summoners-path:
“It’s fine. Really.”, Braska told them both, looking back and forth between the two with haste as he waved his hands in a physical attempt to brush away their awkward humor. Despite the fact that he didn’t mind such unfortunate word choices, they wouldn’t have known. Thus, he felt the need to ease their worry. He laughed with them between his motions and noted how even their arguing was seamed with laughter. Like siblings. How charming. He smiled at the thought.
"Besides…”, he continued, a bit of laughter still in his voice.. “If I didn’t have a sense of humor about that, I don’t imagine coming back to Spira would have been nearly as rewarding as it has proved thus far.” He paused then, a smirk growing across his face. “But, yes… well, that’s one way to put it.” He snorted at his own comment.
An eye opener indeed… That was certainly the truth. But the struggles he had lived during his time nearby could not keep him away. In fact, they were at the heart of the reason for his visit. When the fayth had disappeared, things had changed. It was as if the whole of their power had been given back to the very nature of Spira. It had left farplane wild as opposed to the calm it had brought its residents before. Had he been sent he doubted he would have been able to leave, to detach himself from everything that the place seemed to urge one to become. But, he had consciously gone and so he had been able to consciously leave… and it took conscious effort to remain. Something always pulled him back, stretched him thin when he was alone. Revisiting the places… the memories that often threatened to slip away kept him sane. It kept him whole.
"I… well, I’m more looking for places, not people. It’s a bit… difficult to explain, you understand.”, he told the two of them, looking to Chuami more than her friend, Byron. He still smiled, but it was clear that he seemed displeased with his words. It had been Chuami that had asked and he felt the genuine curiosity from her. Thus, though he was likely sound crazy, he saw no reason to lie. He liked her. He’d decided.
"My apologies. I’m not making much sense, am I? You do have a point, though… And, believe it or not, I appreciate the compliment.”, he added, the last bit dripping with feigned sarcasm.
Chuami was still throwing scowling glances at her brother, but it didn’t escape her notice that their visitor seemed a little more at ease now than when he had entered. Or, perhaps that wasn’t right – he hadn’t seemed uneasy before, but he had been more formal.
Probably expecting an actual shop or something. Poor creature.
“Places, hmm…?” she repeated as she twisted a strand of hair around her finger, considering it. “No… no, I think I can kind of get it. Not to be too downbeat here, but I guess most of the people you knew aren’t here. The places are, though. I know how that one feels.”
“So, then,” Byron cut in, “You are not with your guardian?”
Chuami hissed. “Byron, we’re not talking about that.”
He gave her a questioning look, and she responded with a shake of her head. This only confused him further, and she eventually snatched her paintbrush from her desk and held it towards him as if it were a weapon. He smiled and though he didn’t speak, he seemed to back down from… whatever it was. Byron settled back against the wall. The smirk he now wore seemed to say “Go ahead, then. Don’t let me stop you.”
Inwardly, he knew she was finding it harder even than he was not to ask about the summoner’s friend and guardian. It was really only a matter of time before she brought the topic up herself, and he was content to watch and wait in the meantime.
“Anyway. Where were we. Yeah! You’re totally making sense! But… some people will still be around, right? Have they… have they reacted weirdly…? I mean, it’s not every day someone just poofs back into existence…?”
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