(26.3) The Hunter's Guild

Night has fallen by the time Aki has made it back to the Estril's manor. However, standing at the base of the land bridge leading up to it, her eyes are drawn to a solitary figure sitting at the private dock's edge.

"Is that who I think it is?"

Aki steps lightly, her footsteps lightly creaking over the wooden boards. "It's pretty late, what are you doing out here, Mirra?"

Mirra raises her head slightly, turning her ear toward Aki's approach.

"Funny you should say that when you're the one first to leave and last to get back." Mirra says jokingly.

The emotions around her, however, are incredibly subdued and downtrodden. For her to be able to sound relaxed and cheery is quite a feat, Aki thinks.

"Maybe you're right." Aki takes a seat by her side and places her head on her knees.

Just like Aki, Mirra's clothes are simple but still carry an air of elegance. A long blue tunic embroidered with gold threads shines under the moonlight reflected by the water's surface. The brown pants and black boots make her appear to blend into the night like a solemn spirit.

At her feet is a half mask made of porcelain, the same one she had been wearing ever since the end of the battle.

"Heard you went to the Hunter's Guild. If you were looking for work, I could have helped you with the Adventurer's Association."

"Y-yeah, I did." Aki hurriedly waves her hands. "But it wasn't for work or anything. I just had business from before that needed to get settled... okay maybe it was for work but not like that - haaah..."

Mirra chuckles quietly. "No need to try and explain yourself, it was just a comment... well, not like it matters. The AA building got crushed in the battle and my party was the only adventurers here until last week."

"Oh... right. I forgot." Aki flinches as Mirra flicks her wrist but hides the reaction by burying her head in her hands.

The day's exhaustion had melted Aki's mind enough that she defaulted to a defensive thought process. Mirra notices, her lips parting to make a comment but instead she simply turns away and lowers her hand.

Silence settles between the two for a while.

"I wanted to come out here to look at the water." Mirra shifts in place, her features still obscured by her hair.

"Somehow it doesn't feel like that's all there is to it." Aki speaks gently. Even if she can feel one's emotions like her own, acting like she understands won't be of any help.

Mirra brushes the hair out of her face to look directly at Aki. Half of her face has significant burn scars to match the damage of her left arm.

Despite receiving magical treatment, it's noticeable that the muscles aren't healed. The left arm is significantly atrophied. Skeletal even, in contrast to the well-defined muscle of her right.

"Apparently the damage I took was pretty severe." Mirra explains simply. "Magic could fix it but the burns on my face are afflicted by a powerful curse effect. It won't heal until after its broken."

She raises her arm. "My arm though… I guess I overdid it. The healers said that my… uh, mana circuits, were destroyed. Apparently there's no way to come back from that. Not without a powerful regeneration spell to regrow the whole arm, anyway."

"I'm sorry." Aki isn't sure whether she should pat Mirra. If she could possibly offer some sort of comfort to something of that scale. "You saved people at a cost to yourself, but you look proud of that. So what is that weighs on you?"

Mirra leans forward, gazing down at her reflection, this time with her hair brushed back over her shoulders.

"You nailed it." She chuckles and reaches out to touch the water, causing the surface to ripple. "For me, this was originally a game. I never expected to suddenly be in the body of my avatar. So you can imagine how surprised I was when I woke up like this."

"Did you look really different where you came from?"

"Very." Mirra flashes a smile, eyes still focused on her reflection. "This avatar was modelled on my wife. Because of my work, I spend – well, spent – a lot of time away from my family"

"So, is the name your wife's too? Or is it yours?" Aki isn't sure what to say, so she stays generally quiet, choosing instead to just listen to Mirra's heart. "It's definitely a screen name. But if I say that, wouldn't I be outing myself as an otherworlder too? Shur said to always keep cover no matter what but…"

"The name 'Mirra' is my avatar's name. An alias or code name to describe it. Since my wife would always say 'mira, mira' whenever she wanted to get my attention." She cracks a weak smile, though her quivering lip makes it obvious she's holding herself together.

Aki places a gentle hand on Mirra's shoulder, unsure of what she can do in the moment.

"Whenever I look at myself now, I feel guilty. I remember my wife but I can't recall my kids. Did I have one or two?" Mirra laughs mirthlessly. "Even after I swore up and down that I would be the kind of father my kids could be proud of no matter what, but look where I am."

The look in Mirra's eyes is hard. Angry. Yet all the same fragile.

"If I vanished back there, then do my kids, does my wife think I just left them?" Their lip twitches as they hold aloft a self-loathing smile. "For all the words I know, I just know, I said to them… I must look like a fucking asshole to them."

"Mirra, being here, coming here at all, wasn't your choice. However it is you got here, you were sucked into Tsarjar, just like every otherworlder alongside you." Aki stands up then, marching around Mirra to stand on her opposite side and extends her left arm down. She tightly rubs her wrists, hand held aloft and gazes softly down at Mirra.

The moon halos Aki then, somehow looking brighter than it did just a moment ago. Atop her head, a faint translucent glow catches Mirra's eye before Aki speaks again.

"I know that! Magic is amazing and the things I could do are the kinds of things anyone in my world could only ever dream of!" Mirra raises her voice tainted by anger. "I hate that I'm having so much fun. But what I hate most, is when I saw how Phoebe died, the fact she died at all, the only thing I could think was; at least it wasn't me."

"Stop." Aki shakes her head and raises a hand to her chest. Feelings of self-loathing and disgust fill the air in thick waves.

"We knew each other for years. Years! And that's the first thing that crosses my mind?" Mirra is louder now. Vitriolic venom dripping from each syllable she speaks. Blood drips from her hands and lips from how tightly she clasps her fingers and teeth.

"Mirra, you're hurting yourself."

"Not only am I forgetting my family but one of my closest friends gets that kind of thinking from me? Hell, could you even call that grief, or am I just pretending like the sick bastard I am?" 

A sharp backhand with Aki's left stuns Mirra from speaking any more.

With her right hand, Aki pulls out her pendulum and holds it aloft. A short pulse and the docks are alight with the glow of magic solidified like a red mist. A gentle aura within the mist relaxes Mirra's mind and even the wood of the docks seems to restore in vigour.

"To be human is not a crime, Mirra. Everyone carries their grief differently; but letting it consume you only hurts the living, yourself included."

Mirra silently gazes upon Aki, her eyes glistening as their breath and anger relaxes. She cracks a weak but genuine smile then.

"There's a saying that a man should only cry three times in his life." She covers her mouth as she hides a chuckle. "If you hadn't slapped me, I would've wasted my last time missing my family in this world instead of when I met them again in mine."

Aki cocks her head to the side, curious. While the thought of returning back to her world has often crossed her mind in the past, no one she spoke to in the slaver's central hideout had ever mentioned it was possible.

"Do you know of a way back?" Aki kneels down, trying to not let the excitement show on her face.

"Not a clue!" Mirra laughs, this time with some proper humour in her voice. "But everything has an equal and opposite reaction, right? I think, if I give myself a proper goal, I'll be able to avoid ending up like this anytime soon."

Leaning back to gaze up at the stars, Mirra replaces the mask on her face and stands up. Aki follows suit and matches Mirra.

"I think I'll head to Pilaris, this country's capital. Since that's the setting of Carnia Love, Winter's otome game, then chances are that the Grand Library exists." Mirra crosses her arms, confidence and certainty nearly returned. "What will you do? I'd love it if you'd join our party."

Aki smiles, her eyes sparkling from the invitation and shakes her head.

"Thank you, but I need to get to Deika City as soon as possible." Aki explains it simply. "It's in the opposite direction of where you want to go, so travelling wouldn't be good for either of us."

Mirra nods in understanding. "That's disappointing. I would've loved to get to know you properly."

She extends her left arm, offering her forearm in all its gnarled glory, for Aki to grasp. A long-standing tradition of Tsarjar to show a deep and true respect for another person.

Aki hadn't expected for an otherworlder to be familiar with that kind of symbol.

"Well, I only know it because Shur taught it to me, so maybe it's not so weird to think other otherworlders would too."

" I know we'll meet again in the future, plus there's still time before either of us can actually head out," Mirra and Aki clasp arms, the warmth of blood and mana fluidly in self. "But, just in case, I want someone to know who I was."

The masked otherworlder introduces themselves to Aki.

"I'm ex military and before I was sent to this world, I worked as the director of global affairs for one of my world's top security firms. My name was… is Mark, but you can still call me Mirra. It's nice to properly meet you, Aki."

Mirra's smile is light and clear the moment their hands are clasped.

"It's nice to meet you too."