34. Time Apart

At blade training the next day, Marwa's off her game, distracted.

Wish research is going nowhere. She's beginning to understand why Mika called it a fairy-tale. The frustration is eating at her like a ticking clock, which is not making her mindfulness training any easier, either.

Her conversation with her mother the night before reminded her of a few rooms in her mental Fury that she's not eager to explore. But at the same time she can hear the gravity in her dad's voice when he explained the importance of knowing every part of one's mind.

The idea of having to defend her mind against Mika isn't easy to coordinate a parry around, either. The one she's attempting fails, and the blunt point of a training blade taps her arm.

She looks up, waiting for a reprimand on her sloppy form, but it doesn't come. Instead, baba just says, "that's enough for today," and starts putting gear away.

He's got some distractions, himself. Marwa's missteps weren't lost on him, any more then her telltale blushes in the ballroom were, but the hurt she's setting herself up for with the latter is far worse than any blade could inflict. He's been looking for an opportunity to talk to her about what she's getting into with that kid, and they're both in a bad mood right now, but he might not get a better chance.

He won't tell her to stop, he reminds himself as he shuts the blades rack. She is, somehow, so soon, an adult, and has the right to decide her own future. Besides, even if he did. Even if he got Julius to back him up, she'd only double down. Contrarian little tempest.

They're both quiet as they put away and lock up the gear. They're approaching the house when a voice Marwa does not recognize breaks the silence in a shout:

"On your six!"

Marwa and her baba both whirl around, and baba is crashtackled by an exuberant halfling in yellow in a flying leap that he reflexively steps into a spin, redirecting the momentum.

Then he clocks who it is, and his eyes widen.

The halfling's laughing, her brown curls flying as she spins, her dark cheeks dimpled. He puts her down, looking shaken, and certainly not from a couple of quick turns.

"Surprised to see me?" She grins up at him, but before he can answer, she spins on her heel.

"OH MY GODS is this Marwa??" She exclaims, looking up at the genasi with star eyes, "Liira's laughter, you got so BIG! Oh my gods, turn around let me look at you"

Marwa is startled and confused beyond cognition. She does a mechanical turn, without really thinking, trying to beam 'what the fuck?' into her baba's mind through eye contact alone.

Alejandro seems to be wondering the same thing.

"Kit, what are you doing here?"

"Julius wrote me. Said he wanted my notes on Isaac. Oh it is so good to see you again!"

Alejandro's recovered from surprise. He looks serious.

"Marwa, this is Kit Havenwood. She used to travel with me and your dad."

"Oh. Hey!" Marwa gives a friendly smile

"We've met before, but you were only three, I don't blame you not remembering," Kit smiles.

"You couldn't have mailed your notes?" Alejandro blurts

"They're in here!" Kit answers, pointing at her head. "Where is Jules anyway?"

Alejandro looks uneasy, tired. "Reading, probably. Come on inside, Kit."

The three of them make their way inside. Kit is chatting with Marwa, wants to know if its true that she's an adventurer just like her dads, wants to hear all her stories. Marwa happily obliges, in exchange for cute tales of her dad and baba from back in the day. Kit treats her to the tale of how they got together from an outsider's perspective, which is much less dignified and way funnier than the version they tell.

"You would have thought he'd turned into a Balor the way Jules panicked - his eyes were saucers I swear"

Marwa is laughing almost too hard to walk.

"I always knew they were dorks. Thank you for confirming."

"A pleasure!"

When they step inside his library, Julius is standing. He probably heard their chatter in the hallway. He has an immediate "what's she doing here" look for Alejandro, but the confusion and wariness faze Kit not at all. Dad gets the same running hug treatment that baba did, but it knocks him back a step.

Alejandro is studiously calm.

"Kit's here with her notes, amor."

Looks down at her as she's stepping away from a mostly one-sided hug, probably also wondering why she couldn't just MAIL them because who doesn't WRITE DOWN their research???

Kit's looking between them, "I can't tell you how much it means you're ready to talk about him again"

The dads are exchanging looks, Julius apprehensive, Alejandro resigned. He looks at Julius like - do you want to take this one?

Julius shakes his head no.

Marwa is confused.

"Who are we talking about?" she asks, quiet, clocking the pall that's fallen over the room.

Kit is startled. She's been looking between the dads but she focuses on Marwa for that.

"Isaac? Isaac Harper? Our bard? My... You seriously never even mentioned him?" This last accusatory statement levelled at baba.

"He's not an easy subject, Kit." - Julius defends, quiet.

Alejandro keeps his mouth shut, frowning.

"You guys have mentioned him a few times, I feel like? The name rings a bell." -Marwa

Relief, but minor, on the halfling's face, but she's still looking a little hurt and confused. "We travelled together for almost a year. He saved both your lives as often as you saved his. I can't..." she sits down. "I'm confused." looking at Julius "You write me saying you're reopening your research and you want to know anything I found out since last we talked. I thought maybe you'd both come around. What gives, then? Why the sudden re-interest?"

Julius looks up.

"Because we may know someone in a similar situation." Alejandro says, grave.

"Just trying to get a handle on things, Kit," Julius says, sounding tired already. "Do you want a drink? Food? Anything before we get into it?"

"Sure," Kit agrees, a little dazed.

As they work on getting some snacks sent in, Marwa starts moving toward the door. It seems like old-party business.

"You guys probably want to catch up, huh? I'll leave you to it."

"Oh no no no, not at all!" Kit protests, "Please, sweetie, I haven't seen you since you were knee high to a pixie, and... Isaac he was, important to me. To all of us." pointed glances at dad and baba, "It... it feels wrong you don't know. And if someone else is dealing with the same problems he had... we'll need all hands on deck."

Marwa nods, takes a seat and begins nibbling a cookie, waiting.

"So who's this person in similar circumstances?" Kit asks, "Anyone I know?"

"Kid named Mika." Alejandro says.

"Doesn't sleep. Magic that doesn't touch the weave. Eyes like he's somewhere else when casting, and the spells are like nothing I've seen, if they even are spells." Julius adds

That gets Marwa's attention.

"What? Was Isaac a warlock, too?"

Kit flinches. "Technically?"

"He didn't like the term. He was a bard first, and that's how he wanted to go on."

Marwa's stomach has a knot.

"What happened to Isaac?"

For a moment, those of the old party are just looking at each other. They each have a different answer to that question, and the last time Kit was over they had an argument about it. Neither of the dads want to start that up again, but when Kit says, "He had to leave, and hasn't been back yet" it's infuriating to both of them in different ways

"He disappeared, Marwa." Alejandro says, his voice hard. "Woke up one morning and he was gone. Your aunt Silva couldn't track him, your Dad tried to scry, Kit consulted her deity and did all sorts of research. We've tried to find him, but it's been more than twenty years..."

Kit's mouth is a tight line. She can't dispute any of that, but she doesn't like the implication.

"You think he might leave?" Marwa asks, eyes wide, "Mika?"

"Keenstrider says he's got a habit of it, doesn't he?"

"We're not saying it's the same, baby," Julius puts in, "but it's hard to ignore the similarities."

"Okay. Was it the same thing, where he couldn't talk about it because it was some...cognitohazard? Or whatever?"

"Cogna-what?" Kit asks, her head on one side, curls swinging.

"Cognitohazard. Informational contagion - a danger that spreads by becoming known," Julius supplies, silently adding this detail to his growing notes on the case.

"Oh, no." Kit says, "He was pretty transparent about it."

"Then... what happened?" Marwa's face is creased in confusion. "If he could explain to you what was going on, how was there no way - ?" she looks at her parents' faces, wondering if she wants the answer.

The three former partymates look at each other for a moment. Then they tell her.