#clockworkpriest

Turning her will inward, Alisaie took several breaths and eased loose her fists. The Warriors of Light were still here. They had graciously accepted her invitation to visit the koboldling. But. She would not allow herself to cry in front of them. 

They had helped her and others with a myriad of problems, yes. They had agreed to visit Ga Bu apropo of nothing, also yes. They were the closest she’d ever felt to having proper friends, and ones who could handle Alphinaud as well, yes a third time. However, there were too many things for her to focus on to allow herself to open up like that. Especially when Lara and Roger themselves often had far more to deal with than even she needed to. Crying would make her seem vulnerable, and she could not let them see how hurt she was. They didn’t need to be burdened by her feelings.

The chiming of bells from Maelstrom Command, followed by a series of them going all about the port town pulled Alisaie from her thoughts. She turned to face the Warriors of Light and gave a sharp nod. “Thank you for coming. I’m sure that somewhere in there, Ga Bu is also thankful for your presence. I’m also sure there’s plenty more for you to be doing other than staying here.”

To say that Lara and Roger looked pensive would be an understatement. The two were shifting in place and giving herself and each other looks that she did not care to examine. “If you’ll excuse me,” She made to push past the two and was startled to find that both of her arms had been captured. By the Warriors of Light. She turned a bewildered look from Roger to Lara. “What’s the meaning of this?”

“The noon bell just rang out,” Lara explained as if she were speaking to someone new to Limsa Lominsa. “And I don’t know about you, but I’m starving. Since we’re here anyway, we might as well visit the Bismarck and have lunch besides.” She turned her dark blue gaze to meet Roger’s eye just barely above Alisaie’s head. “What do you think, Roger?”

“Oh yeah, we should go.” The cheerful way he said it made Alisaie turn to face him with a suspicious glare. He flinched, but refused to release the arm he was holding. “They have tons of good food that don’t even have any meat in it. Not a lot of places do that!” 

Just what were they planning? “Seven hells, what are you doing?” 

“Inviting you to lunch, of course,” Lara said airily while adjusting her grip so that her right arm was linked in a more casual way around Alisaie’s left. Roger pulled a similar maneuver to her right. “If you don’t want to eat that’s fine, but I insist you come with us.” 

Experimentally, Alisaie attempted to pull her arms away. As she suspected, the twin grips only held onto her tighter. With an annoyed sigh, she relented, “I suppose I’m outnumbered in this regard. Is this how you two befriended Alphinaud?”

“No, he fell into that one all on his own.” Roger grinned as the three of them started walking down the walkway. “We weren’t even trying back then.”

------

It took far longer for the three of them to be seated and have their orders taken then expected. This was mostly due to what felt like (and perhaps was) the entirety of the wait and kitchen staff of the Bismarck coming by their table and catching up with what Lara had been up to. Each time that one of her former coworkers left, she apologized profusely. “You come to be like family when you work here. So that means everything is everyone’s business.” 

Roger nodded enthusiastically. “It’s kind of like that at the chocobo stables too!” He paused, then amended, “Well, with the birds at least. You get to know their personalities so well, the more lonely people start talking to them like they’re actually responding.”

Alisaie leaned a hand against her chin while her elbow was propped on the table. The complementary bread slices had long been eaten, and with how distracted the wait staff was with talking to Lara no one had thought to refill the basket yet. This left her more time to think on the statements of her current lunchmates. She directed her gaze at Roger and lifted a white eyebrow. “Were you particularly lonely at the stables?”

Pink colored his cheeks while he looked in any direction that wasn’t towards her. “N-no…” His pause lasted a relative eon but must have only taken a few seconds. “...Bell’s always been a great listener and Pepper does chatter back at me, I swear. Or did when I took care of him.”

If she wasn’t so upset at life, Alisaie probably would have laughed. Instead she let the smile tugging at her lips grow a little. Lara at least had the decency to hide her giggles behind a hand, though the sound of them were hardly muffled. 

He huffed and pointed back at his best friend. “And that’s rich coming from someone who has about a million older friends.” 

Taken aback, Lara retorted, “So do you! Most of the Scions are older than us!” 

“You still have a ton more, though.”

“I’d have to agree,” Alisaie turned to face Lara. She looked and acted scandalized, but she was probably playing it up. It was an easy enough lead to follow in this playact. “There’s been a veritable parade of staff here to greet you. Enough so that we’ve spent more time talking than eating. What did you do, reinvent some cooking technique?”

With a snort, Lara folded her arms and leaned back against the chair she sat in. “Hardly. I was apprenticed here when I was 14.”

Alisaie blinked owlishly. “They take apprentices that young?” 

“It depends. I was something of a special case.” 

“Of course.” Alisaie rolled her eyes. “I forgot, you both are so good at everything you put your hands on.”

“Hardly.” Lara returned the eye roll. “I could barely figure out how to scramble eggs back then. But the family that took me in were about to be out at sea for several months and I needed to be taken care of until then. Once I’d gotten over a few hurdles, I took to being a Culinarian like a fish to water. My schooling and lodging were paid for by my work at the Bismarck and here we are now.”

That second statement gave Alisaie pause. A glance back at Roger made it clear that he was already aware of this story. “‘The family that took care of you,’ you say. Not your parents?”

The other girl’s face was unconcerned as she shrugged. “Couldn’t find them since I couldn’t remember who they were.”

“And why’s that?”

“No one really knows. I was found by a Fisher family at the age of 12. All I could recall from before then was my given name and my nameday. And since no one knew a Lara who looked like me...” She indicated herself, making extra gestures at her wavy blonde hair that had streaks of red throughout and her dark blue eyes. “Well, orphans on Limsa sometimes get taken in by families to teach the trade to. I was horrible at fishing, though Tanion was never upset with me about it.” 

“Who is Tanion?”

“Er...I guess you could say he’s my adoptive uncle? He was the main one that took charge of trying to teach me life skills. Venor, his partner, stuck strictly to his thaumaturgy but he could be fun to talk to when he felt like it.” 

Alisaie was hooked (to pardon the pun) by this new information. She hadn’t heard any of this from the other Scions. Had Alphinaud even known…? She’d ask him about that later. “He sounds like a total pill.” 

Lara laughed. “He is! I don’t see what Tanion sees in him, but apparently it’s something strong enough that they’re still together. He sends me letters every so often.”

“I did not know that.” She genuinely didn’t. “Do they not worry about you enough to send more?”

“Kind of? Venor doesn’t seem to care one way or another and Tanion does have some vague worries in his letters, but they don’t ask if they can help or anything. It’s why I don’t really think of them as parents.” Lara shrugged. “It might be a culture thing or it might be an orphan thing. Limsa Lominsa’s descended from pirates. Independence is something you’re taught pretty young around here so I never felt incapable. Anyway, I still respect that they took care of me when I had nothing but my name, so I’ve kept their family one in return."

The idea left Alisaie’s head spinning. To have grown up with people who were less parents and more babysitters until the time came to work. To have worked until very recently to survive. That Lara could come out of it so cheerful was...extraordinary. 

Speaking of cheerful, though.

She turned to Roger, who had been quiet this whole time. “What about yourself? You’ve from the Black Shroud, yes?” 

He scratched the back of his head while he came up with an answer. “Actually, I was found me in the Black Shroud.”

“What??” Just like Roger knew her side of things, Lara didn’t seem at all surprised by this statement.

“I know right?? There’s all these stories about people getting lost forever in the woods...a patrol of Twin Adders found me and took me back to Gridania. I was 12 at the time.” 

Sensing the pattern, Alisaie finished with, “And you don’t remember anything from before then except for your given name and nameday.” 

He looked sheepish as he smiled. “Yep.” 

“You two accumulate the oddest of coincidences.”

“So everyone keeps telling us,” Lara commented. 

“Don’t tell me you also had caretakers who had no parental skills?”

“Oh no, my mom and dad were really nice,” Alisaie let loose a relieved sigh, then she realized what he’d said just as he added, “They died a couple of years ago, in their sleep. I got to be their kid since their other ones were fully grown and they were too old to fight on the front lines.” 

She couldn’t help a wince as she offered, “I’m sorry for your loss.”

Roger smiled, as if he hadn’t been talking about the death of his adoptive parents. “Thank you.”

“What were their names?” 

“Landaeg and Terama Briden.”

“No wonder you were lonely.” She meant it as a serious statement, but Roger seemed to take it as a joke.

“I told you, I had Bell and Pepper to help me out! And Walker too. He’s the one that taught me what I know about Botany. He wasn’t too happy when I started adventuring, but when he found out I wasn’t actually alone in fighting, he let me keep going.”

Lara leaned both of her elbows onto the table with a wicked grin. “And just how much do you leave out of your letters to him?”

His flushed face was more red than pink this time. “N-not a--hey I don’t need to answer you!” 

As the two started to bicker, Alisaie leaned back and took it all in. She only had anecdotes of students and stories of the world outside of the Studium to give her an idea of what “normal” was supposed to look like. Being powerless in the face of things far too vast to fight...she was well aware of this phenomenon. She experienced it constantly. And yet, to confront the Warriors of Light and their common background of being too powerless to prevent the losses they had experienced even before they’d started adventuring…

It really felt like they were still on her level. Not up high in the clouds where she could never reach them. They were...she glanced at Lara then Roger in turn. Literally close enough to touch. She had the power to do just that. Deliberately or no, the Warriors of Light had given her a way to feel like there was something she could do, no matter how little it was.

Alisaie could have cried, if not for the sudden arrival of all of the food the three had ordered. She blamed her need to rub at them on how good it smelled and if Roger and Lara suspected anything, they didn’t say.