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There's a boy sitting on a crate in the back end of the market.
He's got red eyes, pointed, scanning through the crowd as if just for the sake of observing them– he doesn't seem nervous, like he's lost a parent and is looking for them, but rather is just quiet, which makes Tonia worry more. He seems about Teucer’s age, and should be running around happily like he does.
She glances around, doesn't see anyone who looks like him, and makes her way through the crowd.
“Excuse me,” she says politely.
He looks up at her with guarded suspicion.
“Are you lost?”
The boy looks her over, staring specifically at her eyes and her hair, before glancing through the crowd again. From up close she can tell that he's cold, though trying to hide it, and wonders why his parents ever let him come outside without a coat.
“Are your parents around?”
“I believe my parents are dead,” he says.
It takes her a moment to process, because he says it so matter-of-factly. It's as if, emotionally speaking, he hasn't processed it either.
“I'm sorry,” Tonia says, backstepping to correct her blunder while still trying to help the boy. “Who brought you here today? Your sibling? An aunt and uncle?”
“Something like that,” he says. A distant relative then, maybe.
“Do they know you're waiting for them here?”
He shakes his head.
“Is there anywhere you're supposed to meet them?”
He looks at her again. He's got a real calculating look in his eyes, now, like he's trying to figure out if he knows her from somewhere. He doesn't, she would remember if she'd met a kid so striking, but perhaps he's run into one of her siblings at some point.
“I'm not supposed to tell strangers,” he says.
“Ah, yes, that's very wise. Say, though– is it anywhere near the town square? I'm headed there now. Would you like to walk with me?”
She'll take him to the station there. The officers will be able to try and find whoever it is he's staying with better than she can.
The kid looks again at the stalls around her, and all their hustle and bustle, and then gives her a tiny nod.
“Before we go–” she digs into her bag, she knows it's here somewhere– “you can borrow this.”
She at last pulls out a coat she just bought for Teucer. He won't mind that she let a stranger borrow it if she never tells him about it.
The boy looks at it blankly, like he doesn't know what to do, so she leans down and carefully pulls it on him. This, at least, he allows.
“Oh, and are you allowed to tell me your name? My name's Tonia.”
“Tonia?” He says, and blinks, and nods quite seriously. “My name is Zandik.”
“That's a lovely name, Zandik.”
He reaches out and takes her hand before hopping off the crate. He has a determined expression now, like he's on a mission.
She leads him out into the crowd, holding him close so he doesn't get lost. He doesn't fight her on this, perfectly content to stay at her side. Maybe he'd really liked the gift, or maybe he's just smart enough to know that this way is the safest.
“I have a brother about your age,” she says. “Do you have any siblings?”
“... The others are a bit like my brothers, I suppose.”
It's a strange answer, but he's hardly an ordinary kid. She assumes he means whoever it is he lives with– distant cousins, maybe– but children have a way of saying the strangest things that, though technically true, don't quite paint the clearest picture.
“I have lots of brothers and sisters,” she says. “I'm one of the younger ones, but I've got two little brothers.”
“You have an older brother too, right?”
“... Yes, I do. I've got three, actually.”
He smiles, like he's very pleased to have guessed right. It makes him look like a typical kid, and so she smiles back even though she's a little confused.
“I know Ajax,” he declares. “I saw one of his letters for you once, and helped him edit it. I don't think he wanted my help, though.”
“...Ajax, huh?”
She loves Ajax. He's her dear big brother, and she always looks forward to hearing from him, but Tonia isn't stupid. She knows he's in the Fatui, and high up, too.
So– it's a little worrying that Zandik knows him. The Fatui is no place for children, Ajax makes that abundantly clear, and now she wonders if there's a hole in his ethics for Zandik or if he's trying his best, in his own way, to protect him from the unsavory side of their work.
“Tonia?”
“Sorry, did I space out for a second there?”
Zandik nods, his eyes welling up like he's afraid he's said something wrong.
“My brother's nice, isn't he?” She says, allowing a smile to cross her face again.
“He gives me candy when he thinks no one is looking,” Zandik replies seriously.
Tonia laughs. That does sound like her brother. He really is looking out for this kid, then, as much as he can. She's sure of it.
“Oh!” Says Zandik. He starts running after something, dragging her along with him.
“Hey– wait–”
She looks up, and with some horror realizes he's headed for the Northland Bank. That would normally be fine, except for the fact that it happens to be surrounded by Fatui guards at the moment. She's so caught up in wondering how she's ever going to apologize for this that she hardly notices how the guards seem to part for them.
“Pantalone!” Zandik says excitedly.
Tonia raises her head, and with growing horror realizes that the Ninth of the Harbingers is looking down at her. She drops into the lowest curtsy she can.
“I'm so sorry sir, I found him by himself, I'm only trying to take him to the station–”
“By himself?” Pantalone says. She raises her head just enough to see his face, and finds that he's frowning. He glances towards a carriage that's been waiting for him just outside the bank’s front door. “Omega, did you leave him again?”
“He ran off,” says a gruff voice from inside the car.
Out of the corner of her eye, she catches a glimpse of who she manages to recognize as Dottore the Second Harbinger himself. She averts her eyes quickly, too afraid to say anything.
“They were slaughtering a goat, and I wanted to watch,” Zandik says cheerfully. It's incredible how children can stay cool in situations they don't yet know to fear. “I got a little lost afterwards. Childe's sister helped me.”
“His sister?” Pantalone asks. Hesitantly, she raises her head. Childe must be Ajax, and– Pantalone, apparently, knows him?
“She's very nice,” Zandik says. “She let me borrow this coat. You should, um, grant Childe's funding request. As thanks from me.”
“That would be thanks from me, Zandik,” says Pantalone, smiling, as he– reaches out and scoops Zandik up in his arms?
“You spoil him too much,” complains Dottore, who Tonia is still too afraid to look at directly. Zandik pouts.
Say– Zandik is being watched by the Fatui, isn't he– and Pantalone said he came here with Dottore– no, that couldn't possibly–
Tonia dares to glance at him out of the corner of her eye. He's got hair the same color as Zandik's.
He looks right at her. She quickly looks away. It's better if she doesn't know, though it leaves a bit of a dark mark on her conscience.
“Oh– I need to give her back her coat–”
“No need!” She says quickly. “I'll just buy another one, don't worry about it.”
Was that the wrong thing to say? She doesn't know. She's not quite an adult yet, how did she ever end up in the company of two Harbingers–
“I'll have another one sent to your address,” Pantalone says smoothly. “Consider it thanks for keeping the little one out of trouble.”
She nods mutely. Pantalone knows her address? No, he must mean he'll get it from someone. Surely that's it.
“Thank you for being nice to me, miss Tonia,” Zandik says, clinging on to the Ninth.
“Oh– it was no trouble at all, really,” she manages to say.
“You there,” Zandik says, pointing with authority at a nearby Fatuus– which does look a bit funny, coming from a kid, but she won't admit it now– “walk her to the train station.”
“Of course, young master,” they reply. “If lord Pantalone allows it?”
“Do as he wishes,” Pantalone says. “And Tonia, I'll see about that coat.”
He steps into the carriage as Zandik waves goodbye. She's still in a state of shock, she thinks, and nearly forgets to wave back.
She's quite glad she's finished with her shopping. She thinks she's ready to go home now.
And Zandik– she hopes at least one of those Harbingers treats him kindly. He seems like a sensitive child.