Prytaneum
Interlude
The Flame
Part 2
About an hour and a half after Percy left, Miach arrived with several cases of what he assumed were specially made potions. He didn't have much interaction with Miach himself, but he knew Percy had a deal with their Familia similar to the one between the two of them—he served as a supplier in return for reduced prices or free samples. It wasn't unheard of by any means, but he'd been a bit surprised Percy had such a deal, as most of the potion-making Familias were fairly large, because otherwise they simply couldn't compete. But the Miach Familia, from what he'd heard, was no larger than the Hestia Familia. He wasn't sure if Percy knew that was odd, but it stood out to him; there was probably a story on that front.
But it was also probably a story best saved for another time. Right now, Miach was helping them out; it would have been rude to pry, especially since he knew more than a little about uncomfortable pasts.
"She should be fine now," Miach said after several minutes of carefully mixing and measuring medicines. "Her wrist should be healed by tomorrow morning. I apologize, but even with the funds Percy gave me, this was the best I could do on short notice."
"It's fine," He said. That might have been considered slow by the standards of any major adventurers or Familias, but as a group of Level 1s? Being able to get broken bones fixed overnight was fairly impressive. "Thank you very much for your help, Lord Miach."
"Thank you, Lord Miach," Lili repeated from her place on the couch. She sounded more than a bit dazed.
Miach waved of the thanks and smiled kindly.
"It's only right to help one's neighbors, isn't it?" The god replied. "Percy has been a very big help to my Familia and I as of late, so I'm glad to have this chance to assist you in turn. I only wish it were under better circumstances."
"How do I need to pay you, Lord Miach?" He asked.
"Percy already paid me," Miach answered. "Although, in truth, he paid me too much, considering I was only able to do this much. I tried to tell him that, but he left in something of a hurry."
"Yeah," He said, sighing and looking at Lili. "We ran into some trouble in the Dungeon. Percy wanted to get some legal advice, just in case."
"I see," Miach said slowly, calmly scanning the room. As with most gods, he seemed to know more then he should have, considering—but he just inclined his head slightly. "If I can be of any further assistance, please let me know—I do my best to aid you. Although it's not my area of expertise, perhaps there's some way I might be of assistance."
"Thank you," He said again. "I appreciate that, Lord Miach, and I'm certain Percy will as well. But at the moment, we're trying to go about this quietly, to avoid causing too much trouble. I think that's what Percy's really looking for."
"Matters of Familia can be complicated," Miach murmured, looking at Lili before nodding again. "Then I will take my leave for now. You will be staying with her until Percy returns, I assume? There shouldn't be any issues, but she may be somewhat confused for the next few hours."
"Yes," He confirmed, standing to lead the god to the door and bowing politely, trying to brush off old courtesies. "And thank you again for all of your trouble, Miach."
As he watched the god leave, however, he couldn't help but feel a bit awkward, especially returning to the couch. Much like the first hour and a half, they swiftly lapsed back into silence and he wasn't sure what, if anything, he could do about it. He'd have liked to brush that off as poor social skills fostered by years of blacksmithing, but…
"Lili's sorry, Mr. Welf," Lili said abruptly about twenty minutes later, slurring the words slightly.
"Hm?" He asked, startled by the broken silence.
Lili paused for too long, letting the silence drag on for nearly a minute before answering.
"Lili used you," She said slowly in a detached sort of way. "Lili was just like all the other supporters who came to you—Lili saw only Crozzo's magic sword, not…not, uh…not Mr. Welf."
That right there was more than she'd said in the entire time it took Miach to arrive. He supposed it wasn't surprising that she was more talkative when her wrist wasn't broken—although maybe it was just the medicine. For obvious reasons, potions were generally designed not to mess with the drinker's head, even if it sometimes came at the expense of other areas, but Miach had prioritized her recovery over all else. It would have been a potentially fatal mistake to use such a thing in the Dungeon, but here? It got a potion that could apparently fix up a badly broken wrist overnight for less than a hundred thousand valis. Frankly, it was pretty impressive.
And mulling over that did not at all distract him from the words she said, because…it was true. He felt small and petty to hold a grudge when Percy had forgiven so easy. Maybe that was silly because he was the one who was robbed, but it didn't change the fact that he felt bad for thinking that way. What's worse, while he and Percy rushed after her, he hadn't been certain how to feel or what to do. It was obvious from the beginning that something was wrong, what with how Lili had looked and acted recently, how she'd left what amounted to her life savings behind, and what she'd said, but there had still been a shook of betrayal. And when they'd arrived, when they'd gotten a glimpse at why…
"Its fine," He said, smiling at her and doing his best to mean it. Because he did, almost entirely; he'd seen how she was treated personally, how she was used and abused. She was a desperate person in a desperate situation—in a lot of ways, she reminded him of himself, right before he ran away from Rakia.
Maybe that was why he still wasn't sure how he felt about any of this. Percy had simply taken everything in stride, slotting it in with however he figured the universe worked, but for him…in the course of about twenty minutes, today had gone from a routine, if ambitious trip to the Dungeon to a sudden, strange betrayal and theft to a battle with another Familia for an abused friend to a tragic, saddening reunion to a potential legal battle. Maybe his emotions just hadn't caught up yet. He didn't hate Lili at all; if anything, he felt angry for her, saddened by her, and maybe even felt something like kinship for her. It was just…
"I'm sorry, too," He said to distract himself from his thoughts. "We had to ditch your bag in the Dungeon to catch up to you in time."
"Mr. Welf and Mr. Percy caught up so fast," Lili said, voice sounding amazed in that easy way drunk people sometimes did. "How did you do it again?"
"We swam," He repeated, shuddering slightly as he remembered what happened, though more because of the phantasmal shock of ice cold water. Percy had given him fair warning—or what he probably thought was fair warning, having grabbed his hand and shouted 'Hold on!'—and then there'd been a river on the thirteenth floor. They hadn't so much fought their way back up as they'd flowed over the opposition in a mad flurry of events he barely remembered, because it was like up and down lost all meaning. Which made sense, in the water, but it had been kind of jarring to make that transition, especially the way Percy had. For him? He'd gotten tugged every which way, had to close his eyes because of the salt water, moved really fast, and then was on the twelfth floor. By comparison, traveling with Mrs. O'Leary had been less disorienting. "Percy summoned a river and we just floated upstream."
"Do things normally float up stream?" Lili wondered.
No.
"Don't worry about it," He said out loud.
At that, Lili giggled. A lot. Especially for something that wasn't funny. And then she started crying, which was way, way worse and left him there feeling both uncomfortable and terrified.
"Lili's sorry!" She said, bawling loudly as her hands hid her face. "Lili's so sorry! Lili caused Mr. Welf and Mr. Percy nothing but trouble, but…but…!"
"But what?" He asked when she trailed off and abruptly stopped again, prompting her for more even though he knew he probably shouldn't.
"But even though she cause so much trouble, even though she doesn't deserve it, Lili's so glad the two of you," She said, voice hoarse. "Even though…even though she caused so much trouble, Lili feels so happy, and…!"
He watched her for a long moment and then slowly sighed.
"Isn't it fine?" He asked, looking down. He'd ran away from home—from Rakia and his family—with the help of a goddess who'd gotten sent back to Heaven as a result. Even more than that, he'd caused a lot of trouble for who knows how many people, all for the sake of his dream. There had been awhile, a long while, when he'd feel happy and then get sad, because he didn't feel like he deserved to be.
But…that's a pretty sucky way to live.
"Isn't it fine to be happy when something good happens?" He said again and he looked back up at her. She'd stolen one of Crozzo's magic swords—had used him to steal one. But having seen and heard how she was treated, could he hold that against her? That she'd done everything for a chance at freedom, just like he had? No, he shouldn't. Couldn't. "A lot of things happened, but we survived it, didn't we? And nothing all that bad happened in the end, either. So…why not just be glad we're friends?"
"Because Lili's scared," She said, shaking. "Lili was never scared of losing anything after…after. Because it didn't matter. But now Lili has something that matters and she's scared of losing it again."
"Again?" He couldn't help but ask.
"Lili ran away before," She told him. "F-found someone. Two people. An old couple with a…a flower shop. Lili thought she left the Soma Familia behind. But Lili's Familia found her and t-took her away again."
He thought about his own freedom and about losing it, closing his eyes.
"That won't happen, Lili," He said. "Percy said so, right? We'll figure something out. We won't let them take you again."
Which, of fucking course, was when someone kicked the door in.
His head snapped up at the noise, hand reaching for his sword—his normal sword, he decided after a moment's thought. This time, it wasn't even his dislike of magic swords that fueled the choice, but just good sense. Most things that enjoyed breathing disliked being hit by one of Crozzo's magic swords, but here in a room that had felt cramped with just three people in it, he doubted he'd like it either. Best case scenario, it'd blow up the church. In all likelihood, it'd blow up the church, him and Lili, and parts of the surrounding neighborhood.
But when he saw who it was…well, he thought about it.
Then he raised his sword to block the blur of motion, tried to brace himself—and was still blown away like a leaf in the wind. He flew back, knocking a chair over before crashing into a wall with a crack that he hoped was wood and not anything important. His hands shook on the hilt of his blade like he'd just smack them against a massive steel column and if he hadn't been wearing his armor, he'd have been really worried.
But as he slipped down from the wall, he landed more or less on his feet.
"Zanis," He spat with a pained grunt, growling at the man that he'd known existed for a couple of hours and was already starting to hate. "You bastard…what the hell do you think you're doing?"
The asshole actually had the audacity to smile, raising an empty hand.
"To you?" Zanis replied. "Nothing. I've no intention of doing anything to you, a member of the Hephaestus Familia. I'm merely here to take back one of my Familia members, regardless of the danger to myself in the process. A noble deed, if there ever was one."
"…Mr. Welf!?" Lili shouted, belatedly panicked before her voice was abruptly muffled.
"However…" The Head of the Soma Familia continued. "If you'd like for her to remain unharmed, I suggest doing exactly what I say. Or who knows what could happen."
"You…!" He growled, fingers clenching around his sword and hating himself for not being able to make them stop shaking—it felt like the palms of his hands were bruised.
"She's quite a handful, isn't she?" Zanis asked as Lili seemed to try and struggle. "A liar and a thief and who knows what else…she must have caused you a great deal of trouble, but I'll be taking her off your hands now."
"And you're a murder," He snarled back. "A killer who's all but enslaved his own Familia!"
"A baseless accusation," The bastard said back. "I think you'll find that my Familia is quite fond of me. It's just another of her lies, trying to slander her leader to garner sympathy. Meanwhile, quite a few people would be willing to testify against Lili here, should the need arise—but regardless."
He tugged Lili off the couch forcefully and shook her when she tried to struggle.
"I don't know what she is to you," Zanis said. "And truthfully, I don't really care. But I do know that when you were given the choice between her and your magic sword, you chose her. You even seem to value her, somewhat."
"Mr. Welf," Lili managed to rasp. "Don't—!"
She was cut off by another shake.
"I see now that I made a mistake," Zanis continued. "I saw Lili here as a tool to be cast aside—but I was shortsighted. I realized that when I saw what you did; given the choice between the magic sword or her, you chose her without a second thought. So making several magic sword for her sake shouldn't be a problem, no? We'll start with this one—consider it a down payment."
He did his best to keep his face expressionless, to avoid giving him any more leverage than he already had. Had he heard their conversation? If not—
"You're making a lot of assumptions," He said.
Zanis calmly flicked his wrist, snapping the tip of his sword across Lili's face and sending an arc of red flying—and he jerked forward at her sudden cry before he could stop himself.
"Am I?" The man asked. "Now let's talk price."
"You bastard," He growled, growing angrier by the second. "Only scum like you would think something like that was worth someone's life."
"Then I'm glad you're such a big man, Mr. Crozzo—because you have quite a task ahead of you," Zanis said. "As long as you do what I say, she'll be safe in the loving arms of her Familia, and to make sure of that, I think we'll need magic swords. Many, many magic swords."
"You do you have any idea what you just did?" He demanded. "You kicked down the door of the Hestia Familia, attacked me, and kidnapped someone."
"I would like to see your proof that she's been kidnapped," Zanis replied. "After a few drinks, I'm sure she'll say just the opposite. As for your guard dog…I can handle him."
"Yeah?" He asked. "Was that why you ran away with your tail between your legs?"
Zanis' expression twisted at that.
"I underestimated him, I admit," The man replied before lifting the magic sword he'd taken from the table. "It won't happen again—and, before you get any ideas, I don't think I'll be going to the Dungeon for quite some time regardless. So I'd suggest you keep that dog of yours on a leash."
"He's not my dog," He said. "I don't tell him what to do. But…frankly, I don't think he's going to appreciate this. In fact, I'm thinking he might kill you."
The bastard actually snorted at that.
"I saw him," Zanis said. "He cares for poor Lili here as well—so if you don't want her to get hurt, I suggest you think of something to make him see reason."
Right now, he was mainly thinking about Mrs. O'Leary and Percy tearing this piece of shit apart limb by limb, but—
"It should go without saying, but I'll be keeping her close at hand, out of concern for my recently recovered Familia member," Zanis added. "But if you try anything…you probably know what'll happen. Not that you'd have much luck if you did."
The worst part was, he wasn't completely wrong. The Guild gave adventurers a pretty loose hand when it came to things—but starting a major fight in the city? Killing each other in the streets? That was the type of thing they'd take exception to.
But would Percy care? Enough not to do it? He honestly wasn't sure. But if he did, then afterwards…
No, he couldn't just rely on Percy here. He was the cause of this, he had to help find a solution. There had to be a way out of this—some other type of deal they could cut. If it was with Crozzo's magic swords, he could bribe just about any Familia in the city for aid; he could crush the Soma Familia like they were nothing and burn them to the ground with ease. He could do it himself if he had to. He was even starting to grow fond of the idea.
But would Lili go down with them?
"I'll give you some time to think about it," Zanis said, stepping back with Lili in hand. "I'll contact you tonight to talk terms—but you might want to have a first offer waiting."
He watched him leave silently, trembling with sheer angry, sudden fear, and a need to act—but all of a sudden, his hands had stopped shaking, even if his knuckles were white around the hilt of his sword. He took a breath, shook his head, and straightened.
First things first.