âHmâŠMaybeâŠâ She murmured at the thought. Her penmanship was not horrific, but sketching and the like had always alluded her. Perhaps more never interested her rather than something completely beyond her reach. Yet as the proffered journal was passed to her, sheer shock at the pen marks openly displayed across her countenance. âWhoa! Ringabel, these are really amazinâ!â Flipping through the pagesâexercising a modicum of care when doing soâeach one looked like he had captured their image and placed it in the book with magic rather than by his hand.
âI suppose the only thing Iâve offered to others are my skills in battle and a willingness to help out sometimes. Good favor of the locals goes further than any threats.â That was something she had plucked out from Alphinaudâs blathering. âI might have to learn a few things from that pen of yours and this tome.â
Handing it back to him, her lips twisted in a pout at the idea he would continue his banter even when inebriated or asleep. âWell, if you are asleep, once youâre dragged to your room, I wonât be bothered with it. I wonât be keeping you company all night, even if you begged.â Not that she assumed he would, but the statement still stood.
Though, more than likely depending on his level of drunkenness, she would most likely stay by his side to ensure he would not choke in his sleep.
âAs long as I can understand you, I guess either way wonât be bad.â She conceded, still grateful his vocabulary had been simplified for her in the most part. Yet, the mirth seemed to grow stale as their subject moved along.
Instead, a somber realization overcame her. âSo, you pass in a world and people can die? ThatâŠThat ainât right.â The power the Exarch had used was nothing like that and her gaze instantly flitted towards the window to peer upon the large tower. âHeâd never let somethinâ like that happen, so he worked hard to make sure it could work before tryinâ to call us over. Even if it took all the strength he had.â Perhaps for the first time, it seemed as if the Exarch was someone she revered as well.
It was only expounded when her attention shot back towards Ringabel, gaze edging on dangerous. âThere wonât ever be a time like that.â Her tone reflected the touch nerve. âNothingâs going to happen to him. Not if I can ever help it.â Despite the man not threatening him, the protectiveness towards the Exarch had raised her tension once more, only by letting her focus shift back towards to the tower did she find any reprieve to relax.
âThey built somethinâ in there that helped. I donât know how to explain it, butâŠitâs like a creature from the Source. Somethinâ that can distort time and space by using itâs own power.â A sigh. If she knew more of the mechanics, she could explain it better, but she had merely only beaten up the thing when it had gotten out of control. âHis bodyâŠitâs like that because heâs spent too long in that place.â
Shrugging it off some, Koya paid more mind to what he had to say. A small, breathy chuckle emitted from her as she cocked her hip to the side, hand falling to rest on it. âMaybe then, when youâve had a few drinks. Itâd be nice to know the type of person that can tame someone like you. Do they happen to know the secret to silencing your chattiness too? If so, Iâd want to meet them.â A tease, although someone who had a place and people to go home to.
âThe set is at my home in the Source. I can go to and fro with a portal in the Ocular, and can probably take you with me, if youâre still here by the morning.â With the battle won, it would be a surprise if most were still around and not spirited back to where they had been summoned from. âI can show you a mammet there too. One as chatty as you, to boot.â There was one in the goldsmith guild that always seemed to chatter.
Nodding, it was a strange thing to encounter. âWere they the same? Before Hades turned, he was a man of about your stature. But now I know thatâs not their true forms.â No, none from Amarot had been small, and even when she visited, she was regarded as a child. âCould the people you know of disguise themselves like us?â Ascians were a whole new, yet ancient breed that Koya found hard to understand.
However, the idea of a Moogle was hard to describe if one had no idea what it was. A fleeting thought to draw it, but instead taking him was the easiest of all answers. âNah, they actually say it! Yeah, here.â She reached out, once more taking a hold of his wrist, tugging him towards the door like one would lead a lost child. Opening the door and headed down the hallway, they once again passed the reverie that laid within the inn.
âWhen weâre done, weâll come back for a drink with them.â She offered back towards Ringabel. âDonât wanna make you break a promise to them, after all.â
"Your praise is, as before, most appreciated." Ringabel replied at once, failing at stopping himself from looking at least a little smug. He is a man of many talents, but it's nice to have somebody verify it for him. He regarded her explanation of what she has to offer with a considerably dimmed expression. Evidently he couldn't tell whether or not she was denigrating herself for a lack of bringing things to the table, because when he spoke next it was to reassure.
"I find that a willingness to be helpful is often a great deal more useful than a particular skill or talent. You see, given time -- sometimes a lot of it -- that helpfulness leads down the road towards the very skills that let you help more." He hums thoughtfully, raising a finger to his chin, "In a roundabout way, that's how I found my way here. I was incredibly determined to be of use to the man who raised me, you see. It pulled me in quite a few different directions-- combat being the most prominent of them, in the end, I suppose. Personally, I prefer the peaceful times."
He slipped the journal back into a leather pocket at his waist, eyebrows lifting at Koya's line of thinking. Ringabel smiled, and replied, "That's most unfortunate. This addled mind of mine has a habit of dredging up the best stories when I'm out of sorts. I suppose that you'll just have to hear them secondhand... assuming that my other conversation partners aren't just as incapacitated as I."
"Ah," he said, "but then you could still ask the barkeep."
"Of course, there's always the possibility that you receive a few whispers on your way to depositing me wherever you think is safest." He shrugged, folding his arms loosely across his stomach, "I wouldn't know. We've only known each other for a little while, after all. Perhaps I shouldn't say so, but you might be underestimating my proficiency at begging. Not that I'm prone to it."
The more serious topic of inter-world travel pulled the amused expression off of his face at once. Ringabel shook his head, "It's more complicated than that. Ordinarily, the worlds are not linked, you see. Imagine for instance that each world is surrounded by a glove. While that world is thus surrounded, other worlds cannot access it. What happens when Crystals are used to link the worlds is, that a hole is punched from one glove into the next one over. Unfortunately, the site of the breach is quite destructive, and I've never seen it happen in a different spot. It always obliterates a village called Norende."
"We don't travel dimensionally on purpose," he adds, "but once the door's open, it stays open and doesn't cause further harm. So it happened in my world, and here I am. Travel to /other/ realities, further removed from my Luxendarc... well, I have no idea. I am astonished that it wasn't destructive at all. Perhaps I'll ask him more about it before I attempt to make my exit, but... I don't know. That's a medicine so strong I would call it almost poison, if not for the unusual circumstances into which I was called."
Eyebrows lift in reaction to Koya's agitation surrounding the Exarch, but Ringabel refrains from commentary. He's gathered enough information to know a little of what happened, and doesn't feel as if it's worth pushing right now. It wouldn't help either of them, anyway. He gestures loosely into the air, "Well, he has a worthy guardian, then."
A question goes unasked -- aren't you not from around here, too? What about when you go?
"Externalizing a series of functions in order to achieve a greater degree of control over a phenomena, hm? I've seen something like that. It was destructive rather than constructive. A great deal of pain bound up in a crystalline wrapper." He mused.
Do they know the secret to silencing your chattiness, she asks. Ringabel allows his expression to fall as he considers the question. It wasn't one that he minded answering, but the answer itself was boring. Running a hand through his hair and issuing a sharp sigh, he said, "Why, they simply ask sincerely, of course. I am accustomed to working with the energetically rough-edged, rigidly polite, and astonishingly mild. I know when they really need me to turn myself off, as it were."
He leaned forward, raising a hand conspiratorially parallel with his mouth, "The secret is getting to know each other, you see."
"I'm not going anywhere just yet. Dimensional anomalies are a part of my job, and this definitely counts. I would be perfectly pleased to visit this other world of yours, and I see no reason why the route you use would not function for me. I assume that it is passingly similar to this place." He pointed at the ceiling and waved his hand in a circle, to indicate 'the universe they occupy'.
Koya's question brings the journal out again. Ringabel cracked it open and turned it around to display a two-page spread of a fairy and then a... rather disgusting-looking quasi-humanoid larval form next to it, "No. They're capable of some form of disguise, but usually they're something 'other', even when they look more benign than they are. There's the occasional fox spirit, too. Hades is a unique case for me, but I am aware of beings similar to him. I just haven't met them in a context where I could say what sort of shape variety they employ. They're from another step up in reality from us."
Ringabel stumbled as he was pulled by the wrist, re-gained his balance, and hastily put his journal away as he complied with Koya's tugging.
"All right, all right..." He managed, hastening his step to avoid being dragged, "And I'm not too worried about it. But I would think you would want to spend a little more time with them, too. They are our comrades, after all, and I doubt that they will linger too much longer if they have a choice. I am given to the impression that I am remarkable for having already concluded the greater crisis that defined my life."