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On short autumn days, the afternoon subsides quietly and orange rays bleed through the windows of the small Guildbranch that Cecilia manages. “Manages” is somewhat of an understatement since she pretty much serves as the attendant, the wardnurse, the coinkeeper and, of course, the guildmarm. A normal person would have crumbled over the responsibility of taking up so many tasks, but automatons were made for such things, and Cecilia just happens to be the perfect fit.
The town she is assigned in isn’t that big, so to speak. Adventurers occasionally pass by, but hardly decide to call it their home. So she waits at the front desk for the next adventurer to come by the Guildbranch, drinking tea and pouring over a book. Whether said adventurers show up eager for the next task or are incapacitated from said tasks will be her own adventure for the day.
This afternoon is a bit different, however. The sound of wagon wheels and horseshoes clopping over cobblestone notifies Cecilia that the supply shipment from the Guildquarters arrived. She stands up from the front desk and dusts her sleeves to meet the courier.
“Hiya Cece!” Raora goes through the Guildbranch doors while effortlessly carrying a small crate of supplies.
“Raora! Long time no see! Let me help you with that!”
“Oh, no, no! I got this!” Raora takes the crate and places it on the front desk. “This’ll get you through the next month.”
“I see,” Cecilia adjusts her glasses and examines the contents; whereas the crate would normally be full of supplies, this month, the crate is only halfway full. “So it’s true that they’re cutting our supplies this month.”
“Yeah, sorry Cece. The other Guildbranches are getting a lot of business right now so we gotta cut back for this month.” Raora sighs in shared disappointment. “Maybe Guildmaster Liz will make it up to you next month?”
“Hopefully, but I think we’ll get by with what we have. Care for some drinks and biscuits though?”
“Oh, no, sorry Cece! Gotta go to the next Guildbranch soon!” Raora clasps her hands in apology. “Next month! I promise!”
“It’s okay! No need to apologize! Thanks for the supplies!”
Cecilia sighs as Raora exits the Guildbranch. Returning to the front desk, she takes another look at the supplies: just enough salve to maybe heal some adventurers for three weeks–if they’re lucky, just enough tea to last her for the month–assuming she skips a few days here and there, and maybe just enough parchment and ink for the month–not that it matters with how infrequent adventurers are becoming. The lack of maintenance supplies looks troubling, but Cecilia figures that she spends most of her days indoors anyway so it shouldn’t be a problem for the month.
The lack of tea is an utmost travesty, but she tries to calculate how she can extend the salve. Maybe some days, she can use salve for minor injuries and only use healing magic on dire circumstances like broken bones. She starts becoming frustrated; all this thinking is making her exert more energy than necessary, and the warmth of the Guildbranch isn’t helping.
She feels tired. Perhaps if she just sits down and close her eyes, processing all of this information will become easier…
Cecilia hears clicking and feels a tug on her head. All of a sudden her mechanisms spring to life. She blinks and adjusts her gold rimmed glasses, realizing that she must have fallen asleep at the front desk. It is wholly uncharacteristic and unbecoming of her, so she sits up straight and comes face to face with a familiar troublemaking mage-summoner and her bird familiar.
“Afternoon, Cece!” Gigi, smiles from across the front desk. She holds her mage staff behind her horizontally as she sways from side to side. “Sleeping on the job?”
“N-no, I mean, I didn’t mean to.” Cecilia shakes her head and rubs the sleep from her eyes. “Just forgot to ask someone to wind me up. Ugh. Should’ve asked Raora earlier.”
“All good, I’m used to winding you up all the time anyway!” Gigi has that smile that Cecilia recognizes. The kind that’s about to ask for a favor, especially since she just helped her wind up.
“So, Gigi Murin, famed adventure of this part of the woods. Masterful mage-summoner, how may I be of service?”
“Can I get some heals, please?” Gigi, braid and pigtails and all, holds up her gashed and bloodied left hand. Like a puppet, her bird familiar mimics her movements.
Cecilia sighs as she updates the amount of salves that will be needed for the month.
“Come on. Let's get you to the ward.”
“You really need to stop getting yourself in trouble.” Cecilia mutters as she wraps Gigi’s arm and hand in gauze. “Especially this month. We’ll run out of supplies at your usual rate.”
“Hey, it’s not my fault my party can’t keep up!” Gigi protests. Popo, her bird familiar, nods with her. “Everyone’s so slow and I’m trying to finish the mission as quickly as possible!”
“And that’s why, eventually, no one will want to work with you.” Cecilia does the finishing touches on Gigi’s arm. “You really need to work as a team with your party, you know that?”
Gigi pouts. “Right, right. I’ll keep it in mind next time.”
“Promise me, Gigi. For the sake of the guild’s supplies. And for my sanity’s sake too, please?”
“I promise!” Gigi smiles, showing off her prominent canines and Cecilia smiles back.
As much of a trouble maker Gigi is, Cecilia’s grown fond of her. The two developed their own strange routine: Cecilia finding herself tired and in need of winding up in the afternoon, Gigi helping her wind up and Cecilia returning the favor by either treating Gigi’s ever growing list of injuries, or giving her advice on the next guild mission. Her presence, Cecilia notes, may be obnoxious but is more often a much needed distraction from guild worries.
“So you’re short with supplies this month, huh?”
“Yeah. This Guildbranch is too small and the bigger Guildbranches have been busier, apparently. So, they need it more than we do”
“Oof that sucks.”
“If only I let them know that I've been having my hands constantly full with such a troublesome mage-summoner and her–” Cecilia glances at Popo. “Bird.”
“Popo’s a rare flying kakapo, not just any bird!” Gigi snaps as she puts on her white mantle. Popo nods his head in silent agreement and even floats for a bit just to prove Gigi’s point.
“Fine! I’m sorry, Popo. At least you’re a lot cuter than your master.” Cecilia gives the flying kakapo apology pets. Popo responds with a quick chirp and sits on Cecilia’s lap, expectant of more pets.
“Hey! I’m right here!” Gigi barks as she hesitantly tries to put on a glove on her injured hand.
“Don’t even think about it!” Cecilia grabs Gigi’s glove despite her whiny protestations. “Get some rest and heal up, Gigi! I don’t want you going back here with another injury.”
Gigi pouts for a bit but suddenly breaks into a smile. Dread instinctively welled up from Cecilia.
“Well, since I’m not going anywhere, I guess I’ll hang here at the Guildbranch.” Gigi shrugs and does her pretend disappointed voice, much to Cecilia’s utmost annoyance. “You know, like what adventurers do!”
The Guildmarm rolls her eyes and groans.
On cold autumn days, when the days are shorter, Cecilia likes to watch the sun set while having tea at the front desk. The stove at the corner of the hall crackles with fire, providing just the right amount of warmth.
Despite Gigi being a thorn on her side, Cecilia doesn’t mind her being a constant fixture. She likes to sit at the table by the window, usually playing with Popo or her grem summons. Today, it looks like she’s feeding them something; it looks like little pellets on her hand and the grems are happily munching it.
“Hey isn’t it weird that you’re feeding your summons? I mean, they don’t need to eat or anything.” Cecilia absentmindedly says.
Gigi, concentrating on feeding her grems, doesn’t look up. “You’re one to say that. It’s not like automatons need to eat or drink tea to survive.”
“Point taken.” Cecilia smiles as she feels her teacup. She takes a sip and lets the aroma and warmth pervade throughout her. “Staying here for the night?”
Gigi nods, still fixating on feeding her grems. It’s not the first time Gigi stayed over at the Guildbranch overnight. After all, Cecilia never needs to sleep (for the most part, as long as she’s wound up), so an occasional adventurer will stay over. Gigi just happens to be her most frequent boarder.
So Cecilia does her usual; she brews tea and heats up biscuits. It’s not much, especially with the scarcity of supplies, but it’s better than nothing. She walks over to Gigi, steaming cup of tea in one hand and plate of warm biscuits in the other and places them on the table.
“Alright, time for your supper.” Cecilia pulls up a chair closer to Gigi’s table and takes a seat.
“What? You don’t have to! You said you’re low on supplies.”
“I can survive without tea and biscuits, as much as I hate to admit it.” Cecilia smiles. “But you need the energy to heal up.”
Gigi hesitates for a second. “I’ll take it as long as the grems get a share.”
At night, shadows in the Guildbranch overwhelm the candlelight. To Cecilia, however, the only candlelight that matters is the one beside her so she can continue reading her book. She hasn’t moved from the table with Gigi since the afternoon, but she doesn’t mind.
The stove continues to crackle and their tea cups have been empty for some time now. The grems devoured whatever leftover biscuits Gigi had and not a single crumb remains. Popo is asleep on the table, blowing whistles from his tiny beak. Likewise, Gigi has her head on the table, resting on her uninjured hand. She studies the flickering embers coming from the stove, animating the shadows on the floor.
“Hey Cece, are they going to close this Guildbranch?” She startles Cecilia with her question.
“I don’t know. I don’t think so?” Cecilia composes herself and lowers her book. “Are you worried because of the supply issues? I think that’s temporary. I don’t think that should affect us in the long term.”
“I see…” Gigi replies in a whisper.
There are a few seconds of silence mingled with the crackling of burning wood before Gigi speaks again.
“But if they do close this Guildbranch, where would you go?”
“Hm, that’s a good question.” Cecilia hums as her windup key turns a quarter rotation. “Maybe they’ll send me back to Guildquarters, or maybe to another Guildbranch?”
“I see…”
“What about you? Shouldn’t you be moving on like the other adventurers?” Cecilia looks up and follows Gigi’s gaze to the floor below, where the shadows danced. “You have talent to do well in more complicated missions in other towns, but you’ve stayed here for so long.”
“I don’t know. I kinda like it here. I like y… I–”
“You can always come back anytime! It’s just a shame to see your talents go to waste.”
“You think so?”
Cecilia hums in affirmation. “Positive. Who else here can handle being a mage and being a summoner? You’re destined for greatness, Gigi!”
“Th-thanks. You didn’t have to say it like that.” Gigi hides her face with her bandaged hand. “Thanks, Cece.”
“You’re welcome, Gigi.” Cecilia returns to her book.
It only takes a few minutes before she can hear Gigi’s soft breaths; the mage-summoner having succumbed to sleep. So she goes and takes a blanket from behind the front desk, and much like all the nights where Gigi stayed over, drapes it over her shoulders.
“Good night, Gigi.”
Cecilia smiles and gently pats her head. She then returns to her seat to wait the night away with her book.
Cecilia wakes up and realizes that there’s something wrong. When her eyes finally come into focus, she is greeted by Gigi’s concerned face. She shakes her head, rubs her eyes and adjusts her glasses.
“Wh-what happened?” Cecilia’s shoulders feel heavy and it takes a moment before she regains feeling in her legs. “Did I… did I fall asleep again?”
“I don’t know what happened, Cece!” High pitched desperation tinges Gigi’s voice. Her genuine concern is alarming. “I woke up and I saw you were asleep, so I wound you up again. Oh, I’m so glad you woke up! I thought something bad happened!”
“That’s… that’s strange… you wound me up yesterday. I should’ve been fine for at least a week…” Cecilia slurs her words as the weight of sleep continues to weigh on her. “I’ll… I’ll go talk to the machinist. I’m sure it’s….”
Cecilia doesn’t finish her sentence before everything goes black again.
The wooden ceiling of the Guildbranch ward stares back at Cecilia when she wakes again. She blinks before remembering her current situation at which point, she feels a sudden rush of energy.
“Gigi!” She sits up from the ward bed, her mechanisms loudly whirring and clicking underneath her porcelain skin.
“Cece, I’m here.” A weak voice replies.
It’s Gigi, sitting next to Cecilia’s bed. Her usual bright and cheerful face is marred with concern as she holds on to Cecilia’s hand.
“What… what happened? I fell asleep again?” Cecilia can feel her mechanisms settle and slow down. “How?”
“One of your parts broke, actually.” Another voice from the other side of the bed chimed in. Amelia, the local machinist, holds up a gear in her hand. It gleams a burnished silvery blue; smooth and iridescent, except for the gear teeth, which are all worn away into small nubs. “Your ratchet wheel to be precise. It’s the one that’s supposed to direct power from your core to the rest of your body.”
Cecilia stares at the gear, dumbfounded by the fact that it only took a tiny chunk of metal to put her out of commission. “That’s it? That’s what’s giving me problems?”
“Sort of,” Amelia leans forward, smiling but with a hint of concern. “Your gears are made of a special metal, azurite, that helps conduct your core. I replaced your ratchet wheel with one that’s made up of iron for now, but until you get a new one, your core might be expending more energy than it needs to compensate and–”
“And that means?” Gigi interjects before Amelia could finish.
“Gigi, please.” Despite projecting a calmness, Cecilia is just as worried as Gigi. “Please let her finish.”
Cecilia nods at Amelia, who nods back in return.
“That means that until you get a proper ratchet wheel, you might end up… expending the entirety of your core’s energy…” Amelia’s voice trails off.
“N-no way…” Gigi stammers. “Th-There has to be a way. We can contact the Guild for supplies. It’s an emergency!”
“Gigi, it’s fine. I’ll just take it easy so I don’t use up too much energy. I’m sure Raora will be back next month with maintenance supplies.”
Cecilia’s attempt to placate Gigi fails. She can hardly feel sensation in her extremities at the moment but seeing Gigi’s hand shake must mean that she’s gripping her hand tightly. Her mind races as she tries to find a way to distract Gigi.
“Gigi, I need you to close up the Guildbranch up front and get my notebook, please.”
The mage-summoner nods and quickly rushes off, her shoes stomping loudly against the wooden floors. When her footsteps fade into the distance, Cecilia leans close to Amelia.
“How long do I have left?”
“About two weeks at most. Do you think your Guild can send in the parts before then?”
Cecilia sighs and slumps against the bed’s headboard. “I don’t know. We barely got supplies for the month. I doubt it.”
Amelia spins the ratchet wheel in her hand, deep in thought. “You know, there’s a dungeon nearby that has the azurite that you need. If we can have just enough, we can use leftover metal with your ratchet wheel and smith you a new one.”
“I know which one you’re talking about. The one that the adventurers here don’t want to enter because the monsters are too dangerous.”
“You’re not going to try, at least? Gigi can probably do something about it.”
“Gigi’s hurt. She recently got injured. She can’t hold her staff properly and she’ll just end up getting even more hurt, or worse.” Cecilia sighs and looks at Amelia with pleading eyes. “Please don’t tell her about it, Ame. I don’t want her getting hurt for my sake.”
Amelia agrees quietly.
Tea used to mean so much more. Today, Cecilia tries her best to enjoy the subtleties of her favorite drink, but only tastes warm and bland. Maybe it’s that singular iron gear inside of her that’s preventing her taste from reaching her core, or maybe it’s her trying to come to terms with her existence coming to an end. She sits at the front desk, trying to find the mundane that she’s come accustomed to. All the books that she planned to read lay at the wayside, organized alphabetically according to the author in crates. She hopes that someone can take them and read them and love them like she does.
Maybe Gigi can. She’ll hate her though. She can already imagine Gigi’s face, eyes red and puffy with tears.
“Oh, Gigi. I’m so, so sorry…”
The afternoon shadows grow long and stark and the Guildbranch stays quiet. Her usual mage-summoner companion is eerily absent and her stomach sinks with suspicion. She hopes that what she’s thinking isn’t true.
“Gigi!” Cecilia hops off her seat and storms out of the Guilldbranch. “Gigi you idiot! You stupid idiot!”
Amelia is the first person to come into her mind. She sprints, the danger of overexertion no longer worries her. Eventually she reaches the machinist’s workshop and bursts through her door.
“Ame! Gigi’s missing! I think… I think she went to that dungeon!”
“Cece?” Amelia, currently working on a project in her workbench, looks up in bewilderment. “Shouldn’t you be resting? And what’s that about Gigi?”
“Gigi… she must’ve heard us talking about the dungeon! She usually comes to visit me at the Guildbranch but she didn’t show up today!”
Amelia bites her lip. “I’ll try to see if I can find help. Stay still for now.”
“No, I need to go! I’ll try to find her!”
“Cece, you’ll both get yourselves killed!”
Cecilia doesn’t hear Amelia anymore. She turns and bolts out of the workshop and runs towards the dungeon.
Maybe it’s that singular iron gear inside of her, or maybe it’s the overwhelming emotions. Whatever it is, Cecilia can’t feel pain nor fatigue as she races out of town and to the dungeon. She tries to formulate a plan on how to tackle the dungeon by herself, or at least know the best path that Gigi would’ve taken. Spells and optimal pathways flash in her mind but they evaporate instantly. Instead, visions of Gigi being hurt overwhelm her thoughts.
So she runs until she hears cracks on her porcelain legs, until the coils on her ankle unwound and until her gears burn. She rushes through the entrance of the dungeon, finally finding a moment of clarity in her mind, casting spells without inhibition. She feels every fireball and every thunderbolt eroding at her being. Flashes of monsters and beasts come at her periphery but are instantly obliterated.
It doesn't take long until she finds Gigi’s staff. A bloody trail leads away from it and Cecilia feels the air leave her. Still, she doesn't hesitate despite her ankle coming undone, despite the deepening cracks running up her legs, despite the shortening breath as she expends every last bit of her soul to cast spells. She keeps running.
“Gigi!” Her voice resounds in tremolo against the damp walls. “Gigi, where are you?”
In the distance, she hears a faint cry and she feels her gears stop.
“Cece! I’m here!”
She finds Gigi at the end of a corridor, holding on to an incapacitated Popo while being surrounded by several monsters. The bandages on her injured arm run red but otherwise she doesn't seem gravely injured.
“Close your eyes and put your head down Gigi!” Cecilia’s voice cracks as she yells as hard she can.
The monsters turn with snarling maws at the sound of Cecilia’s voice. Rows of teeth bare as the onslaught rush at her.
She only has a single spell left in mind and she knows it just might cost her everything, but if it’s for Gigi…
She raises her gloved hand and feels all the heat in her chest leave her. Magic concentrates above her head and a flash of light illuminates the corridor. It startles the monsters, stopping them in their tracks, but it's too late for them.
Cecilia chants a final incantation and feels something inside her break. Her glasses shatter and her vision blurs, but not before unleashing her spell.
Embers dance and heat floods the corridor and then everything goes dark.
The first thing that Cecilia sees when she wakes up are a pair of beady kakapo eyes. Popo blinks and then quickly hops off Cecilia’s chest, allowing the automaton Guildmarm to sit up from the ward bed. Her windup key clicks louder than usual and her gears rattle, but somehow she feels sensation in her extremities again.
She curls her fingers and looks at her arms and legs; the porcelain plating is cracked and scorched but still attached to her. She touches her cheeks; her face appears to be intact.
“I… I’m alive?” She gasps out loud as if to prove to herself that she hasn’t ceased function yet.
Popo jumps on her lap and whistles happily, which catches the attention of the blond machinist who happens to be passing by the ward door.
“Cece!” Amelia quickly but quietly rushes in. “Oh, thank goodness you’re awake!”
“Ame! Wh-What happ–how?” A deluge of questions floods out of Cecilia’s mind but they all come out in stammers. It takes a few more garbled words before she manages to spit out a coherent sentence. “Gigi! Where’s Gigi?!”
Amelia smiles and puts a finger to her lips and points to the side of the bed. There’s a mysterious bump that Cecilia failed to notice, perhaps due to her being disoriented from just waking. Amelia pulls away the blanket covering the bump to reveal a sleeping Gigi. The mage-summoner has bandages wrapped around her arms and legs and there are some scratches on her face but she appears to be healthy and sleeping soundly.
“She’s been staying with you since I repaired you about a week ago.” Amelia places the blanket back up to Gigi’s shoulders.
“Oh, Gigi…” Cecilia sighs and pats Gigi’s head. The mage-summoner appears deep in slumber and doesn’t so much as stir from Cecilia’s touch.
“So, for the details,” Amelia begins as she pulls over a chair closer to the bed. “I did manage to round up some adventurers and we went through the dungeon after you. I think you got through most of the monsters anyway so all we did was clean up your mess.”
“I see… I’m sorry for putting you through so much trouble.”
“No, no it’s fine. Made the job a whole lot easier. We got to you, and fortunately Gigi was barely keeping your core intact with her magic. After that, we stabilized your core and managed to get enough azurite to make you a new ratchet wheel!”
Cecilia puts her hand to her chest. Despite the noisiness of her wind up key and the small, irregular vibrations in her extremities, the inner movement in her chest feels a lot smoother. “Thank you, Ame. I really owe you one.”
“Don’t mention it. Well, that’s the good news anyway.” Amelia’s gaze follows the fissures and canyons that line Cecilia’s arms and legs. “The bad news is that we can’t repair your outer plating, so you probably need to ask your guild for that.”
Cecilia nods. “That shouldn’t be much of a problem. I really am in your debt.”
Amelia gives another reassuring smile although Cecilia can sense a bit of mischief lurking underneath.
“Well, maybe I’ll speak to the Guildmaster Liz about… compensation.”
Amelia’s smile widens into a grin.
When extortions disguised as negotiations are finished, Amelia leaves the ward with a wave. She promises to help handle Guildbranch matters for now until Cecilia gets sufficient repairs. Until then, Cecilia is bedridden.
She falls back, sinks into her pillow and breathes out the longest sigh of relief. Popo follows her and sits in between Cecilia’s head and the bed’s headboard, cooing quietly. She turns to her side, facing the troublemaker mage-summoner. She feels her gears slow down and her chest releases tension.
“You idiot. I was so worried.” Cecilia whispers, pinching Gigi’s cheek lightly. “But I’m glad you’re safe. And thank you for saving me, Gigi.”
“You’re welcome!”
Gigi blinks and cracks a wide grin.
Cecilia blinks and instantly scowls.
“How long were you awake?”
“Just for a little bit. Not too long ago.” Gigi tries to stifle a giggle but it comes out like staggered breaths.
Cecilia quickly turns to her other side and pulls up her blanket over her head. She hopes that Gigi didn’t see her get flustered for a second, or at least maybe her face is damaged enough that she wasn’t showing any emotions. She wants to mope a bit more, just to tease Gigi but that changes when she hears sniffles coming from the mage-summoner.
“I’m so sorry, Cece.” Gigi’s voice is muffled, cracking. “I’m sorry I made you worry and I’m sorry I went down there without telling you. I’m so, so sorry.”
She wants more apologies, especially with how upset she was with Gigi. She wants an apology for every chipped or broken part in her body and she wants Gigi to recite every single one of them in a litany of fractured mechanisms.
But truthfully, she doesn’t want any more. She just wants to go back to being ever so slightly annoyed by Gigi while simultaneously captivated by her presence. She’s just glad Gigi is safe and admittedly, she never stays upset with her for too long anyway. Cecilia pulls aside the blanket and turns to Gigi whose eyes are reddened from tears.
Cecilia sighs, feeling a bit of ache in her chest at the sorry sight. She puts her arms around Gigi and holds her close. She’s warm. Cecilia is eternally grateful that she can feel sensation again because at that moment, she realizes that Gigi’s warmth is the thing she never knew she wanted the most.
“Apology accepted.” She presses her lips on Gigi’s forehead. “Get some rest, Gigi.”
Gigi’s eyes are wide with surprise.
Raora walks through the Guildbranch door with a crate full of supplies and is surprised to encounter an empty front desk. Cecilia always prided herself on her punctuality and the fact that there’s an empty front desk was cause for some worry. She lets out a grunt as she eases on dropping the supplies on the floor and rings the bell on the front desk.
From the distance, she hears small footsteps increasing in volume as they make their way from the ward all the way to the main hall.
“Hi Ce-!” Raora stops her greeting before a sudden gasp could escape her throat. “Oh, Cece! I heard what happened to you was bad but I couldn’t imagine it looking this horrible!”
Cecilia, whose porcelain plating is lined with cracks, greets Raora back.
“It’s fine. Just surface damage. Anyway, did Guildmaster Liz send her reply?”
“Right here, actually!” Raora retrieves an envelope from her satchel. “She sounded very serious. What did you write to her about?”
Cecilia takes the envelope and breaks the seal. Her eyes dart back and forth as she reads the missive but after that, she smiles and folds the paper and places it on the front desk.
“So…?” Raora, ever so curious, tries to pry an explanation from the automaton.
“Looks like Liz accepted my letter of resignation!”
“Your what?!”
“My letter of resignation?”
“What? Can automatons even resign?”
Cecilia leans on the desk, rummaging for some parchment and quills for the journey ahead. “That’s what I wanted to find out, which is why I wrote to Liz about it.”
Raora is still in disbelief. “What… what are you going to do now? What’s going to happen to this Guildbranch?”
“I don’t know. Maybe they’ll close it. I guess that means the adventurers here would have to move on somewhere else. As for me…”
Cecilia hums as she puts a finger to her chin, pretending to be pensive.
“Maybe an adventure?”
On an early spring morning, when the clouds hang low and the cold of the wind cuts through coats, Gigi stands in front of a dungeon entrance, leaning on her staff. Popo is perched on her shoulder, shivering slightly.
“She’s late. On her first dungeon dive, too.” Gigi groans and Popo emulates the groan. “Maybe she’s--oh there you are!”
As if summoning her, Cecilia with her green scarf trailing behind her and a fresh set of outer plating, comes rushing towards Gigi.
“Sorry I’m late! I had to do some last minute preparations.” She gasps in between sentences to catch her breath.
Gigi crosses her arms and looks unimpressed. “Popo was getting impatient and we were thinking about leaving you behind!” The kakapo coos in agreement.
“Hey! I wanted to be sure we’re really ready for this!” Cecilia huffs, her wind up key rotating faster. “And if you really wanted to, why didn’t you go ahead?”
The mage-summoner smiles. “That’s because I have something for you. Consider it an extended apology gift.” Gigi pulls her satchel from behind her and grabs something from within.
Cecilia sees a glint of gold and a pair of round frames. It’s her glasses. She remembers them breaking during her attempt to rescue Gigi but hasn't seen them since. She figures that since she has perfect vision and that the glasses were only there because she liked wearing them, she didn’t need them anymore. Nevertheless, the sight of them caused a stir within her.
“Oh, Gigi. You didn’t have to. I don’t need glasses to see anyway.”
“No, you have to wear them! You look weird without them!”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Cecilia chuckles as she takes her glasses from Gigi. She puts them on and blinks, adjusting them so that they fit perfectly on the bridge of her nose.
“You look good with them is what I mean.”
Before Cecilia can make a snarky reply, she feels something warm and soft brush against her lips. It doesn’t linger for too long, just enough to catch Cecilia off guard as Gigi retreats and turns around. Cecilia doubts that it ever happened if it weren’t for the fading warmth on her lips.
“Hey! What was that for?” Cecilia manages to compose herself but her voice shakes.
“A good luck kiss! It’s your first dungeon dive after all!” She doesn’t look back. “When we’re done, you can have another one!”
Gigi breaks into a sprint with Popo holding on to her mantle. Her giggles echo as she disappears into the dungeon entrance.
“Gigi! Wait!” Cecilia follows, hopeful that Gigi will keep her promise.