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Strictly speaking they cannot afford to waste any time, for a myriad of reasons – they have but a month until the eclipse and they need to infiltrate the Agnian prison before then, Moebius is right at their heels and will try to stop them at every turn, and Mio… Well, they do not have time.
They make a round through the city to shop for accessories to prepare for what lies ahead. Yet at a market stall, Taion raises his head from perusing a selection of amulets to see that Noah has stopped to talk to an old woman and realises too late what’s about to happen. He puts the amulet back down and comes up to Noah just in time to say, “I know you want to help, but aren’t we a little pressed for time?”
“I know,” Noah says. He closes his eyes for a brief moment. “I know. But Sametta here just told me she doesn’t have anyone available to watch her children while she goes on an errand for the Lost Numbers, and since they’re helping us…”
They do not have the time. It’s so blatantly obvious how this is a strategically bad move, that suddenly even voicing the statement seems like more than Taion has energy to spare for.
Noah looks at him, silently asking him to trust him on this, perhaps. To let him have this, maybe.
“It’d only be fair if we helped in turn, you mean?” Taion says.
Sena and Mio catch wind of their discussion just then, popping up behind them. “Did you find something, Noah?”
“Sametta needs help watching over her children,” Noah explains.
“Just for a couple of hours,” says the woman herself. “I need to run an errand for the Lost Numbers, since no one else was free to do it.”
They’ve come this far by helping people and sticking their noses in other people’s business the whole way. Taion doesn’t disagree with it – they’ve achieved a lot of good this way, and he knows how much helping people means to Noah and Mio. To see the people’s smiles, in all the different colonies…
“Do we really have time to be doing this, though?” Eunie points out, eventually.
“It won’t take long,” says Mio. And perhaps because it’s Mio (running out of time-), everyone finally agrees.
Sametta shows them to her house and introduces them to her children. Two girls, one boy. Taion can’t guess at their ages – it’s still almost hard to believe that people who look as young and small as those children might very well have lived five whole years already. Taion doesn’t have any references yet for Cityfolk’s ages. Why is he even wondering about it, really? It’s not important, not this, but he just can’t stop thinking about time – a couple of hours, Sametta had said, but what if her errand drags on? They cannot afford to waste any time-
“Mr Taion?”
He looks at who had spoken – the boy, Quinn.
This isn’t the time for overthinking, Taion reprimands himself. “Yes?”
“Um…” the boy fiddles with them hem of his shirt. “I was just wondering… if you’d like to look at my drawings?”
“Drawings?”
And Quinn takes him to the room he shares with his sisters and makes Taion sit down on his bed, digging in a cupboard for a box which he then opens to reveal hand-drawn pictures. It’s not such a strange concept, if Taion begins to consider it – the colonies sometimes have to make use of hand-drawn maps, so drawing things just for fun wouldn’t be such a hard leap for Cityfolk to make, but…
“You made these?”
“Yeah.” Quinn looks away, as if embarrassed or self-conscious. “They’re not very good, but I…”
“No, these are brilliant,” Taion says. And finds he means it with absolute sincerity, pure uncomplicated wonder. “Drawings… I’d never even thought of doing anything like this.”
Some of them depict views from the City, but some of them are of things Taion has never seen before, monsters and places he wonders how Quinn could possibly have known to draw. And that he made these – created something on his own…
“You like them? Really?” Quinn asks and finally comes over to Taion. They both look at the drawing Taion is currently holding – of a curious beast, huge and patterned in every colour Taion can name – and then Quinn starts to explain what the drawing depicts, eagerly staring to go through all of the drawings.
It’s fascinating. It’s…
That people in the City have so many choices, so many opportunities, they’ve thought of things the people in the colonies would’ve never even dreamt of – that realisation keeps hitting Taion, again and again, but the children… those are the things that most remind him of that.
It’s almost strange – a week ago Taion didn’t even know of children as a concept, but in the now he would do anything to protect the children of the City. The soldiers were meant to instinctively want to protect their colonies, to kill to do that – but this isn’t that. That tiny hand that had grasped his in the hospital… Taion hadn’t ever felt any emotion like the one he did then. He’ll keep it forever in his heart. That indescribable emotion… he wants to protect these little people, this way of life they have – but not only that, he wants to know more about it, he wants to help nurture it, he wants to-
He’s not sure what he wants, but listening to Quinn, Taion knows it’s important. More important than almost anything.
When they learnt about how the people in the City lived, they all felt desperately envious. Taion knows they all did, even though no one really said it. And now Taion feels envious again – of Sametta, somehow, though he can’t explain it.
To spend your time protecting children, teaching them and watching them grow up and – raising them, all of what that entails. It must be…
Quinn grins at him. “Thanks for listening to me, Mr Taion! My sisters never wanna hear about my drawings.”
“It… was a very enlightening experience.” Taion isn’t exactly sure of what to say, but surely he can’t go wrong with, “Thank you for showing me.”
“Heh. You’re weird,” says Quinn. “But really nice for a grown-up!”
Taion can’t remember when he last felt more honoured to receive a compliment.