A Father’s Prerogative: A Lucial Chapter (Part 1)

It would be a good day, Lucial thought as she stretched to the first rays of morning sunlight. Getting her father to allow her to reside at her future husband's estate had been difficult, but she had won out in the end; it didn't challenge any of his dictates, so he had allowed it, feeling he had granted her a great privilege. In reality, probably not that great, but it sure felt like it.

Several of the servants took note of her warm mood as she prepared to travel to the dining hall for breakfast. Her personal servants, however, wore conflicted expressions; they knew what she had planned for today, Lucial and Sistilla had been talking about it for a while now. They had kept their plans clandestine, though not so secret that they went through the trouble of keeping them from their personal attendants.

Once at the dining table, the two of them cast knowing looks at each other . If anyone noticed, they didn't place any significance on it. Lucial’s face contorted into a number of unusual shapes as she struggled to force back a radiant grin, which would be suspicious. It felt like she was gaining control of her life. Today would be another step in reclaiming her independence. A large step, if she was honest, but Sistilla had her back.

In truth, she had harbored a lingering interest ever since Sistilla had spoken about it when she first arrived, her work with the Adventurer's Guild. Don't be mistaken; Lucial didn’t relish the thought of fighting monsters and the like, but the idea of traveling to far-off places, exploring, and uncovering lost civilizations thrilled her as much as when she had first started learning sigilary. Nowadays, she knew most everything about sigilary—the theory anyway—but the Guild presented a vast new world to explore. Of course, her father would never approve, but they had no intention of telling him. Sure, he would find out at some point, but it would be too late by then, or at least that was what she told herself.

"Okay, Stilla," Lucial whispered to her as she pulled her aside after breakfast. "I'm ready when you are." Sistilla pulled away slightly and gave her a bemused smirk.

"Not like that, you aren't." Lucial looked down at her blue dress. Not exactly impractical for day-to-day matters... so long as you didn't need to do anything more than shuffle about the chateau. By contrast, Sistilla in her tight fitting jerkin and leggings looked ready to roll down a hillside and spring up, ready to fight. Her cheeks flushed crimson across her pale skin, skin she had inherited from her mother, who was New Pravender.

She covered her face. "Sorry, I didn't even consider..."

"Don't worry about it, Lucial." She gave her a pat on the back with a wider smile than would typically be attributed to her. "That is why you have me!"

"I don't know... Maybe I'm not cut out for this kind of thing after all."

"Don't start doubting yourself now. Not after all we talked about! Like I said before, your sigilary would be the envy of any master rank Guild member! We just need to get you up to speed on all the rest." Lucial smiled at her friend and soon-to-be sister-in-law's encouragement. With Sistilla's support, she had pushed past mere whimsy into real consideration of joining, and now into actually applying.

She had thought it might be difficult, but that was untrue, according to Sistilla. Pretty much anyone could sign up and be assigned the rank of Rookie. At that level, you were more or less a glorified errand runner, though they apparently would assign you something ostensibly dangerous before promoting you to Vetted.

Sistilla slung an arm around her shoulder. "As for proper adventuring attire, I got you covered. You are about the same size as me."

"I don't know about that... You have much more musculature…”

"Hehe, maybe for now, but that doesn't matter. They will fit!" Sistilla paused for a moment and cast a sly scan across the hall. "We just need to get to my secret stash."

The secret stash turned out to be in a cellar on the other side of the chateau. Not that she minded the walk; the nervous are never in a rush. That yutsuukitsuu, Olavir, turning up along the way was unfortunate, though. She didn't much like him hanging around while she taught Amillia her sigilary either, but that probably wasn't much of an issue.

"Of all the crazy ass..." he muttered to himself as he scoured the stone stairs to the basement with soap and water. "...Throw stuff at the wall... Total pain in the..." He jumped when he saw them approach the stairwell. "Oh, it's just you two." He let out a sigh.

"What are you up to, Olavir?" Sistilla asked.

"Oh, just cleaning the stairs... They are quite dirty." He couldn’t conceal the look of guilt on his face as he tried to face away. What was he hiding? Whatever it was, Sistilla didn't seem to think much of it, as she gave him a casual parting word before continuing on. She, too, shouldn't worry about it. He probably just broke or spilled something and was trying to covertly clean it up... probably. But speaking of Olavir...

"Stilla, didn't you ask Olavir to help you learn to cook?" Sistilla stiffened as she stopped mid-stride. "How did that go?"

"..." She turned away, looking chagrined. "I would prefer not to talk about it."

"Oh." Lucial lifted a white gloved hand to her mouth. "Sorry, I didn't know it was an unpleasant event."

"It's not that." She tugged on the base of her long braid. "I just had to face an unpleasant realization." Well, that was not what Lucial would have expected from a cooking lesson, unless it was a realization she had no talent for cooking. Or could it be...

"Did Olavir say something?"

"Did Olavir say something?" Sistilla repeated, looking confused. "You mean like other than normal stuff? Besides a few facetious comments, nothing noteworthy."

"Oh, okay." Sistilla gave her a strange look before shrugging and continuing on.

Sistilla's secret stash turned out to be a barrel behind a lot of other barrels in a dead-end corridor, all of which were empty. Apparently, this was where they came when they needed an empty barrel. If one managed to discover Sistilla's secret stash, they would find it considerably heavier than the others. And if opened, one would find a polite but threatening note to ignore this barrel. Of course, that didn't apply to them.

"Here, try these on!" Sistilla said and tossed her an armful of worn but sturdy clothing. They were heavier than she thought, certainly heavier than anything she had ever worn. But once on, she didn't notice the weight, though they were somewhat awkward to put on—the laces on the pants, she found quite odd, but Sistilla said it was important to prevent them getting caught up.

Sistilla nodded as Lucial examined herself. "There. Now you look like a proper adventurer." She did look rather impressive, though perhaps the red undershirt wasn't really her color, she thought, looking at her reflection in a light-reflecting sigil. "See? I've never seen a sigil that reflects light. Once you learn the ropes, you will have no end of requests!" Lucial blushed again; she really was susceptible to that. She turned away, hoping to hide her facet, but her impromptu mirror betrayed her. "Just don't forget me when you make it big!"

"Forget you? I thought we were going to be a team?" Lucial said, a little hurt by the implication that they might drift apart.

"Of course! I was just teasing you. Though it's not like you can't take on assignments on your own or with others. We both have our own familial obligations." That thought took some of the wind from her sails. "Okay, just a few more things." Sistilla continued rummaging through the barrel.

"There is more I need?"

"Just a couple things... Ah, here we are." She came back over and handed Lucial a sheathed knife and a small belt-mounted bag.

"A knife!?" Lucial was aghast. "I don't think I could stab anyone!"

Sistilla laughed. "Not for stabbing. It's a tool. You would be surprised how handy a knife can be in all kinds of situations."

"Oh..." She looked down, embarrassed. "And the bag?"

"A simple first aid kit, unless you know healing sigilary?" Lucial shook her head with a laugh at the absurd joke. "Well, that should be enough for now. You might find you want to bring other stuff along, but you will figure that out as you go." She took a moment to stow the new gear on her belt, after which Sistilla gave her a final appraisal. "Yeah, you look the part now." She put a hand on her shoulder. "Okay, let's head out."

Yes, it was a good day. The air in Sofuton smelled sweet to Lucial's nose, as the light wind dampened the heat from the unimpeded sunlight upon entering the outer city limits. A thrill ran through her as she secured her belt knife, ready to take on her first adventure, even if it was only enlisting. Sistilla had even dubbed it such back in that cellar.

"Just think of it as your first adventure," Sistilla had said as they snuck out of the chateau in garb that would have caused her father to choke on air. "I'll scout ahead and make sure the coast is clear, then wave you over. All you need to do is stay alert." Her heart had nearly burst from her chest when, to avoid discovery, she had to dash off behind a closed door not once, but twice! But she had escaped unnoticed; her body was still humming with excited energy. She had no idea she was such a rebel.

Now that they were in Sofuton, the high was leveling off, leaving the world feeling brighter and more vibrant. She had been here many times before, but always on sanctioned visits, and certainly with no intentions of registering as an adventurer. She had intended to register on one of those visits—it had been a while since the last one—before it became a covert operation.

Sistilla had parked her auto-bike at the outer limits. She liked to walk through the city; it gave you a better appreciation for the urban life force. This had been the first time Lucial had ridden such a contraption, and she had held onto Sistilla like a great oak tree during a hurricane. By the end, however, she had loosened her grip, letting the wind whip through her hair.

"Just think of it like a horse, kind of like how an auto-carriage is like a regular carriage." Lucial had ridden a horse, but hardly found the two experiences analogous, despite Sistilla's insistence. Still, she wondered if she would ride her own auto-bike someday.

As they walked down the street towards the Adventurers' Guild, Sistilla calling out to some of her acquaintances, an out-of-place building caught Lucial’s eye. This section of the city was what you might call working class, but the buildings were all in good repair, except for one.

"What happened to that building?" Lucial pointed out, drawing Sistilla's attention. The building in question was part of a larger complex. However, this particular section stood out.

"Ah! What indeed..." She scrutinized the storefront. "That's the WWP."

"The WWP?"

"World without Poverty. They are a new organization that serves the poor and downtrodden," Sistilla informed. "I did some work for them, to get in good if they ever had some real jobs. That wasn't more than several months ago. This soup kitchen was... in considerably better condition then."

"This was a soup kitchen?" How had it deteriorated so rapidly? The door swung open, and a man clad in clothing that had seen better days shuffled out.

"It's still a soup kitchen." Sistilla corrected to Lucial’s greater surprise. This build was in disrepair: boarded-up windows, broken lamps, a hanging sign that she could now see had been broken—maybe several times—with "World without Poverty" painted atop several layers of what she hoped were paint stains. The front door didn't look much better. Sistilla clenched her jaw with tight lips.

"How can you..!" Yelling came from behind the door. She couldn't make it out, but she knew a raging wail when she heard one. Sistilla grabbed her by the hand and burst through the door.

"What is going on here?" Sistilla's voice boomed. Inside the building didn't look much better than the outside, but it looked clean and functional. Only a handful of people dwelled within, all of whom looked like they would rather be somewhere else. At the counter, where the food was presumably served, stood a beleaguered-looking man with a prominent mustache and an irate working-class woman with a round figure standing opposite.

"That's a good question!" The woman said in a loud voice. "How are they still allowed to operate!?"

"Huh?" Sistilla’s jaw slackened. "What do you mean?"

"What do you mean, what do you mean?" She looked at them incredulously. "They took my son from me! And plenty more besides!" She looked back at the kitchen worker. "You should all be locked up!"

"Ula, I've told you. I am, we all are beyond sorry for what happened, but we had nothing to do with the food poisoning," the man pleaded. "I myself nearly died from it."

"And that is why I said you should just be locked up, for still serving the WWP!"

"Can we please calm down!" Sistilla stepped between the two. "All this shouting and blaming isn't going to accomplish anything." The woman looked ready to clock her, pulling her fist back, but only mean-mugged her. "I am from out of town. Could you please explain what is going on? What do you mean, they took your son?"

"I mean, they killed my son, if you want it undressed!"

The man let out a sigh. "A little over a term ago, we got some bad provisions. The whole lot of them, actually. It was a nightmare." He shook his head, pained. "It got everyone who ate our food. I've never been so miserable in my life, and I was one of the lucky ones."

"Lucky ones?" Lucial asked.

"Yeah. Probably half of those who got it died." Lucial paled, and even Sistilla looked unwell.

"How many exactly?"

"Hard to say. We didn't keep records of how many we served. Maybe around 1000." The taste of bile crept up Lucial's throat as Sistilla started coughing like she was choking on something. "Needless to say, our reputation hasn't quite recovered."

"My boy didn't even come looking for your 'handouts!' He was just minding his own business, and you bunch just tossed him an apple, unsolicited." The mustached man's soul looked to have just taken a body blow.

"We... We just wanted to make the world a brighter place," He said as he shrank into the floor.

"Is that so? The Pit knows you did a good job with that!" he stood there and took it.

"Okay," Lucial spoke up. "Okay, we understand that this is hard, but this man isn't to blame. It was all just an unintended accident." She looked over at the man. "There haven't been any incidents since?"

"No ma'am. We now test everything. We feed everything to these pigeons here first before serving anything." He straightened up, gesturing to several caged pigeons that cooed at his motion. "It has limited our offerings, we can no longer provide certain kinds of meals, and we can only offer food here, at the kitchen. Although..." He drooped. "The demand hasn't been that high, regardless."

"I see..." She thought about this, rubbing her chin. "I do find it odd, though. Did you say everyone who ate the WWP's food got sick?"

"As far as I know."

"And you serve several different kinds of food?"

"We did. Not anymore, though. Before, we would give out fruit, dried meat, and the like directly to the needy and anybody who asked. We prepared proper meals here. It was... Quite lively..."

"And people who didn't ask! That's how you got my son!"

"Isn't that strange though?" Lucial ignored the woman for the moment. "How did so much food get contaminated? And across multiple foodstuffs? Worst case would be that some contaminated food found itself in one of these large cooking cauldrons and poisoned the whole batch." Sistilla squirmed a bit, but nobody paid it any mind.

"Exactly!" The woman said in agreement.

"But you said everyone who received food got sick, regardless of where it was prepared. Isn't that strange?"

"Well, I suppose if you put it that way..." The man tugged at his mustache.

"How is this food kept? Where is it stored?" Lucial plodded along her reasoning, as Sistilla watched with interest.

"It is stored in the Touala Company Transport warehouse in crates."

"I see." She nodded.

"What does that have to do with anything?" The angry woman seemed a little less irate now.

"Well, considering the large swath of items covered, and the fact that dried meats don't tend to harbor toxins, it seems much more likely that something happened during transport to contaminate the foodstuffs." The woman's arms uncrossed for the first time. "If so, the WWP is blameless, as they didn't handle the shipping. So please stop blaming this man. He has suffered too." The man looked at Lucial with tears in his eyes, and the woman, too, looked placated.

"I see..." The woman said. "When you put it like that, it does seem..." She nodded to herself, seeming to come to some decision. "I apologize for troubling you." She did a curt bow to the kitchen worker before walking out briskly.

"Wow. I'm impressed, Lucial." Sistilla patted her on the back. "I didn't think it would be possible to talk her down."

"I, too, am grateful." The man nodded to her. "She has suffered greatly, but it's hard being the focus of her ire."

"I was only pointing out that the situation seemed strange," she said, blushing for the third time today. She would really have to work on that. "You seem to be running a wonderful organization."

"Hehe, I don't run it, I just help out where I can." He rested his thick hand on his hips. "I just hope our image can recover."

"I hope so too." Lucial looked up. "Is the WWP running an investigation?"

"Ah..." That question caught him off guard. "I don't right know, miss."

"I would imagine so. I would like to extend my aid if—"

"You are getting a little ahead of yourself, Lucial." Sistilla interrupted.

"Aren't we here to sign you up at the Guild?"

"Oh!" Her hand again found her mouth. "It slipped my mind. But..."

"Hehe," Sistilla laughed. "Don't worry. If the WWP is looking for assistance with any investigation... Well, those are the kinds of jobs that usually end up in the care of the Adventurers' Guild."

"Really?" Lucial perked up.

"Yep! The proverbial two birds, one stone." A smile spread across Lucial's face. Not only could she see the world and introduce a little excitement into her life, but she could also make the world a better place. She had hesitated when she first asked about joining the Guild with Sistilla. Now, however, any doubt had been burned away and replaced with confident resolve.