47. Tribal Customs

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"JELLAL!"

Mystogan covered his face in shame when the little girl barrels right into him at the doorway. She was probably trying to lunge him into the ground, but a running start didn't add enough force to actually make a difference, so Mystogan barely budged.


Eir grimaced upon entering the Caitshelter premises. He couldn't even listen properly when someone talked to him, completely assaulted by a horrendous headache that blew right through him like a heat wave.

He almost threw up right there, but he settled with planting a hand over his face and groaning weakly. This was Memory Magic, just like Mest's– but it was more than ten times stronger.


"Uh. Hi, Wendy. Sorry," Mystogan managed, and the girl wails.

"Where did you go, you– you fribble! You gadabout!" she punches him, but it's like a series of very passionately light taps. "Gasser!"

"Ow, ow, ow," Mystogan says, holding up his hands in a way that just didn't defend at all, "I have a... proper explanation. I'm sorry."

"Mollycoddle!"

"Okay I understood that one and I told you not to call me that!" Mystogan finally snaps, reaching out to capture the girl by either cheek to stretch apart in vengeance. "I had to go, okay? It was dangerous."

"You're still a– a!!" she seemed to struggle finding another insult, "I dislike you!"

At those terrible, awful, heartbreaking words, Mystogan made a short dying squeak. He had to take a moment by the wall to recover.

"I really had no choice. I can't stay long in one place– I've got a longer duty to fulfill."

"Then take me with you!" she insisted, "Grandi-neey disallowed my pilgrimage, but I am perfectly capable of it! I am ready, I will soon be of age to embark!"

"Wendy, please," Mystogan pleaded.


Meanwhile, Eir quietly nodded weakly in greeting to Roubaul, the Guild Master.

"Hi, sir," he says. "So about the memory magic that's happening here, could you not use it on me? My head is gonna explode."

"Ah, sure," Roubaul said, "so you're susceptible to Mind Magic, huh? Tough times, little Szerv. But I understand. I trust you can keep a secret?"

Eir takes a moment.

"Don't call me a– I am not– how did you even know about–" he had to stop himself when the magic dispelled, and the world rebuilt itself around him, his shoulders suddenly so much lighter, his head finally not trying to implode on himself.

He sighed in relief.

(Ah, he remembers now. So this guild doesn't exist.)

"I'll keep the truth of your guild a secret. Please call me Eir," he introduces himself, "but I do need quite a bit of explanation regarding that."

He gestures toward Mystogan and Wendy, who were still in the midst of their argument about how she was never going to let him out of her sight again.

"A story for a story, then," Roubaul chortles, "I tell you of my history," Eir took a moment to realize that Roubaul just laid claim on those two, "you tell me how you still exist."

His brow twitched in annoyance.

"Now that's just rude," Eir said, "you don't just ask someone why they're not extinct."

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