Traveler

“It’s been one hell of a day!” An exuberant and excited Kida explained to them, only to notice the Midlander Hyur standing next to them. Koroko Koko silently waved to them and observed from below. “Who’s the tall dude with the sunburn?”

Roll lifted an arm up to him, gesturing an introduction. “This is Ozwin. He’s decided to join us in Fated.”

“Nice to meet you.” Ozwin gave Kida a lazy hand wave, his grin wide. “Ozwin Cotter.”

“I’m Kida Vescura! Welcome to Fated! Alright, you guys ready to see this awesome plot!” Kida started to lead them away from the Emerald Avenue into the residential area.

Azlyn smiled, “It’s kind of chilly tonight, isn’t it?” She could feel the breeze pick up as they walked. 

Kida and Koroko Koko looked their Au Ra friend up and down. “Did you fall into a pool of water?”

Roll walked alongside her cousin. A devious smirk on her lips but she remained mercifully silent. Azlyn shrugged as it couldn’t have been helped.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you about that as well. You were soaking wet when the two of you boarded for Deep Sea Fishing.” Ozwin stated matter-of-factly, cupping the back of his head with his two hands. He walked comfortably at the group’s pace in the rear.

Koroko Koko chuckled ominously behind the pair of cousins. “Hmm hm hm. Master Roll had quite a fun time out exploring with our leader.”

Azlyn widened her eyes, before she snapped her head back to the Lalafell caster. “What did you just see!” Koroko Koko merely danced a tiny jig before laughing deviously.

Roll watched the young lass wiggle around. “Heh.”

Kida tapped her chin. “Can someone please elaborate for the few of us who don’t know what’s going on?”

“We were completing a task in Fool’s Falls in Vylbrand. There was quite a bit of water.” Azlyn sighed.

Ozwin whistled, “Got aggressive with the Kobolds, Coeurls, and Yarzons?”

Roll smirked. “Nah, we were too busy doing a scavenger hunt for her guildmaster. He’s a pretty funny guy. Heh.”

Azlyn buried her head in her hands. “No more. Please.” She pleaded to them to give her a break.

Kida clapped her hands at the thought of a scavenger hunt. “That would be so much fun! I wonder what Bowlord Levin would say if I suggested a hold a similar outing!” The young Au Ra looked enamored at the idea.

“Oh, Kida—you could probably have your own if you want.” Azlyn attempted to change the conversation. “While deep sea fishing, I plucked out a treasure map!” She slowly procured the bottle out for her friend to see. Her pink eyes widened at the sight of the clear bottle, before she happily took it off her hands.

“You beautiful Au Ra! I love these types of things!” Kida shook the bottle with joy. “I wish we had that much fun. Our adventure was mostly in Ul’dah. We found the for-sale signs in the residential areas, so we started staking out the area for a decent lot. Oh! Koroko, tell them how it went with the Immortal Flames.”

They turned their attention to their resident caster. She cleared her throat. “Ah, yes. The Immortal Flames offered me a position in their ranks, but they seemed a bit reluctant.”

Ozwin shook his head. “Wouldn’t you be better off not being enlisted as cannon fodder?” He directed the question in a most pointed way.

The Lalafell smiled. “I suppose that’s one way to look at it. Let’s just say—it’s the path I chose to follow. Just as Master Ozwin has his.”

The Midlander seemed taken back by being called Master. “What cock-eyed nickname is that?”

Kida explained. “Everyone’s a master at something—so she’s always called us Master. What’s his mastery in Koroko?”

He narrowed his green eyes, but his body remained relaxed. “And what is your Mastery in?” He asked back, a bit guarded.

“The arts—or so I’m told.” Kida excitedly danced down the winding path of the cobblestone path. They were passing by a multitude of houses now as they went further into the Goblet. “Roll’s going to master the gun!”

Roll sighed. “Really? I’m still not sure how that’ll work out.”

“Hmmm hm hmm.” Koroko Koko responded after several moments to herself. “Master Ozwin is a master fisher.”

Azlyn looked over her shoulder, noting him visibly relaxing.

“I like the sound of that.” He grinned as if he’d been given a favorite piece of candy. “You all can just call me that from now on: Master Fisher.”

Roll cracked a few knuckles in her hands. “I prefer to call you Ozwin.”

Kida just raised an eye to his peculiar behavior, before crossing her arms. “You’re a mysterious person, aren’t you?”

Ozwin nodded. “I prefer to keep to myself. If you respect those boundaries I set, we’ll be a happy family.”

“All good my dude.” Kida rolled her neck, “We all got shit we don’t want others to know. No worries. Look over there!” She pointed suddenly to a lone house with a backwards “L” shaped front yard, a nice sized plot with a two-story unlit home with a “SOLD” sign in front. “There it is! Our new home!”

She started to sprint down the slightly off-colored cobblestones to the house and decided to front flip into the front yard. The rest of the group entered the lot, looking at the empty outdoor area. A stable for the chocobo’s sat in the eastern corner, at the entrance of the fence.

“It’s pretty spacious.” Roll admired, crossing her arms. “We could make quite a bit of things to fill the front yard.”

Kida pointed to the side of the house. “Roll! You must make an outdoor sauna! Absolutely have to!”

Azlyn chuckled, looking at the front of the house. “Is the front door open, or do we need a key?”

“I have it.” Koroko Koko produced it from the folds of her black dress, walking up the steps to the front door. “Open sesame!” She popped the key inside the lock, turning it so that it unlocked.

The inside was barren, with nothing on the floors or the walls. An empty canvas for them to create the perfect home. The five of them entered the premise with ease, each exploring different parts of the house. The first place they found was located on the main floor, the living room and kitchenette. There were two doorways, one leading to the north side of the premise, while the other went eastward. The door leading north went straight into the workshop. A decent sized space, with empty chalkboards and cork boards. There were several counters, shelves, and other miscellaneous areas to place their tools or incomplete projects. Roll decided to stay in the workshop, already moving things around to her liking.

Azlyn went through the east doorway, seeing a hall run north and then a staircase that spiraled down into the lower floor. It was another large space, with white walls and white carpet. She could see another door on that floor, that led to another set of smaller rooms.

“I counted five rooms, two upstairs and three downstairs. And there’s a decent bathroom downstairs.” Ozwin said when they finished their walkthrough. Roll was still within the workshop. All four of them were sitting on the main floor of the common room where the small kitchenette lined the eastern wall. There was a standard sink, stove, and storage rack for dry foods.

Koroko Koko nodded. “You won’t need to worry about me taking a room. I have my own apartment.”

Kida smiled, “I also have my own place in Gridania. But I wouldn’t mind splitting a room here with someone.”

“I think Roll’s going to claim the workshop.” Azlyn looked over her shoulder to the closed workshop doors, where every once in a while she’d hear the shuffling of some large thing within.

Ozwin shrugged at the room placements. “I like to come and go, so I won’t need a permanent room. Maybe a comfy couch for the common room. I’d enjoy that.”

“Why don’t we just make all the small rooms into communal sleeping areas?” Azlyn laughed. “We can decorate it with stuff we don’t mind sharing.”  She played with the ends of her damp hoodie, and then sneezed.

They all looked to her.

“You better not catch a cold.” Ozwin replied, “Go take a warm bath or change.”

Kida reached a hand up to her forehead. When she made contact, she frowned. “You just got over your fever—and now you’re scorching hot again.”

Koroko Koko crossed her arms, regarding the girl with interest. “I’ve been meaning to ask, how is your body holding up?” She gestured to her right side, and Azlyn waved all three of them off.

“I’m feeling fine. That potion really worked wonders.” She picked at her Spriggan hoodie, noticing the sleeves were starting to fray. “I should probably get this mended.”

Koroko Koko gave her a thorough glance over, before she accepted the answer. “I’ll ask Cocobuki to deliver a potion to the house for you.”

Ozwin narrowed his eyes. “Potion? For what exactly?”

Azlyn explained the situation as simply as she could. “I hurt myself using magic without proper channeling—so I’ve been losing my aether. This potion that Koroko has will replace what I’m losing.”

“You casted magic without proper channeling? That was stupid.” He remarked to her bluntly.

Azlyn frowned. “Yes, I broke a taboo. Let’s just say I’m immunocompromised now.”

“And you’re running a fever now?” He reached over to feel her forehead. “Holy shit. How are you still moving?”

Azlyn leaned back from his hand before shaking her head. “I run fevers all the time. This is surprisingly normal—but if it’ll get you all off my back, I’ll go shower and change.” She stuck her tongue out to them, before running down the stairs. “Thanks for worrying about me!” She called to them and dashed out of sight. She really hoped she could find a means to fix her aetherial cracks—or else she’d be bothering them constantly with her consistent fainting spells.

She spent a bit of time in the bath, soaking in the hot water and thawing her chilled bones. She was a bit cold from walking around in her damp clothes. While she didn’t mind the cold weather, Azlyn was more of a spring and summer type of person. Even fall would be preferable over the cold.

Halfway in her bath, however, she decided to check in with her friends back in Sharlayan. She tapped the device with her dry hand, connecting to Krile’s linkpearl. “Krile?” She waited patiently for her friend to answer. 

“Azlyn? Everything alright?” A slightly tired voice spoke into her ear. She bit the bottom of her lip, completely forgetting that it was around eleven at night. 

She sagged in a lounging position in the bath. “I was hoping to catch you before you went to bed, but it appears I hadn’t. I can call you in the morning.” 

There was a quiet moment over the line, before she sighed. “You already got me on the line, what happened?” She asked. “We heard that the Lord of Levin won’t be bothering the Twelveswood.”

Azlyn frowned, letting her one hand not holding the linkpearl play on the surface of the water. She needed to word this so that she didn’t wind up worrying them again. “You know how I damaged my aether before? I think we have a way to help replenish the aether I am losing—however...” She paused for a moment. “I kind of need a favor. Can you all look into this potion?” It wasn’t as if she didn’t trust Koroko Koko’s amplification potion—it just didn’t feel quick right.  

This caught her attention. “Potion?”

“An Aether Amplification potion that restores mana.” Azlyn explained, she let her other hand float softly on the surface of the bath water.

Krile took a few minutes longer to respond back to her—she almost thought the linkpearl had dropped the connection. “I don’t know if we’ll have time on our end to look into it—however I think Urianger would be a good start. I’ll call him in the morning to expect you.” The Lalafell determined the best course of action with what was presented. “Besides that—everything else okay?” 

Azlyn jumped right into the swing of things, talking about their latest adventure into Toto-Rak. “Yeah. Roll, Kida, and I went into the Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak. Apparently the garleans had men stationed in there and they created these magitek protocels. We had to use these cells to open the barriers set within the dungeon.” She spent some time explaining further about what they found, and then about the giant banemite they had to fight to save the Elder Sylph. She purposely left out Lahabrea from the story so that she wouldn’t worry them. The potion seemed to bother her, so she decided to keep the homicidal Ascian out of the conversation. 

“Magitek protocels? That sounds interesting. Were there any documents left behind or reports that you can get access to?”

“Unfortunately no.” Azlyn replied. “We only learned about it from the Gridanian exploration notes. Maybe Roll could get that information since she’s a Captain.” She happily exhaled. “It’s nice to just relax after all that work.”

Krile sounded a little relieved when she spoke. “It sounds like you’ve had a healthy adventure these past weeks.”

Azlyn chuckled. “Too many fetch quests in between it all though. Roll almost lost her mind from not being able to fish.”

Krile laughed. “The horror.”

“Right?” She continued to laugh, even as her fingers and toes started to prune from the long time in the water. Feeling a bit dejected, she knew she was going to have to end the call so she could get dressed. “We bought a house today.”

“Wow—A house?” This statement seemed to take her a bit off guard.

“It’s in Ul’dah’s residential area.” She smiled. “When I write my letter to you all tonight, I’ll include the address. We have an actual mailbox here.”

“Look at you, moving up in the world.”

Azlyn hummed her acknowledgment back to her. “Indeed. Well, I need to finish my bath and get dressed. I promise to send a letter tonight. I won’t leave anything out.”

“Get some rest, and don’t overwork yourself.” Krile replied. “Have a good night. Enjoy the new house.”

“Have a good night Krile, get some rest.” She ended the call, and pulled herself out from the lukewarm water. She pulled her satchel up on the counter of the sink, finding a basic robe and her crimson colored leggings. When she was finished, she cleaned her saddles, and decided to pull on a pair of ankle low boots. Her hair dripped water, but with a towel she had, she dried it as best she could.

When she was finished getting dressed, she decided to rejoin the group up in the common room. The only ones present were Ozwin and Kida who were playing a hand of Triple Triad. Azlyn walked over, kneeling at the center of their playing board. “And done!”

Ozwin gave her a small wave of his hand, before he turned back to his hand. He was heavily focusing on his cards, while Kida was fanning her left-over cards in her hand. They both had three cards each, leaving it to Ozwin’s turn. So far it looked like Kida was winning.

She turned to Azlyn as she waited. “Roll went over to Gridania to pick up all of her crafting gear, tools, and projects. Oh, and Markarov too.”

Ozwin slapped a two-starred card in the corner of the playing field. “Ha! Defend against that!”

Kida merely placed down a three-starred card that flipped his card over to hers.

“Shit!” He cursed, before he went back to his hand.

“Koroko went home for the night. She was tired from exploring Halatali.” Kida smiled to Azlyn. “Did you bring your cards with you?”

The girl nodded, “I did. Can I play loser?”

Ozwin raised an eyebrow to that question. “Can’t you just say you want to play against me next. No need to add insult to injury.”

Kida laughed, Azlyn chuckled. “You could tie.”

He slapped down his three-starred card. “Okay! It’s do-or-die now!”

Smirking, Kida laid down her four-starred card that won the game. “Crash and burn Master Baiter.”

“Fisher... fisher!” Ozwin yelled catching the innuendo. He leaned only to cover Azlyn’s horns. “You can’t just say stuff like that when there’s a baby in the group!”

Azlyn sighed, wondering if he thought she was a teenager. “I’m 24, you know,”

He lifted a finger to shush her. “Shhh.” Oswin then looked to the board, as the frown grew on his face. “Alright, clear the board. Let’s play Azlyn.”

Kida cleaned up her cards, and the small pouch of money that they had bet. She wiggled the pouch. “Pleasure playing with you.”

Azlyn took the seat that Kida left, reaching for her side satchel pocket. She had a small box of cards that she opened. “Did you want to borrow one of my decks? It’ll be fair that way.”

Ozwin blinked. “How many decks do you have?”

“Quite a few. Most of them are four and five stars. Here.” She laid out several for him to see. “They’re duplicates, so I don’t mind if you want to take a few for your own collection.” Then she pulled out a bright purple case with her favorites. “I have my favorites here.” She shook the cards with pride.

“What are you a Hardcore Triple Triad player or something?” He spoke with disbelief. “Jeez, if you sold these in the market, you’d be rich.” He shuffled some cards around before he picked out five cards.

Azlyn held up her own cards. “I like collecting the cards. It was something my dad enjoyed.”

Kida chuckled. “I remember when he trounced my arse in Mahjong too.”

“He was an excellent player.” She looked to Ozwin. “Did you want to play with any specific rules? Like Chaos or reverse?”

Ozwin shrugged. “Let’s do Chaos. Three open.”

Azlyn held her hand up for him to pick three to lay out. She then did the same with his. When they were ready to start, Azlyn looked to Kida. “Randomly point to a card for each of us. Try not to be biased.”

Kida scoffed. “Biased? Me?” 

Ozwin pulled out a small pouch of coin, placing it on the side. Azlyn looked at it, before sliding it back to him. “Keep your coin.”

He narrowed his green eyes to her. “It’s a fair gamble.” He argued, pushing the coin back into the center of the table.

“Trust me. I don’t need your coin.” She once again, pushed the bag back to him.

Kida watched with mild interest, as Ozwin continued to argue. He slowly pushed the coin toward the center again. “Don’t act like you’re going to win.”

“I will though.” Azlyn replied calmly, as she cocked her head to the side. She seemed puzzled that he doubted her. “You’re easy to read.”

He widened his eyes to her, before he slowly shook his head. “Little lady, those be fightin’ words. Alright.” He dropped another sack on the table. “Let’s go princess.”

Azlyn sighed, giving Kida a shrug. “I tried to warn him. Okay, just put the money in the company chest when we’re done.” She pushed the bags over to Kida and gestured for him to go first. “Oh—also, this little lady maims.” She deviously smirked to him as her eyes lit up with a fiery confidence. “You first.”