FE-Fates: 004

Shin Lee and his... partner, Astolfo, last name unmentioned. A young man and woman that, frankly, Nyx didn't understand at all. Doubly so when it was obvious that Shin was the one calling the shots, despite that...

He was a farmer.

He was very obviously a farmer, once Nyx looked past the shockingly handsome face and the buttery smooth voice to his build and his hands. The muscles he had were from heavy lifting and hauling, and the callouses on his hands didn't match up to swordsmanship or scribing. The boy had clearly never held a sword in his life before meeting his lady love.

Only, that didn't fit with what Nyx was seeing. Not least because despite her experience and skill with the blade, Astolfo's hands were as smooth and soft as a newborn's. Shin though...

He hadn't had the time to put in the practice with one, before the two of them had rushed across the continent to find and recruit her, of all people. There was no accounting for taste, she supposed, while setting aside how she personally felt about that. All the same? The cheap copper sword that they picked up secondhand from a smith in a small village that had been planning to melt it down for roofing tacks had pretty clearly been the first real weapon that the boy had ever owned, much less used.

But that didn't match up with the practice session that she had observed between them, where Astolfo threw out all standard practice of regimented training for a much quicker and dirtier method.

She beat the boy like a dust-filled rug. And then she did it again, and again, demanding that he learn from the experience.

He shouldn't have. He really shouldn't have. That wasn't how anyone learned the sword, or any other weapon. You had to know what you were supposed to do, and be corrected of errors by an experienced trainer, before you could start doing it properly.

Unless, it seemed, your name was 'Shin Lee'. Because he picked it all up on the fly somehow, and was fighting back competently before long. Not winning, but delaying his loss in a way that just... didn't make sense for an ordinary villager from a backwater farming hamlet. And when asked about how?

"I have a certain Talent, with Martial pursuits as well as those of the Soul." he had said. "They combine best into the discipline inherent to pursuits such as the Shaolin Monk, where a healthy body reinforces spiritual ki, which amplifies a healthy body in a cycle... but they are individually beneficial to studying combat skills in general, and most forms of magic."

Which was all well and good, except that Nyx wasn't familiar with what a 'Shaolin' was, what it meant to be a monk devoted to such an order, or what the ki that he referenced was either. Meaning it was a meaningless explanation that might as well be summarized with him being good at the sword just because.

The magic side of the explanation stood out, however, and so before Shin could get on a roll about his 'Tao' thing she cut him off with a spare Tome and a suggestion that he back his confidence up.

Fire. The first 'real' combat Tome, but not what a mage was meant to start learning with. That would be Ember... A spell that could be used for battle, in emergencies, but which was much more typically used as a training tool to familiarize a student with magic. To be frank, however, it was long enough since Nyx had been a novice only just exploring the possibilities inherent to magic that she didn't have such a Tome in her possession any more, and they were in somewhat short supply outside of noble households and military training camps.

While she could scribe one... that would take a while, and the basic Fire Tome would serve well enough as a test.

One that the boy had passed with flying colors. Nyx had... not mentioned how long it usually took for a trainee to figure out how to use any kind of magic for the first time, even with a Tome to do all the heavy lifting of focusing energy into action and producing a spell. Suffice to say, it was usually significantly more than a long day dedicated to the attempt.

Which begged the question of just what was going on with Shin Lee.

The quickly gained skill with sword and spell. The surname, when no peasants really bothered with that sort of thing unless they were advertising being born of some noble house's bastard branch. The simple literacy, in fact... Nyx wasn't the sort that genuinely believed that all farmers were rubes that couldn't even spell their names, but she'd passed through enough small villages at this point that she knew that it was often a chore limited to what they needed to know for their profession and not something done for pleasure. The cooking... if it weren't for the blade and magic training then she would say the boy was a very lost royal chef, and she knew that nobody in small villages had that kind of talent with preparing food. They wouldn't still be in small villages if they did, but rather cooking in a fort or small castle somewhere.

Nyx had ultimately agreed to a smaller cut on jobs in exchange for the food, and she could confidently say that she was not getting the worse end of the arrangement. The expense of good food was far above the simple cost of the ingredients... and the boy produced some very good food. Well worth the cut to any coin earned.

... Which was, itself, strange. Because for all that the two of them declared themselves a 'Mercenary Company', they didn't act like one.

Mercenaries were hungry people, fueled by quiet desperation and avarice, constantly on the prowl from one job to the next, always on the look out for an opportunity to earn a little more on the side. And Shin and Astolfo... weren't. Oh, they took on work, certainly. Simple and humble things, without much concern for the pay. Finding lost children, delivering things from one town to the next... chores that, well, an actual Mercenary would take, certainly, but with disgruntlement and only as something to hold them over as they looked for a larger pay day. Or a way to show off enough to catch the eye of a noble looking for skilled retainers to give a steady wage to.

And the Wyvern-Riders didn't do that. Didn't seem to spare a thought to the actual money, in fact, and only seemed to take the jobs themselves as something to fill the time. An excuse to move around, as much as anything.

... It wasn't really any of her business, to be honest. Nyx didn't have enough expenses to be frustrated at the low rate of income, given that she previously made almost no money at all to begin with, and the less money the group made in general the better the deal to give up a slice of it in exchange for Shin's cooking became.

But then there were the contracts.

Those were... alarming. It began with an ordinary piece of paper, pen, and ink, and somewhere along the line, with no clear input of how or why, it became a powerful and subtle form of magic like nothing that she knew of. Honestly, Nyx wasn't sure if there were many others who would recognize it for what it was, and she had inspected the sheet very closely to be sure there was nothing more to it than the agreed upon rates of service, payment, and food before hesitantly penning her name on the sheet and waiting for the other shoe to drop. Or a collar to click about her neck.

The compulsions inherent to the written contract were potent, it almost seemed as though Shin had deliberately showed his hand in the assumption that she would recognize the danger of it, and Nyx hadn't been able to stop thinking for a while about what might have happened if there had been fine print that she hadn't closely inspected, or if a clause had been written in invisible ink, or on the reverse side of the document.

That was something that very easily turned into a slaver's tool, magic binding an unwary target so that they could no longer resist the will of their master... And Shin hadn't even tried to slip such a clause in. Nyx was relieved, of course, but... No, no but. No matter what certain novels might feature, that was that and this was this... and Nyx was not a young woman with heart aflutter at the sight of a handsome face, ready to barge in on a clearly satisfactory relationship.

Setting that aside, to somewhere that she didn't have to think about it, there was also the small device that Shin would occasionally bring out. Like a rectangular hand-held mirror, seemingly not magical at all save that when he poked at it it would do things. The only function of which Nyx was perfectly clear being that it would display a map of the surrounding area, seemingly accurate in all respects.

She was not sure if he quite realized the treasure that that alone was.

Maps were matters of security in times of war. It wasn't impossible to get a good look at things from above, if you were astride the back of a wyvern or pegasus, but then you would have to verbally report it to a commander. Similarly, scouts would have to go out and quietly make note of what they found. Accurate maps of an area meant that all of that could be bypassed, and a platoon of soldiers marching to war could simply consult the map and then start moving by the best and fastest possible route to their destination, forcing the defenders to scramble to intercept them.

That hand-mirror that showed a map when prompted was the sort of thing that Nyx would not be at all surprised to hear that a king had decided was too dangerous by far to leave in the hands of some wandering mercenary. It was the sort of item that would be ordered seized, at all costs. Astolfo seemed to have some idea of the value, at least...

And that said nothing of the fact that, as it so happened, those wyverns were actually the next best thing to feral, still adjusting to being mounted and ornery enough that they honestly should have long since attacked and attempted to escape back to the mountains.

But ultimately, Nyx simply didn't know what to make of Shin Lee. He did not... fit, and the more she set her mind to trying to pick apart his secrets, the more things she found that didn't quite make sense. ... And the more her casual passing thoughts returned to him, attempting to peel away the face he presented to find out just what lied beneath. He occupied her thoughts now like no other person had for decades.

... She had made a dreadful mistake. Allowed herself to become too close to the object of her observation, rather than remaining at an aloof and comfortable position well removed from him.

She was starting to feel... something that she wouldn't put to words. But she couldn't. Cursed as she was, there was no reason that any such unnamed feelings would be reciprocated. Even if it were, Nyx was not the sort of person that would attempt to break apart a couple for the sake of her own feelings.

And so, she wouldn't.

She simply needed to... ask for a little space to calm herself down, regain her equanimity, and create some distance from the loving couple. Shin in particular. They could pick her back up from her own cottage before long.

... Though she would dearly miss the cooking, and already regretted the need to take household cooking back into her own hands. She wasn't bad at it, of course.... with years of practice almost nobody could be. But the absence of Shin's cooking would be something to endure at this point. It was probably fortunate that she had long set aside the possibility of a normal life, with a husband and children, because she might feel the sting to housewifely pride elsewise.

All the same... She hesitated for a moment by the main campfire.

"The critical event will occur on the plains of Hoshido, if nothing changes." Shin said to Astolfo. "But... It doesn't sit right to stand aside and do nothing, until then."

"Then act, if you can think of a way to act." Astolfo replied, as Nyx stood in place, watching the discussion. "It looks like our mage wishes to say something, however. I'll leave you alone for a minute."

... for some reason, Astolfo smiled at her, mouthed 'Good Luck', and then gave a cheerful little wave as she flounced away. Nyx... didn't really understand that, but it could wait for analysis later on.

"You wanted to speak with me?" Shin asked, smiling lightly.

"Yes..." Nyx began, before trailing off in hesitation, trying to think of how to broach the subject of...

Not breaking off a relationship, because there was no relationship to break. Admitting that she had begun to develop feelings, only to declare immediately that she was putting them aside? If so, then why bring the matter up instead of remaining silent? It might be that Nyx would regret not mentioning it later, but despite how she looked, she was an old woman. Regrets were nothing new. She only really needed the time away, but how to bring that up with no excuse.

"You are probably aware that despite my appearance, I am no child." was what she said instead.

"Yes. Though it is rude of me to know secrets that you have not chosen to speak, the matter did come up in the divergent paths where you made an appearance." Shin said. "Though I can still give no evidence of that, as there are also no few rumors and folk stories featuring your tale throughout Nohr, though not the specifics of it."

That... Nyx still didn't know what to make of the claim of outside observation. Time travel was a more plausible claim, extreme as it was. Otherworlds certainly existed as well, but to the best of Nyx's knowledge that was not how they worked either.

"Perhaps I should balance the scales and offer a secret of my own?" Shin asked.

"You have secrets?" Nyx asked wryly. "In my experience you speak clearly about everything that comes to mind, without thought or hesitation."

"By which you mean I should keep quiet more?" Shin said with a chuckle, startling Nyx as she had not precisely intended for him to take the words that way. "But you might be surprised. There are a few secrets that I haven't mentioned, to be fair."

Nyx sighed heavily.

"Very well." she said. "Though if it is about your Tao, I must warn you in advance that I am not sure that I have the patience for it."

"Fair enough. Another time, maybe." Shin replied. "Something else... hm..."

Shin stroked his chin and visibly pondered for a moment.

"Very well. Then I will tell you this. This is not a curse, but something else that affects my person and those around me, so it is something you should keep in mind, and I honestly should have brought it up before." Shin said. "If you intend to remain single, then you should take care not to declare love for me. Not in jest, and more so not in fact. Not if you do not wish to become mine."

Nyx coughed and spluttered, heart hammering suddenly in her chest before she calmed herself.

"That is a tasteless jest." she huffed.

"No jest at all. Among other secrets I hold, I am possessed of a condition in which anyone who declares honest love for me will become bound to me. A generous person might call this very romantic, red strands of fate binding two lovers together forever. The truth of it, however, is that this is a form of slavery, as you would thereafter struggle greatly to fall out of love with me, unless I took great and terrible actions so very against your moral code that you would find yourself unable to turn a blind eye for the sake of love. As there exists a limit to what my own moral code allows.." Shin continued, as though he were not saying something extremely absurd. "It is also known that in the past this condition has also seized those whose confessions of love were not so honest, made in deception or as a cruel jape. It did not come to mind as something important to mention, as the Tao grants me the ability to sever such bindings to myself if I wish, at which point any emotions will return to a more normal state of being, and I would be glad to do so in the case of an accident. Deliberate action is a somewhat different matter, of course."

"Well. You need not fear that I shall make any such declarations." Nyx said stiffly, after a long moment. "Regardless of your dubious condition, I should not wish to come between yourself and Astolfo."

"An interesting choice of phrasing. Astolfo has suggested an interest in precisely that, as it happens." Shin chuckled.

... Nyx did not follow.

"Nyx. I do not consider love to be a finite resource." Shin said. "Nor that it should only be allowed to exist, or to persist, in certain specific ways and only between certain specific kinds of people. Love is inexhaustible, and the more of it is given away, the more of it there is to give. Relationships, now, those take work. They need understanding and agreement between everyone involved, regardless of the number or their gender. In any case, Astolfo is currently bound to me in much the way that I have described, so you need not be concerned on that matter."

Shin patted the back of her hand, leaving behind a feeling of tingling warmth across her fingers where the tips of his had brushed.

"You haven't spoken to Astolfo much, I recall." Shin said. "I think you should talk with him, before deciding anything else."

He waved her off and Nyx found herself retreating, pensively, as she found herself unable to bring up the prospect of her taking perhaps a week of time to herself in the current mood...

... Him?

The innuendo suddenly made sense, hitting Nyx like a charging war horse as she suddenly flushed deeply, standing in place as her heart started pounding rapidly against the inside of her chest again.

They were both... two men? That was a man? She couldn't believe it, and even if she did... Two of them together!? With her!? That was something that didn't even happen in her romance novels, it was only ever one man at a time, and only until the male romantic lead was finalized!

She was still getting her bearings as Astolfo suddenly rushed over, setting her head spinning as she tried to equate the person in front of her to maleness.

"Pack up quick!" Astolfo called out cheerily. "Commander Daniela is back on our trail again~"

... There was not much to store away, so much as toss through Shin's mystery portal to his holiday home, at which point the fire was doused and they all fled on wyvern-back from the pursuit of military forces hunting the pair of them for poaching.

Clinging to Astolfo's back, soft pink hair with a sweetly floral scent tickling at her nose? It didn't help at all to calm her whirling thoughts or the pulse in Nyx's veins.