Butterfly Delivery - Adrinette

Value in Monastery Increments

The next day, the group learned they only thought they hadn't been able to see the day before. The blizzard was horrendous! Even Master Fu was getting unsure of himself, relying only on blurred childhood memories, but this looked a lot like the ravine where he'd lost the miraculouses all those years ago. They must be close! A little farther and the outline of a roof was visible through the snow. "We're here."

With Fu's announcement out of the way, Nathalie stumbled forward into the wall of the building, validating Adrien's suspicions that the hike had worn her out far worse than she'd been letting on. Seemingly out of nowhere, a monk materialized and caught the weakened woman before she could crash into the wall. "Fu, help me get this woman to the infirmary," he ordered.

"Yes, Master," Master Fu answered.

No one spoke until Nathalie was safely in the infirmary, with a change of clothes and a bowl of warm broth to get her strength back. With everyone else back out in the hallway, the monk closed the door and faced Fu. "You allowed this woman to use a broken miraculous?"

"No, Master, I... lost a couple of the miraculouses. They have been recovered now, but not before some civilians used them for their own purposes. I cannot track down what the circumstances might have been, but the peacock miraculous was at some point cracked and has caused health problems in the two women who have tried to use it since. Of the two, this woman is in better shape; the other has been in a comatose state for over a year now. There was no way we could bring her without endangering her life, but we hoped that examining Nathalie would enable you to give us a cure that we could take back to Paris with us."

"Fu, do you know how I recognized you so easily? Your face has grown old, but your aura is still the same little boy who ran away all those years ago. This is why we are to be very careful with the miraculouses; there is no easy cure. Once a mistake is made, it will take years to rectify it. First thing we have to do is repair the miraculous; no one is going to feel any better while the magic link is still draining them. May I see it?"

"Hmm..." The monk turned the miraculous over in his hand, inspecting it from every angle. "Looks like there's a fracture along this edge. We'll have to replace the entire stone! I'm not sure what binding agents we'll need. Let's check the archives."

--

"Continued in volume 56..." The monk shuffled over to the shelf. "That's strange... the book is gone. What could have happened to -"

"Is this it?" Marinette asked, reaching for a book on a shelf above her head. "Oops!" Four books, including the one she was after, came crashing down on her. Marinette ducked, shielding herself and Bridgette as best she could. "Oww..."

"Need help, Bugaboo?" Adrien chuckled, coming over to help pick up the books.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking!" Marinette retorted. "Seriously, you could have before you laughed."

Her small reprimand only caused him to smile more. "I thought you didn't like it when I worry about you, but it turns out you miss it when I don't."

Marinette rolled her eyes at him, but was smiling as well. "Is this the book you need?" she asked the monk.

"Ah, yes, so it was here after all."

--

"Looks like this is the list of things I will need to repair the peacock miraculous: the shell of a peacock egg, fresh lavender, a feather from the peacock kwami, and the very same amethyst from which the miraculous was cut."

"Oh! I have one of those right here!" Duusu offered.

"Don't pluck it yet," Master Fu advised. "You might molt between now and when we collect the rest, and you don't need to go through any extra pain."

"Oh! That's a relief, but poor Emelie and Nathalie... I was hoping I could help them sooner."

"You need to recover yourself, before you can worry about them. It may have been so long that you've gotten used to feeling this way, but you're not at full strength yourself."

"Oh, okay, well, what do we do now?"

"We start collecting the items," Adrien declared. "The feather and the shell should be no problem, but it might be difficult to keep a lavender plant alive in transport - and how are we supposed to track down one individual gemstone?"

"It's not as fruitless a search as it might at first sound," the monk assured him. "I can't tell you exactly where it is, but I can tell you where it was at the time the monastery was swallowed. The guardians before us knew that the remnants might one day be needed to reinfuse power into their respective miraculouses. They could not be allowed to be lost, but also were too powerful to be kept here should the monastery be invaded by anyone looking to use the miraculouses for an unsavory deed. Because of this, the stones were distributed to miraculous holders around the world, with great care taken to make sure none remained in the same country as its corresponding miraculous. To hide a tree, use a forest; to hide an amethyst, use Brazil. For generations, several of the charging stones have been guarded by the holder of the jaguar miraculous, living somewhere in Brazil. In these past years, the task has surely been inherited more than a few times, but the current holder likely still lives in the same general area as his predecessors have for years. Get close enough and your kwamies should be able to sense one another's presence."

"So in the morning we can head back down the mountain -"

"No, attempting that trek twice without a proper rest in between could mean death. You must stay a few days to prepare yourselves mentally and physically for the task ahead. You've done all right teaching yourselves how to use your miraculouses, but there is still much benefit you could get from a formal education in it. Far more than we could hope to teach in a matter of days, but whatever time you do have available to stay and learn would be better than none. I'll have an apprentice show you to the guest rooms, then you will join all of us for dinner."

--

"These sure are tiny babies!" the young monk exclaimed. Bridgette and Felix had been deposited in a makeshift crib in the corner of the dorm room. Bridgette didn't stir in her sleep at any point during the transition, while Felix woke but stared quietly off into space without making a fuss. "They remind me of the legend I was reading in my studies last week."

Master Fu perked up. "What legend is that?"

"It's in the collection written around 3,000 years ago. I've been reading it for practice on the ancient dialects. As far as I can gather it's about a group of people - both men and women - who coughed up human babies so small they could fit in the palm of their hand."

Three shocked faces at once clued in the apprentice that he had accidentally struck a chord. "Is that where yours came from?"

"Was it the moth miraculous that created them?" Adrien asked.

"Not sure." A look of confusion passed over the young monk's face. "It appears one of the miraculouses was responsible for their creation, but there are several descriptive words in the surrounding text that I can't seem to decipher. The moth would be a logical choice, though, since it is only limited by the strength of a person's desires."

"So butterfly children have happened before!"

--

"How is it that you speak such good French?" Marinette asked.

"I don't," the monk answered simply. "You understand me in French because it is the language that makes you the most comfortable. From my perspective, you speak flawless Lhasa Tibetan. This is the beauty of this monastery. Were we to leave the confines of the outer walls, we would not be able to understand each other."

A/n - This is the last chapter that I will be able to put up according to the old schedule. Adult life is bearing down on me and I am only able to write in short bursts in between. Depending on what's going on, I might have to take as long as two months in between chapters, though hopefully most of them won't take that long. However, I am not abandoning this story. Some day, some how, Butterfly Delivery will be finished. I appreciate your patience and encouragement. Until next time.