You can Go on Living; The Journey has yet to Begin

It turned out Moonlight Guardian didn’t need to wait much longer, as only a couple of days later, a lead dropped. She had just finished making her rounds, which she did while not otherwise occupied.

She pushed the door open and was ready to step out of the cold when the echoes of Durroum and Noel arguing in the hall assaulted her hearing. Despite being some distance away, their noise still sent her ears twitching in irritation—you never heard an argument between yutsuukitsuu, except those of children, who didn't know better. She guessed it couldn't be helped, but they could still take it elsewhere.

Turning the corner, she found Noel resting a resigned hand on her head as she made a final statement. Moonlight Guardian had seen Durroum around, though he usually had the good sense to keep his distance, not that it would matter if she decided to strike him down. However, today was not one of those days, as he began striding in her direction. Timid, for certain, but he looked right at her. She frowned. Just because she had been convinced to spare him did not mean she would be gentle going forward.

He stopped in front of her, looking as stiff as a pine tree in winter. At least he recognized his disfavor.

"Amm Par..." He stammered. "I'm sorry! " He bowed down low. "For what I did before." She understood his words. "Though in all honesty, I would probably do the same again, but would hopefully make better calls on the way." This next part she only partially understood, but it sounded to her like he did not regret his decision to lie to her, which gave her pause because if true, that would be a very honest thing to admit to.

"Still, I would like for my actions to be less of a lie and more of a payment deferred." He used advanced speech, and she could only understand individual words—Noel was much more considerate in this regard. "Here." He offered her a folded sheet of paper. She paused before taking it.

"What is this?" She said with an accent so alien that it could only have come from a tongue untouched, until recently, by the words of man.

"The location of the children... Well, one of them at least." He said. Her ear immediately stiffened as she unfolded the piece of paper. A map, and a much nicer map than Durroum had drawn when they first met. She didn't understand much about reading maps, and it had a bunch of that "writing" she had dismissed. He must have sensed her frustration. He pointed. "This is Southguard, where we are." An arrow pointed to this location. She understood; he had marked out specific locations for her. "One of the children is here." He pointed down in the corner where another series of symbols was circled. "She is somewhere in the Sparto desert region."

Finally! She knew the location of one of the children! Well, a very general location... Assuming Durroum could be trusted, and he could not. He even just admitted so moments before. However, he didn’t seem to have much to gain from lying—she had learned humans usually told lies for a reason. Perhaps he thought he could spare himself her wrath, but she had already decided not to destroy him; lying now would only work to his detriment if that was his goal. Perhaps she should discuss this with Noel. She would need additional details anyway, as she couldn’t understand this map much on her own.

Noel had assuaged her doubts, as much as they would be, about the map and its promises. It had been a team effort to gather this information, but Durroum wished to present it himself. She assumed he wanted to take credit for the others’ work, but Noel assured her that was not the case. In fact, this had been their argument. She worried that Moonlight Guardian would potentially inflict egregious harm upon him, if not just outright kill him. Moonlight Guardian couldn't help but feel a little hurt by such mistrust, but Noel pointed out she had tried to do just that before.

"He wants to make amends, umm..." she pondered over her words. "make things right."

He wanted to make things right, did he? Well, he had a long way to go, but she supposed she didn't want to kill him anymore. And perhaps it had worked out for the best; no telling if she would have located the children on her own, and this path had eventually led her to one of their locations. The map remained cryptic, however. But it seemed Noel would be leaving on a journey of her own, and part of the trip overlapped with her destination. Noel offered to teach her what she needed to know during that period. So it looked like her apprenticeship would continue...

She began preparing for her departure the next day, bundling her provisions. Though still meager, by human standards anyway, they were still more than when she had arrived, which equated to her sword, cloak, and... well, that was it. Her lute was long since lost to her now.

It hadn't crossed her mind much after she had regained consciousness, aside from adding to her general hatred of Durroum. But now that she was preparing to depart, finding it absent from her possession made her heart lurch. Yes, she may not want him dead anymore, but she wouldn't lament his demise if it came to pass either.

Aside from that, she now had “money” that Noel insisted she take. Moonlight Guardian wanted to refuse, not because she didn't want to put upon her, but because she saw it only as additional weight with little to no use. It would prove invaluable if trying to trade, but trading with humans didn't interest Moonlight Guardian much. Noel had convinced her when she explained that information, too, could be traded. And so she had reluctantly accepted the shiny round objects.

The last thing of note she stowed into her small pack was Indigo's broken mask. In truth, she had never removed it, but had fallen out when she emptied the pack to reorganize. If the loss of her lute made her heart lurch, then seeing the mask and the apprentice it had belonged to made it weep.

"Amm Par?? Are you okay?" Moonlight Guardian turned away, abashed that she had allowed such an overt show of grief.

"Fine," she responded. Though terse, Noel appeared to understand.

"Did that mask belong to one of the children you are looking for?" Moonlight Guardian needed a moment to process the statement, and Noel gave her time to formulate a response.

"No..." Wait, was she looking for him? She didn't consider him one of the children, but... did she believe him dead? She hadn't found a body, but this broken and bloody mask seemed evidence enough. It would have taken a considerable blow to crack this mask; it was ironwood, after all.

"He is not children," she said in her broken Caster. "He is... Mmm... I don't know the word." After thinking for a moment. "He is someone I teach."

"A student?" Noel offered. "A student is somebody who is learning."

"Maybe... He is—" She was about to use his name, his hue really, but realized she didn't know how to say it. She searched about the room, eyes coming to rest on a vase of flowers sitting on the windowsill. "He is like this." She said, walking over and pointing out a deep blue, nearly indigo flower.

"He is like a flower?" Noel looked thoughtful.

"No, like color."

"...Indigo?" She suggested.

"Mmm... Maybe." She couldn't be sure. With language, colors were expressed in distinct units: red, blue, green, maybe dark red. But his name referred to the exact shade of color. Anyone who could understand telepathy would know the precise shade, as if you had shown them the color directly. Well, that being the case, his shade probably fell into the broad category of "indigo." "Yes, indigo." She nodded her assent.

"What... happened to him?" Noel was careful in asking the question.

"..." She stared off.

"Sorry. You don't have to answer."

"...I don't know." That was the truth, though all indicators pointed to him being dead, except for the missing body. But thinking about it, several others were missing as well: River Hunter, Mesa, and Morning-Sun Hunter, though she had not found their bloody masks. The broken mask stood as testament that Indigo had stood up and defended the village in her absence, a fact that made her proud, ashamed, and remorseful all at the same time. But that he had fought lent heavily to the prospect of his being killed. What other outcome could there be? She clenched her fist. "When I return, mask all there was."

"I see..." She looked thoughtful. But then a thought occurred to her, and she hammered a fist into her hand. "I’ll make sure we keep an ear out for any information about an indigo colored yutsuukitsuu." Moonlight Guardian's ears perked up. It didn't seem likely that he had survived, but knowing that she would be on the lookout for Indigo lifted her spirits. She bowed her head.

Noel left Moonlight Guardian's room shortly after to rest up for their departure. She was going to another city named Sofuton, and part of her journey overlapped with hers. Despite herself and the extended apprenticeship, she was glad for the coincidence. Not only because she needed to understand this map, but because she had grown to genuinely appreciate Noel's company, though if asked directly, she would probably refrain from admitting it.

She wouldn’t normally turn in this early for the night, but Noel had convinced her to abstain from her nightly roving and to get the additional rest. She would take her advice, but not before her final ritual of the day, one that she held in the highest regard. Holding out her hand, a flash of ghostly purple light formed into the approximate shape of her own sword. The glow lacked the intensity to light up the dark room. In fact, the glow probably wouldn't give it away to any but the most sensitive eyes.

The ephemeral blade slashed and spun through the air as Moonlight Guardian worked through one of a number of forms she had learned to familiarize herself with the blade back in her youth, and that she had only recently passed on to Indigo. She finished by holding the ending stance, palms sweating, breathing more ragged than she would ever admit to. Far from her best display, but it still showed much improvement over where she was only several months ago.

The blade dissolved, and she took a deep breath. She held out her hand again and, quicker than last time, formed the blade. It took her three to four restful heartbeats to construct it, she reckoned. Not good enough. Her inability to create the blade instantly had nearly ended her life; only Noel's tender mercies had spared her. She would not allow that to happen again. She began the second of the nine forms. It had been Indigo's precious gift to her; she would not let it go to waste.