It would not co as a surprise, Sena having been proven right.
This ti, Esta arrived in the morning. It so happened that by the ti she entered the Crown, I was already there — not intentionally, just as much as I was trying to delay the conversation I needed to have with Vorn concerning our encounter on the canal bench. But since I had decided to put it off, it was inevitable that I would end up here.
Her glance over the room went the sa way it did the previous day — thodical and deliberate, her eyes moving from one face to another. When she reached , she stopped for only a fraction of a second. Just enough ti to register the familiarity of the face she was seeing again, due to her photographic mory.
I did not avert my gaze.
She approached .
"I saw you yesterday," she stated matter-of-factly. Not an accusation. Just information provided as part of establishing whether she was dealing with soone useful or not.
"I’m here every other night, mostly," I replied. "Kai."
She looked at again, sizing up her audience before speaking. "Esta."
The UI pinged right away at the sound of her voice, the relationship percentage moving up from zero to four, the first contact made, and the wiki at eighty-seven percent complete.
"You’re looking for soone," I stated.
"Does it show that much?"
"You scanned every single face when you ca through the door last night, and you’ve done it the previous night as well."
She pulled out the chair next to mine and sat down despite the lack of an invitation, which made think of sothing else about her. Not rude — just a person who took charge and didn’t second guess herself before acting. She placed both hands on the table in front of her — clean hands — a definite contrast with Sable’s. "It’s my brother. He should be in Ashveil."
"Why ’should’? Did he not go there?"
"His mother claims he is. His mother received a letter from him saying that eight weeks ago."
"But?"
I cross-referenced the tiline with what I knew. Vorn had already been in Ashveil doing flags for more than eight weeks by the ti that had started — that whole thing about taking Daren down was already established by the ti I got there. Those letters ending four weeks prior seed to coincide with that post-trigger phase, which was about right — soone figuring out what he wants out of life isn’t exactly likely to be penning frequent dispatches to his mother or whoever.
"What’s his na?" I asked, establishing rather than not knowing.
"Vorn."
Sena entered the room, placed the cup in front of Esta without being invited, and exited. Esta regarded the cup, then , recalibrating.
"Does she do that for everyone?" Esta asked.
"No."
Esta picked up her cup. Took a sip. Made a decision. "You know him."
Not a question. She’d picked up on Sena’s reading of , noted my lack of reaction to the na, and deduced accordingly within about four seconds. Straightforward and observation-based, much like the wiki was designed to create. The wiki understood what it was saying.
"I know him," I said. "Not well. He and I have spoken."
"Where is he?"
"I’m unaware of his current whereabouts." Completely accurate, as far as the UI was concerned. Self-determining equaled self-determining. "He’s in the city. And as far as I know, he’s fine."
Her eyes fixed on mine with all the intent and intensity of a calibration test being run, trying to determine how much faith to place in my words. And what basis I was going on.
"But sothing happened."
I weighed how best to respond to that query. The truth was more complex than flags and corruption and stopping points and a conversation on a canal bench that had stopped him in his tracks.
"He had an experience," I told her. "And it resulted in him recognizing there were certain changes that needed to be made. And he’s figuring out what those are."
Esta fell silent for a mont. She hadn’t analyzed; she had already done that. She was trying to decide if my response was enough.
"That’s not nothing," she stated.
"No," I agreed. "That’s not nothing."
The wiki reached ninety-one percent completion.
ESTA — UPDATED ENTRY
Personality profile: CONFIRD
— Direct; does not seek validation for decisions once made and implented.
— Observational, with quick assessnt of situation and calibration even with minimal data.
— Protective stance towards Vorn; knows he is edgy but still protects him.
— Practical; doesn’t act on emotions but carries worry as a responsibility.
— Travel skills confird; found his way around new city, created proper thodology and assessed contact within four minutes of real conversation.
Corruption ter: 2/100 — first encounter accounted for
Relationship / Kai: 11
Note: Movent of corruption ter accounted for through proximity and genuine engagent — no chanics involved
Two.
I noted it just like everything else — docunted, filed and forgotten. The number two represented the acknowledgnt of the system that there actually had been a conversation. This was not a warning sign, not an opportunity to approach, but rely sothing for the system to record.
Nevertheless I noticed it all the sa.
"He’s not available at the mont," I said, "but I will send him a ssage saying you were looking for him."
Esta looked at questioningly. "Why would you do that?"
Absolutely. I decided the best approach would be honesty, aning that the aftermath of Vorn was complex and evolving, and his sister’s appearance added a variable whose paraters I wasn’t sure of just yet; preempting things seed like the smarter course of action.
But there was always the second option: Esta made her way wherever necessary to reach Ashveil due to her brother no longer writing to her and exceeding whatever her personal threshold of worry was, and that warranted a proper response regardless of everything else.
"Because you’ve co this far," I explained. "He needs to know you’re here."
She considered that. Another calibration process of so kind, weighing her options once more. "You aren’t who I expected to see when coming to this inn in the middle of the night," she stated eventually.
"And who did you expect?"
"Sobody trying to sell stuff."
"It’s early in the morning."
Her lips twitched. More of a hint of an expression than anything else, one that appeared without forethought because she wasn’t sure if it would have been appropriate, if it was worth smiling at.
My relationship ter was now on seventeen.
My corruption ter remained stuck at two.
I sipped on my cup while she sipped on hers. Outside, the market was coming alive, vendors and their carts preparing to sell their goods, turning the gears of the city machine.
"How’s he holding up?" she inquired. She hadn’t started with this question, which had been rely a matter of logistics — where is he. But this was what lay beneath it.
I thought about Vorn at Sera’s stall, shrinking in on himself. Vorn leaving the market right after answering her. About Vorn existing in a state of self-determination the ga had yet to figure out, let alone I, which put above most of the people I’ve t in Ashveil.
"He’ll be okay. He’ll figure things out, eventually."
Esta nodded. Just one small gesture, the kind that ca when sobody had been provided with information they could act on and file accordingly.
She drained her cup and stood up. "I’ll be waiting for you at the Wren’s Rest. Two streets north from here." There was sothing direct about her, like she’d given the sa sort of location detail that you might pass soone a tool with. Here, useful. If the information makes it to him.
"Will do," I said.
She glanced back at once more, that look that ant she was making so kind of calculation. Co to so kind of conclusion. Then she left.
The UI cycled through its readouts as she walked away.
ESTA — STATUS
Relationship / Kai: 19
Corruption ter: 3/100 — rising via organic interactions
Mood: Functional / Resolving
Wiki status: 91% — GENERATING
Note: True contact made — honest approach proven effective / no chanics engaged / corruption ter rising via organic interactions only
Three.
As I sat there with my empty cup, I realized that there was one more conversation I would be having at the bench by the canal, one that I had been putting off until Esta ca along and changed everything. He had to understand that his sister was in the city, and that was both the important part and the practical part all wrapped up in one.
Sena took the cup from .
"Great inn, Wren’s Rest," she said.
I wasn’t even curious enough to wonder where she learned that from Esta.
I walked out of the Crown and sought out Vorn.
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