The Chase Begins

"I know you're awake, Seraph. Don't make me throw you out of the window."

I uttered a disappointed 'tsk' before sitting up in my bed.

"Aren't you awfully early, Lubbock?", I asked with a displeased face.

I had been trying to buy time for Mer Claire to leave town. He had told me that he wasn't staying more than a night in the town and that he planned to leave early. Knowing that talking Lubbock out of it wasn't an option, I decided to try and be as lazy as I could. I just needed to give him a window to escape from this no-name town and disappear into a world where we wouldn't be able to find him. As for Norn, we wouldn't want to plot an assassination that would get us on their bad side.

"Don't think I can't see what you're up to", that was a moment of carelessness on his part, though I can't be sure if he didn't do it deliberately.

Lubbock was a "always keep it secret" guy. This, I hadn't yet learned. And though he acted aloof all the time, he wasn't the kind of person that ever said much about himself.

I asked him what his powers could do. He only gave a vague answer and said his abilities were a secret.

"If you show too much of yourself, you'll always lose", he had said.

Now, as I was sitting on my bed, eyeing him as he fixed his ridiculously intricate clothing, I wondered what alternatives there were.

"So you can see a lot of stuff, huh?", I imagined his eyes were mechanical too. I was right on the money. At least, partially. Only one of them was mechanical, I don't know which one.

"Aren't you trying to get too smart with me today, Seraph? Truth be told, you've been a huge bother since last night. Why do you know so many people anyway? Aren't you supposed to keep your head low? Are you stupid or what?", he succeeded perfectly in dodging my question.

"It's not like I know him all that well. I've never even met him. Come to think of it, this is the first time we've come to this town and to this inn. And its the first time I've met a scholar. It just had to be him. What are the chances...it actually pisses me off! I mean, how did he even recognize me? I've changed a lot since I came to the city, you know! And my face is so different, even I can't tell its me! And Rouge was a woman! What is this impossibly convenient coincidence?!", I was rolling around in my bed.

Lubbock just stared at me without the least bit of interest in my wailing.

"Inconvenient coincidence, you mean?"

"Yeah, it's straight up ridiculous, isn't it?!", I sprung up.

"Yeah yeah. It's getting late, get dressed."

"Ah, Lubbock", I suddenly realized, "Couldn't you just erase his memories?! Like you did with the-"

"Unfortunately!", he interrupted me, "That isn't possible. It doesn't work everywhere. Agartha is special. It's got the right wavelength for that sort of thing. And I would have done it already, if I could. Now, you have your answer. Don't delay this anymore. You're only going to bring trouble on your head."

Even though all night I told myself I didn't care for that man, whether he lived or died, I was still groping for an alternate. I guess deep down, I hadn't yet given up.

"I'm going down to ask the inn boss if he left yet, we'll tail him if he's around. But given that you're not getting up, we might have to do something else."

Saying that, Lubbock left. I threw myself back on the disheveled bed, helplessly. I realized then that I lacked conviction. I didn't know what I was, what I was trying to do and if I had some purpose at all. It doesn't seem like a big deal at first. There's nothing wrong with just going on with your life, one day at a time. But sometimes, when such decisions present themselves before you, you realize you have no code, no morals to abide by. There's nothing guiding you to make a decision that you won't regret later.

As it happens, Claire had left the inn really early in the morning, in a state of hurry. By now, he was already out of town and way out into the wide wild world.

"Why?!", Lubbock took it out on me, and quite roughly too, grabbing my collar and shoving me around.

"I don't know!"

"He must have said something to you last night", Lubbock was convinced I knew something. Luckily, I didn't.

"He didn't!"

"Why did he leave in a hurry, then?!"

"Wait, you don't think I told him, do you?"

Lubbock shoved me back. Lubbock didn't sleep, so he must have known that I never left the room last night. There was no other way for me to rat out on our plan.

"We'll go after him", he said, folding his arms.

"What do you mean? Who knows where he is by now!"

"Do you want to die?"

"Wha...?"

"I'm asking you do you want to die?!"

"Well..."

"At least, I don't! Not this way, anyway. Lady will kill us for real if we go home after a blunder like this."

"Then just don't tell her. Not like I'm ever gonna see that man again. He'll forget me eventually, anyway."

"That...", he turned his face away, turning a slight pink, "I can't do that."

"Why not? How hard is it to not say something?"

He turned a deeper red.

"Or is it that it's Lady that you can't lie to?", I caught on.

His face was flushed even more.

I smacked his head, "Can't you keep your heart in check for one?!"

"No."

That was blunt. But it meant he was absolutely set on chasing after Claire.

"Well...", I said after a sigh, "He mentioned going to some...so and so place. Though, he wasn't supposed to leave without having breakfast with me. He planned to leave last night, but then he ran into me and decided to stay the night."

"So he did tell you!"

"Shut up, I can't even remember!"

I forgot the name of the place and all I knew was that it was some ruins in something or the other city or whatever. Lubbock decided to set out, based on the vague information he got. I knew, of course, that the days to come will be filled with bickering in the middle of nowhere as we struggled to find our way home.