipping on a hot coco and writing in her new notebook. He can't help but look on in awe.
He pulls himself away, and trudges through the snow covered sidewalks and parking lots to the supermarket. Icy breaths coming out in clouds as it nearly burns his lungs more than any cigarettes have. He definitely forgot where he parked.
Clicking the button on the keys to set off the car alarm helps him find it quick enough. Getting the show and ice off the car is its own task, but luckily there's a scraper in the trunk. He finds himself grateful for his mom's forethought.
Once all the snow is cleared, he attempts to start it. It takes a few tries, but then finally the car starts. He goes slow and careful on the icy roads, back around to the other shopping center.
Adaine quickly gets in, powdery snow falling in heavy sheets now.
Then Riz sneezes.
Adaine rolls her eyes, “I thought I told you to not catch a cold.”
“I know,” he shrugs, “guess I should have listened.”
Adaine agrees.
He remembers his mom hating how difficult the snow and cold made things, but still loving the way it looked.
Riz can't help but look in awe.