Obrecht and I decide to tag along with Halvalt for his morning meeting on the next day, just so we could meet with Nehal afterwards.
"Did you wait long", Halvalt begins to say to us as we wait for the other members of the Batrani to come out of the hall, from their recently adjourned meeting. "Honestly, that sure surprised me. I didn't expect you to be so friendly with Nehal." Halvalt pats the mask's fur on my head.
"…I'm only returning something to her."
Before Halvalt could reply, a pair of gold-rim glasses approach us.
Nehal nods at Halvalt before turning her attention to me and Obrecht. Without a word, I pull out the book she lent me, with gesture of thank you aimed at her as I hand it over. She smiles and nods back, wordlessly. She taps the cover twice with a finger.
Halvalt and Obrecht start discussing sword designs. Nehal and I listen to their discussion
"Videre."
I turn to the direction of her voice.
"…"
"Have you ever considered having a coming of age ceremony?" Nehal turns as well to look at me.
My mouth opens to formulate words, yet I close them again for the lack of words. Like a dry well that couldn't give water, I didn't know what to say.
I take my time thinking of answer but end up with a question instead, "Don't you need a weapon before you can conduct the ceremony?" Like an afterthought, I add, "And I'm not a Lumean-born."
"What do you m—" , Nehal's question gets cut off.
"Hold on, right there. Did I just hear right?" Amish slinks an arm on Nehal's waist. Nehal's usually deadpan face shows a slight reluctance as she inches her body away from Amisha's pulling.
"What are you doing", Nehal asks Amisha, with a dark face.
"What—This is my first time seeing you be so proactive about something; how can I not get in this? It's not like I'm the only curious one that's eavesdropping", she says as she looks back with a smirk, at a few people who suddenly had something to do or have pretentious conversations of their own.
"Honestly", Nehal sighs as Amisha let's go of her.
"As for you", Amisha says to me. "Sure, the ceremony is usually held for those Lumean-born but that's just because we haven't gotten any surface dwellers since a long time ago."
My nose picks up a faint scent of approaching oak wood, as a hand takes mine. Without looking, I know who's hand it is. We both listen carefully.
"What about the weapon?" Obrecht seems to be most concerned about this topic. His hand squeezes mine. I know just from that, that he doesn't want any other person to forge my weapon but him. Not even his father.
"I can craft him one but I don't think I can finish in—", Halvalt starts to say but gets cut off.
Obrecht glares at his dense father. "I'm making Videre's sword", he declares.
"Aren't you too young for this?" Halvalt ignores the dark look on his son's face. "You lack your Apa's talents." He sighs emotionally.
"Don't be ridiculous. I'm much more talented that you, Apa. You just have an advantage of several years of experience than me", Obrecht argues. "I bet I can beat you with half the experience you have, no, even a third of experience and I can still beat you." Halvalt messes up his arrogant son's hair.
"I think we can make an exception for you, what do you think?" Amisha turns again to the surrounding people. She sighs and says, "You all have already been caught. You might as well join in on the conversation~"
Kaivalya approaches with a shy smile, a sleepy Kivn beside her, and a few others. Very quickly, a decision was made with the majority of the Batrani present. Since I didn't have a weapon yet, they said that I could choose the material to be used in the construction of my weapon instead, and have it blessed along with me during my ceremony.
"If you're going to be staying and hunting inside Inferis' forests, it's better to have Aovialutre's blessing", is Kivn's input, half yawning at the last word.
"…But what if I don't get her blessing", I voice out my hidden concern. Obrecht's boldness seems to have rubbed off on me before I knew it. Internally, I laugh at myself at the thought.
A few chuckle.
"You're already here", Nehal says. "To have been allowed inside the land that Aovialutre protects, I'm quite confident that she has a reason for it. And for that reason as well, I'm sure you'll get her blessing. You should have a bit more confidence in yourself, Videre. One can temporarily act to deceive others and himself, but one cannot truly change the essence of a person permanently."
A pause erupts among us.
Someone whispers, "That's my first time hearing Nehal talking for a long time…"
Suddenly, a very spirited Amisha makes a sound of happiness. "Let's let Aovialutre bless the materials first so we can use that later on to make his sword. I have a feeling that Videre's going to be using the weapons out of those ores for a long time."
"Where did that come from? Is that the famous women's intuition?"
"No, a merchant's instinct, maybe?"
All kinds of laughter, banter and random conversation snippets sound out.
"Alright, it's decided then. Since we're all here, we might as well tell the other missing members about this, and have the ceremony later on the afternoon."
"…" Wait, isn't that a bit too fast?!
I wasn't able to say a word among the chorus of approvals and planning.
"But…", I trail off.
Nehal gives me a side glance, and then elbows the noisy Amisha.
"…I don't have the materials", I whisper.
"Oh." Amisha shakes a little, a hand covering her side. "That's alright. Someone already asked me to set aside a few materials for you to use."
Surprised, I look to Halvalt and then to Obrecht for an answer. In the end, I could think of no one else but Odeti.