Title: I know what I am doing Characters: Zoissette Vauban Rating: Teen Summary: No she does not Notes: None
Zoissette looked up at the training dummy.
It loomed over her, all arms and weapons and shields and intimidation.
She tightened the little wooden shield around her arm, and brought her little wooden sword up as she dropped into ready stance, and took several deep breaths.
"I know what I'm doing, I know what I'm doing, I know what I am doing" she told herself quietly, before setting the armature spinning into motion.
She lasted just about six seconds. She knew that, because her chronometer's mainspring had been flung free when she had been knocked solidly against the wall.
She shook her head free, and looked towards the door to the training room, and froze.
If anyone in the manor heard, mother or father or otherwise, there was no indication they were coming, and she relaxed a little.
Well.
It was a start.
-*-
She was learning magic for the first time, and it was very exciting.
Even if her Miqo'te instructor was, she was pretty sure, younger than herself. And possibly had one of the -sharpest- tongues she had ever encountered.
Still, though. There was a logic to be followed, both for the magic itself and her instructor, and she found herself enjoying the new rules.
However, eventually, she must exceeded the Miqo'te's patience, as her would-be teacher put her hands on her hips, and folded back her ears as she frowned.
"Do they teach you nothing at all in Ishgard? How do you not know what you are doing!?" she asked, exasperated.
"Since they did teach me nothing, why would I know what I was doing?" she asked in return.
The other girl frowned, and turned her back, arms crossed, and did not respond.
"...I wish you would not assume what I know," she eventually said, quietly, and a bit miserably. "I wish everyone would stop assuming what I know. I - I'm not - I am not dumb. I promise."
She took a deep breath, and let it out slow. Her instructor did have a logic to her, and she tried to appeal to it now.
"I would like to try again, but perhaps slower. Let me ask my questions. I am not trying to annoy you, I promise. I am just trying to figure out what it is that I do not know. Things that I think you take for granted. After all, I'm not - I am not - from Sharlayan. But I am curious. Just curious. That is all."
The Miqo'te girl looked over her shoulder at her, and she gave her her best smile in return. Sharp though the Miqo'te may be, she had entertained her thus far, and deep down, she liked her. She was smart, and she had given the Ishgardian more time than any other in Sharlayan. More time than she perhaps deserved.
The tail on the Miqo'te swished back and forth, and with a beleaguered sigh, she turned around.
"...how could I say no to such an earnest request?" she said.
-*-
She looked at herself in the mirror.
She straightened the lapels on her jacket, and lifted her head slightly to adjust her collar. She ran a hand down her pants legs, smoothing them out. She was too tall, and her outfit made her look even taller, but she no longer cared.
She heard one of the handmaidens knock at the door at let herself in, and judging from the gasp, it was Rose. She turned, and regarded her cooly.
"Oh, Halone, blessings be upon me, dearie, where is your dress!? You -absolutely- cannot go to a formal ball dressed like- dressed like-!"
Rose was turning some amusing colors, and Zoissette smiled at her wanly as she strode right past the woman.
"I know precisely what I am doing," she said.
After all, the idea of her finding romance - or even as little as a practical sort of husband - was laughable, now.
She might as well make a statement before she went to join the guard.
And besides, the lines suited her frame better, she thought.
-*-
Her mother met her. Too late for both of them. Too late for her mother to stop her. Too late for her to care.
Her mother's eyes narrowed ever-so-slightly as she saw her daughter, and she drew herself up, and raised her chin slightly.
Probably just because Zoissette was the taller of the two, and had been for some time.
"Why, daughter?" she asked. Even when she was quiet, her voice still held power.
Zoissette frowned at her.
"It was the right thing to do," she said. "And this way, the name of House Vauban is preserved. One stain on our name, one name lost to scrub it away. Clean."
Lady Vauban's brow furrowed, and Zoissette met it evenly. But only for a moment.
She had much to do before fully embracing her new life as an exile, and the sooner this conversation was over, the sooner she could get to it.
"You should have reached out to me. Our House has allies. I have friends. There are people I know. What you did was unnecessary. I could have -"
"Could have what, mother? Lied to the Inquisition? Or perhaps covered up the crime? Jonys is a heretic, now. And the last place he was at was the fort. My command. The command you bid me take over. So now, I have done the right thing. I have taken responsibility."
She took a deep breath in, and let it out slow.
Her mother just shook her head, and Zoissette thought she could see the faint gleam of tears in her eyes.
"The son was lost. That is my responsibility. But to lose the daughter at the same time. I ask you again. Why."
Zoissette looked at her flatly, and did not feel like explaining. It was obvious to her. The family would live on. The Inquisition would question them, but would not condemn them, for judgement had already been passed. They would be protected by Zoissette's actions.
"I know what I am doing," she said firmly, before turning away.
Truthfully, her family would be better off without her anyroad.
-*-
The Assessor's office had been her home for many moons.
They had taken her in, and either did not know or did not care for her history. At first, she had thought it the former. After a while, she knew it was the latter, sort of.
Limsa Lominsa was full of many colorful characters, after all, and if you could not shed an unwanted past in a city of pirates, then where would you be able to at all? Second chances where available, for those who wanted them.
And she had made the most of it. She had been a rising star at the Assessor's Office, diligent and dutiful. The zealot from the North, a slave to rules. But once she had started solving the puzzles of them for herself, she found a way to be flexible in a way she found acceptable, and the others warmed to her.
Her questioning nature had been to her advantage as well. She had been in more than a few scrapes, to be sure, and despite her straight-laced ways, she found ways to get into more trouble than many at the office. However, her investigations had earned the Assessor's Office a fair bit of take from those who had gotten used to skirting the rules, had revealed a smuggling ring, found no small amount of missing goods, broken the back of a slaver's market, and, most recently, had solved a missing person's case that had put the city on edge.
That last is what had pushed her over. She had gathered the attention of members of a few organizations who thought she may be a useful ally, and had even made the notice of the Admiral herself.
Thubyrgeim met her at the sign-in board on her way out. The acting guildmaster looked her up and down, and sized her up.
Probably for the last time.
She stood a little straighter for it.
"You certain, then?" Thubyrgeim asked.
It was a good question. The Assessor's Office had been the first place in long memory where she had felt that she had a chance at belonging.
But in that same long memory, this felt like the first opportunity she had to perhaps really make herself useful in a way that made the world better.
"I know what I am doing," she said.
Thubyrgeim smiled, and nodded at that.
"I wish you luck, then. And I hope you should look to the improvement of your discipline if you are to keep pace with all that is certain to follow."
Zoissette nodded, and shortly, was on her way.
-*-
The new girl and Dark entered Erick's office. He looked up at them, frowning, before steepling his hands in front of him.
"Ladies," he said.
"Sign this," said Dark, putting a sheet of paper down in front of him. He looked up and saw the new girl had found one of his paintings to stare at. He sighed, and picked up the sheet of paper. He trusted Dark completely, but he also had a policy of reading everything he ever signed.
His failing to do so just once early in his career had plagued him ever since. He had thought himself cagey and canny, and more than savvy enough, but the Maelstrom had pulled one over on him, and he had cursed his and their existence ever since.
So with an overabundance of caution at the forefront of his mind, he looked over the contract. Dark contented herself with crossing her arms and leaning against a wall. The other woman seemed to almost vanish from his consciousness as she somehow made herself unnoticeable, staring off at... something or another, it wasn't important.
He read the contract slowly and carefully once, then again, then very quickly a third time.
"You're kidding," he said.
Dark gave him a grin.
"You finally got me out of having to go on every gods-forsaken expedition when they so much as smell a whiff of Drowned in the Seagrot."
"And we still get to keep the contract, aye," said Dark. "Just now we can subcontract it out, or use it for training some of the greener members, instead of always sending you."
"How did you do it!?" he exclaimed, almost giddy with happiness and relief and, oh, whoever had worked this magic had also managed to put in a rider clause that if he did go, he would be paid a bonus in tomestones for doing so.
"It is almost as if I knew what I was doing." Erick startled at the new girl speaking up. She was not quite what he would call soft-spoken, but she had not said a word in the meeting up until now, and her voice carried an odd sort of power with it.
He looked at her with a frown. She was still staring off somewhere, seeming to be distracted.
His face slowly split into a grin, as he stood up and offered a hand.
"A canny operator, I see. I like that, I like that. Great! Dark, make sure to get her a contract. I would like to formally keep you on retainer here at Gage Acquisitions."
The woman seemed to finally be paying attention, and she looked at his hand quizzically before reaching out to shake it.
"Welcome aboard," he said, before briskly walking out of the room. "This calls for a celebration!"
Once he was gone, Zoissette looked quizzically at Dark Autumn.
Dark just shook her head, and shrugged with a smile before walking off.
-*-
She had a decision to make.
Her friends were kidnapped, and what an underwhelming word that seemed at the moment. They were prisoners of the Garlean Empire, currently being held at one of their castrums. There was a small window, rapidly narrowing, in which she and hers could rescue them with the force they could muster. It would be a near thing.
And the plan hinged upon trusting a person who had been one of the Garlean Empire's foremost weapons against primals.
Nyx Blackmoon.
Anti-Eikon Infantry Project Nyx.
The woman had assured her that her loyalty no longer lay with the Garleans. They had betrayed her mission, her purpose, she had said. She believed the interests of the Scions were more aligned with her own.
But she was not merely some conscript throwing off the yoke of Garlean oppression. She was apparently noteworthy among the Garleans, a distinguished soldier of some sort.
With her help, they could easily defeat the Castrum's security systems and find their way to the Scions and come out unharmed.
Or this could also be the last step in a long running act of betrayal that would see the rest of Zoissette's friends, as well as herself, in chains, and on their way to the Empire for who knew what kinds of experiments.
She thought of all they had been through. And how reliable the woman had been. And how straightforward she was with her words. Zoissette was not certain she was capable of duplicity.
"So what're we gonna do?" growled Klynt.
Zoissette looked at Klynt. Her other comrade in arms. Like Nyx, she had stood besides Zoissette. Through the flames of Ifrit's inferno, under the landslide of Titan's fury, and in the storm of Garuda's rage.
Well. If she trusted the one, she trusted them both. She had said as much already, back in La Noscea.
"We will trust Nyx," she said. "Same as we always have."
She stood up, and Klynt stood with her. She let out a sigh.
"I sure hope I know what I am doing," she said.
Klynt clapped her on the shoulder, but held her hand there, and after a moment, she reached up to touch it.
"However this goes, we do it together," said Klynt.
Zoissette nodded. "Together."
-*-
The chambers of judgement were cold and gray, just like too many of Ishgard imagined their matron to be. And it suited them well here, where they pretended that they acted in her name.
Zoissette was dressed as a Sharlayan peacekeeper might. Her armor was grays and blues, made of lighter material than Ishgard would have found acceptable, but proven all the same, and laced with magicks to reinforce any shortcomings it may have had.
She glared across the arena where she and hers were to face their accusers in combat. Judged by two of who were supposed to be the Holy See's finest, meting out justice in the name of Halone.
Ser Paulecrain and Ser Grinnaux.
She saw the upturn of Ser Grinnaux's face, the amused curve of his mouth, and her already cold temperament turned glacial.
Klynt leaned close to her, and murmured to her, "Ye sure ye don' wan' me t' try an substitute for Alphy?"
Zoissette shook her head, and was just as quiet when she responded, talking under the High Adjudicator. "No. I intend to end this mummer's farce, but first, I will need to see it through properly."
She offered her forearm to Klynt, and after a moment, Klynt returned the gesture by grasping her forearm. A knight's armclasp, a symbol of the kinship they shared.
"Trust me. I know what I am doing."
Klynt nodded, and Zoissette turned her attention to Alphinaud, saluting him with her sword.
"Lord Leveilleur," she said.
He saluted back. "Ser Vauban," he said. He looked over at their opponents. "Ready when you are."
"Just follow my lead," she said, as the charges against them were finished being stated.
It was good that they were in the halls of Halone. For she was going to show them the Fury.
-*-
The goblin mech swung its sword at her, and she deftly ducked under it before hopping up to its knee and using that at a footstool to leap onto its head. It swung around under her, windy arms flailing to try and knock her off, and she quickly clambered her way to one of the valves on its back and proceeded to shear it clear off with her sword.
No longer able to keep pressure in its engine, the mech slowly sunk to the ground, its limbs still flopping around, but much more slowly and uselessly, as she hopped off and landed on the ground.
The entire time, she had not once looked at it, not really. She was keeping an eye on her fairy familiar instead as it zipped around the space, tracing pipes and following power lines. A three dimensional diagram was beginning to form in the enchantment she had stored in her glasses.
She studied it for a few moments as it continued to fill out, pausing only to bring her shield up to deflect another sword swing before pulling out her heavy pistol and disabling another mech with three clean shots.
"Zoissette! What are you doing!?" yelled Klynt, who was busy playing dragoon pogo between enemies, leaping up into the air and stabbing each of them down, one by one. "We're getting overwhelmed in here!"
Nyx did not say anything. Nyx was busying themself vanishing and reappearing on the backs of the goblin gliders, introducing their kidneys to her swords, and then vanishing again.
"Come on come on come on where is it" muttered Zoissette, before looking up and bringing her shield up to deflect an attack from another mech.
"Are ya just screwin' around or what!?" yelled Klynt.
"I know what I am doing! Just hold them off for a moment longer!" Zoissette yelled, and then, she saw it.
There.
She broke away from the fight, kick sliding underneath a mech before skipping up to her feet and using yet another one as an improvised ladder as she launched herself into the piping in the overhead.
Her fairy familiar met her up there. She quickly pointed at two valves, made a twisting motion with her hands, then pointed at herself before pointing at a lever. The fairy nodded and disappeared, and Zoissette quickly clambered over and through machinery to get to where she wanted to be.
"Whatever you're going to do, better make it quick!" yelled Cid.
She waited. Watched the diagram in her glasses. Waited. Waited. Waited.
Two previously blue valves turned green, and she wrenched the lever, then rolled out from the machinery.
"Get clear!" she yelled, sprinting across the metal plating.
The pipes made a horrible, terrible groaning noise, as Nyx came up on one side of her and Klynt landed neatly on the other, both still facing the enemies Zoissette was certain would be coming up to them as soon as they regrouped.
Cid dispatched another goblin over by the exit with his wrench, and just looked at Zoissette, a question furrowed on his eyebrows.
She just crossed her arms and smiled her best reassuring smile at him.
"Zoissette, th' hells -"
Klynt never finished her sentence as the place exploded. Zoissette could hear the shrieks and yells of goblins scattering behind her, even as steam rushed past her to fill the space and chunks of metal piping rained down around her.
All three of her companions just looked at her. Two of them slack-jawed.
Well, Nyx was Nyx, so that was expected.
She held her hands up and clasped them together while bouncing lightly on her toes.
"I told you I knew what I was doing," she said.
-*-
Kugane had been an interesting city.
At first, it had seemed to be exactly what it appeared to be. A busy and populous port city, welcoming to foreigners, especially their coin. There was shopping and hustling, businesses hawking supposedly exotic wares, arts and celebrations, all the usual trappings one would expect. And it had a veneer of being perhaps the most civilized port on the star. The nature of most port cities in Zoissette's experience was that they had an undercurrent of seediness to them. An unavoidable side effect of all the people coming and going at every hour, ships carrying sins to and fro without a trace, and of the lucrative possibilities of making one's way in such a place. The promise of brutal retaliation by the Sekiseigumi supposedly saw to that.
However, as she spent more and more time in the city, even back and forth in her travels, she felt as though that veneer was more of a veil, and a thin one at that. Apparently for many in the city, turning to the help of an unknown woman with a kind face was a better proposition than trying to find justice from the Sekiseigumi. And so she had found herself being asked to look into everything from a woman's stolen heirloom to investigating counterfeits, found herself chasing rumors into dark alleys, and found herself unable to turn away from the seedy underbelly of the city.
There was something more here. Some pattern behind what seemed to be a lot of unconnected incidents. Her time in the Assessor's office however had granted her experienced insight that sharpened her already keen curiosity. Counterfeit relics, kidnapping, bribery, duplicitous market men and shadows in the night.
And so she had found herself ahead of the Sekiseigumi in uncovering a conspiracy in Kugane, but only just barely. She had time to speak with one of the few amongst their number whom she trusted, a woman she shared a mentor with. They had settled on a plan where Zoissette would move in first, and swiftly, before the situation had a chance to spiral too badly out of control.
And so it was that she found herself in Kugane Castle, a building she found more ostentatious than anything. She watched above from the rafters as her friends engaged a notorious mercenary swordsman. Her fairy familiar hovered near her shoulder as she watched, but it was not the fight she was interested in.
It was the man behind the coin, the one paying the mercenary, and the one who had orchestrated all the events Zoissette had been tracking for what seemed like moons. She had heard of him in rumors and whispers, and have even seen him once or twice, but now she had him clearly in her sight. He was watching the fight, occasionally throwing out coin to 'encourage' the mercenary.
More like to amuse himself, she thought.
However, he eventually seemed to grow bored of the spectacle, and retired to a back room, closing the door carefully behind him. Zoissette frowned, and looked to her fairy, and made several hand gestures at her. The fairy nodded, and flittered off to follow her directions.
Zoissette carefully made her way from the rafters and dropped down on the floor just outside the door she had seen the man disappear through. She held her ear up to it for a moment, and hearing nothing, carefully opened it a crack.
The room beyond was dark, and Zoissette smiled grimly to herself. She eased the door open, and let herself in, closing it quietly behind her.
She let the enchantments on her glasses flare, allowing her to see in the room even before the lights suddenly flooded on. She had already highlighted the two swordsmen - rogue samurai, she believed - and a ninja in the rafters who now had her surrounded.
And on the opposite side of the room sat the target of her investigation, the person behind what seemed to be nearly all the vice in the city. A large Roegadyn male, dressed somehow even more ostentatiously than his surroundings, and with his ridiculous mustache his grin made him look rather like the coeurl that had gotten the cream.
"Kageyama," she said dryly.
"Gwahahahahaha!" he laughed boisterously, gesturing at her with his long pipe. "Looks like the dog that's been sniffin' around has finally stuck her nose in the wrong garbage bin, eh? I thought you might hear of my little party here! But look, I've got the mighty Yojimbo looking after your friends, and my samurai friends here will look after you - and I've still the lord bugyo in my clutches! A mighty ijin of legend, pokin' around where she don't belong! Did you think you knew what you were doin' when you thought to come after me?"
She was only half-paying attention to his words, watching for something in the enchantments in her glasses.
"Well, I've got better business to attend to, but don't worry," he continued to gloat. "My friends here will be more than happy to entertain you."
He turned away from her, waving his pipe in the air at her as he went. The warriors he had hired began to move closer, and Zoissette let one hand hover down near her heavy pistol, even as she reached up a hand to tap the rim of her glasses. She looked off into the distance, not focusing on anything in the room.
"Wait," she said.
Kageyama paused and turned to look at her, but she shook her head at him. "Not talking to you."
He frowned and tilted his head, then turned to leave once more. "Pfeh! Try not to tear her apart too bad. Imagine her beautiful self as a stuffed mannequin!"
She stiffened. Okay, now that was just being maliciously insulting.
"...and maybe we can find some use for that fancy flyer she always has with her. I imagine it'll fetch a pretty price."
He paused, and turned to look.
"Hey, where is that thing anyroad?"
"Twelve fulms to your left," she said to him. Then she looked away into nowhere. "Go."
Kageyama frowned and turned, looking to his left, where he saw the little fairy hovering outside of the window. She smiled and waved a little hand at him.
More surprising however was Klynt coming in through said window, feet first, at speed. Both of her boots met him in the midsection, sending him sailing through the opposing window, and out of the room.
The two samurai turned, but the ninja stayed focused on her. They probably thought they were still being sneaky, judging from how they did not even attempt to dodge as Zoissette quickdrew her heavy pistol and blew the beam they had been standing on out from under them. She was quickly on them, and a solid shield bash to their skull ensured they would be out of the fight for the time being.
One of the samurai whirled on her, while the other one stayed still, indecisive. Without even having to talk, Klynt and herself picked their targets, taking advantage of the confusion in the room.
The fight was over almost before it could even be said to have started.
"Want me to chase after 'im?" asked Klynt, looking to the window she had kicked Kageyama out of.
"No. We need to secure the castle and make sure the hostages are safe," said Zoissette.
Behind her, the door burst open, as Nyx came in, trailed by no few number of Sekiseigumi.
Zoissette dusted herself off. "Turns out I did know what I was doing," she muttered.
-*-
Klynt and Zoissette ran through the castrum as the alarums blared overhead.
"That could've gone better!" yelled Klynt over the din.
"Did not go worse!" returned Zoissette.
The soldiers around them ignored them as they too ran. Which of course made sense. Zoissette had made the engineer announce the castrum's imminent doom over the internal announcement system.
She had done that, of course, to warn the soldiers and workers inside of the castrum's imminent doom.
It was a side-effect of having had Klynt stopper up emergency relief valves while she had gone and taken the central ceruleum boiler up to full power, and then promptly fed the power back into its own pumps to make sure ceruleum would enter it faster, just before cutting the controls to said pumps. Repairs to undo her handiwork would take bells, at best.
Catastrophe, on the other hand, was somewhat closer.
They ran past one particular set of doors. Klynt kept going, but Zoissette stopped to look. Once she noticed, Klynt swore under her breath, and doubled back. As she did so, she saw what it was that had gotten Zoissette's attention.
A neat row of machines that looked the same as Nyx's little airship. They looked to Klynt like the front half of a lizard, with stubby little clawed arms, and its spine dangling down underneath it. With two big propellers and their engines on either side.
"Come on!" said Zoissette, as she ran and jumped into the closest one. Klynt came behind her, reluctantly, and climbed onto the machine's back. It was a small machine, not meant to have more than one person aboard, but Klynt had seen what Nyx's could lift. Weight was not a concern.
Comfort somewhat was.
"Lock the arms in place," she yelled at Zoissette. "Or else the damned thing might castrate me."
"Castrate?" asked Zoissette, as she fiddled with the controls. The engines rumbled to life, and the propellers began to spin. "I do not think you have the bits for that, Klynt."
"Ye'd be surprised what can be torn off," said Klynt grumpily as the machine lifted into the air.
Where they were was a maintenance bay, not a launch bay, and so Zoissette had to carefully steer the airship around towards the large elevator hollow, through the castrum, and hopefully find some way up and out. It was faster than them trying to run out by foot, and a lot more certain way of escape.
In theory.
Klynt winced and gripped onto the machine tighter as it swung wide, one of the propellers chewing huge gouges out of the wall before Zoissette pulled it back rather too far in the other direction. They ricocheted up the elevator shaft, bouncing back and forth, before scraping the ceiling at the top and beginning to speed erratically through a hallway.
"Do you even know what yer doin'!?" yelled Klynt.
"Not really!" yelled back Zoissette, a manic grin on her face.
Several long panicked minutes later that Klynt would need the help of quite a lot of drink to forget, and the airship with its two passengers rocketed free of the castrum, and rode off towards the horizon.
-*-
Zoissette was heads down, looking over the logistics for Gage Acquisitions for the next several sennights stretching into moons that they might need for the latest ventures. The Scions needed aid, and they would provide.
She did not look up when the door to her temporary office in Old Sharlayan opened and closed. Many people had come and gone that day, and most of them hardly needed her attention to do their jobs. She did see Lavender take flight out of the corner of her eye, but that just meant it was likely someone the little fairy liked was dropping by.
"Ser Vauban!"
Her hand stopped, and so did her mind, and she suddenly was looking through the papers rather than at them.
Of all the Scions who could stop by. Many of them she could have deflected easily, or redirected elsewhere, or begged out of social obligations with an excuse of work needing to be done. But there was one, at least, who she simply could not turn away.
"I had heard you and yours had made it ashore not too long after our own arrival. I am best pleased to see you, my friend. My, how long has it been?"
Her thoughts slowly returned to her mind, starting with Longer for you than it has been for me.
She looked up, and was greeted by an irrepressible joyous expression on Alphinaud's face. Even his sister, she could have handled more easily, but not Alphinaud himself. She felt too keenly the pains behind his earnestness, understood too much of the way he looked at the world, knew too much of what had happened to shape the man he had become.
They were more alike than she was wholly comfortable with at the moment.
But he was here, and there was no part of her that could turn him away. So she set her pen aside, and clasped her hands in front of her.
"Greetings, Lord Leveilleur," she said.
The two looked at each other for a long moment, and then they both broke into laughter, hers lighter than his, but present all the same.
"Ah, but it has been too long," said Alphinaud. "May I ask what you are working on just this moment? Perhaps your prowess for inquiry has turned up new avenues for us to explore. Or are you several steps ahead of us, already uncovering that which we seek?"
Zoissette shook her head.
"Paperwork. I am currently planning our luncheons for the next sennight," she said. It was not quite a lie, but she was deliberately underplaying her current task. Without supplies and transport, Gage Acquistions would be of little help to anyone.
"Ah," said Alphinaud, his disappointment obvious. "Well, still. It is still heartening to know that you are close by. With such a staunch ally, there is naught which we cannot overcome. Tell me, can I hope to see more of you in the coming days?"
"We will be around to help as we are able, yes," said Zoissette.
"I... see," said Alphinaud. He sighed as he looked around the office. "I fear your talents are a bit wasted at times, my friend."
"It pays for my research materials," said Zoissette.
It also allowed her to keep her distance.
"Well, I shall not press you further on that," he said, his tone shifting to be lighter. "If I may change tack, then, and ask a question of organization?"
Lavender fluttered about his head before alighting on shoulder, and he smiled and held a finger out to her, which she dutifully shook with both of her little hands.
"Of course. What is on your mind?"
"You and yours were behind us rather swiftly. It took us many moons just to get the agreements in place and make our arrangements. I have been most curious as to how you managed it."
He was being kind in not pushing, she realised, and decided that he deserved better from her.
"Well, Alphinaud, you see, that is the difference between you and I," she said.
"Oh?"
She leaned forward a bit and tapped her pen on the desk twice.
"I know what I am doing," she said.
Alphinaud's shoulders slumped, and he let his head drop forward, as she clasped her hands in front of her face and hid her smile behind them.
"I let myself forget that you can be as bad as Krile," he groaned, and she laughed, deciding to not tell him that it was on the back of Krile's work that she had accomplished her own.
"Well, if you are to be teasing me, I shall be on my way then," he said, straightening up, and giving her a smile. "But if you need help delivering any of those luncheons, I would be more than happy to provide my assistance."
"Thank you. I will keep it in mind," said Zoissette.
He gave a bow, and went on his way. Lavender returned to her spot on the desk, and after watching him leave, Zoissette returned to her paperwork.
She was still smiling.
-*-
Zoissette's mind was already hard at work as she waved goodbye to Riven. She had been kind enough to be willing to meet Zoissette in the Noumenon, so she would be able to return to her research momentarily.
It also meant Y'shtola had been standing nearby while they had had their conversation, but everyone present trusted one another and knew the plan, so that presented no trouble at all.
"A party?" Y'shtola had asked.
Zoissette did not turn to look at her, instead just staring off absently while she arranged the puzzle pieces of the current situation in her head.
"Yes. Lady Leveilleur has been kind enough to gather us invites to several events where Forum members are likely to be in attendance," said Zoissette.
Y'shtola was tapping her chin with her knuckles thoughtfully as she looked at Zoissette.
"This all sounds like work related to Gage Acquisitions. I thought you on sabbatical."
"Ah. My apologies, Arch- Y'shtola. My apologies, Y'shtola. This is not official work. It's, uhm, it is a favour, you know. To Riven. Also we very much do not want this to be any kind of official on the record sort of work, but I promise, this will not distract me too much from our research."
She paused, as she considered the situation. "-any further than it already has, anyroad."
"Worry not on that. What manner of party is this, if I may ask?"
"Formal event. There will be a few announcements meant for the public related to Forum business, but then there shall be a full banquet, with dancing. Not dissimilar to an Ishgardian fête, I should think."
"Indeed. And I suspect that you will need to paying full attention to this plan you two have conjured. If so, it may be best if you attend with another. I wonder if you had someone in mind?"
Another puzzle piece. Y'shtola was right, though. If she went by herself, she would be expected to be more available for the kind of intermingling these events encouraged than if she went with someone else.
"Well, nominally, Mathye, but I believe he will be attending with Riven," she said. She already had them in mind in her arrangement of puzzle pieces.
"I see. Have you given any thought as to what you will be wearing?"
Zoissette frowned. Y'shtola was asking a lot of questions, but, as usual, they were good questions. The end plan would be better for her input.
"No. Why? Probably just my usual formal suit."
"The one you prefer to wear in the course of your legal work and investigations, I presume?"
"Sure. It is nice enough. I should blend in okay. And it is comfortable enough for the evening, I think."
She was beginning to have trouble focusing, and she looked up and away once more, trying to find the puzzle pieces again. She knew what she was doing, she just had to do it.
She wondered when it had gotten so warm in Noumenon.
"Well, I rather think that shall not do."
Zoissette looked down to see that Y'shtola had crossed her arms, and appeared to be studying Zoissette intently. Startled out of her thoughts, she took a step back.
"Y'shtola?"
"If I am to accompany you to this event, you will not do so dressed in such a manner."
Zoissette swore she could feel the physical sensation of her thoughts coming to a sudden halt.
Y'shtola ignored her wide-eyed expression as she began to gather up the books around them. "I shall meet you in your room anon, and we can discuss options."
"Ah?"
"I believe your friend Meya is correct about purples and reds. We shall work around those colors, and I will find an outfit more appropriate for one of your stature and grace."
Zoissette felt her face warm, and she opened and closed her mouth several times, trying to find the correct words of protest.
"And with someone you trust watching your back, you shall be better positioned to help Riven. I trust you will be able to adjust your plans accordingly to account for my capabilities."
"Well, yes, of course," she managed.
"Very well then. I shall see you shortly."
Y'shtola chanted a spell, and several of the books she had gathered hovered into the air, and followed her obediently as she walked away, leaving Zoissette standing in the aisles of Noumenon, befuddled.
An old fear had returned, and was all the stronger for the reprieve she had been granted from it. She felt entirely too warm, and she felt fair sure her heart was fit to flutter right out from her ribcage. She blinked several times, trying to get the pieces of the plan back into her mind, but they seemed to flee from her attention.
Lavender fluttered close to her, and tilted her head, looking at her with concern. She stared at her fairy familiar.
"I suddenly have no idea what I am doing," said Zoissette.
Lavender just made a cheerful chiming noise.