Chapter Text
If Esh-erdi were a lesser man, which he wasn't, he'd be thinking up some creative insults for whichever one of the knights on this posting was indulging themselves and summoning eighteen ewtwee avowed at once for a middling-difficulty mission. Since he wasn't a lesser man, he made sure to keep his expression neutral as he worked on cleanup.
The mission he was cleaning up the aftermath of had taken the lives of two avowed. Their faces still flashed in his mind, despite their bodies having been taken away long ago. Even as he replayed the moment the fight had gone wrong over and over in one mind, he was being recorded by the remaining sixteen ewtwee.
The triangle-faced avowed held their tail-operated, as-yet-undamaged-by-chaos cameras very still, but it felt like they followed him, evaluated him and his skill, judged whether he could have used his abilities better to prevent this.
A hand landed on his shoulder. Pale green with a blue undertone appeared in his right peripheral vision. Steady fingers slipped a ring onto his middle finger.
“Lind,” Esh-erdi said, a little blankly.
“You know what point I am about to reiterate to you, Esh,” Lind-otta said gently. The ring she had given him was visually distorting them and preventing them from being heard by the curious ewtwee. It was shiny.
“I could have done more.”
“You couldn’t have. What you can do now is focus on the things you can change.” She watched him work for a moment. “Keep the ring. I share the sentiment. The self is too private to be recorded for the commentary and entertainment of others.”
“Thank you.” He hoped she could hear the depth of his gratitude.
Focus on the things you can change. He hated to ask her for another favour, but...
“Will you check on Ak-tel? She doesn’t always do well after a fight like this.”
“Of course,” Lind-otta said, giving his shoulder one last gentle squeeze. Even long after she was gone, her touch lingered.
******
“Esh, I really do have another ring that does something similar,” Us-neen said, speaking loudly to be heard over the sounds of her squadmate having an unwanted but spirited competition of physical strength with an ewtwee that had decided she desperately needed Esh-erdi’s ring for her memories necklace.
Esh-erdi looked up and smiled at Us-neen. It felt a little strained.
“That’s great!” He looked back at the ewtwee, who had introduced herself to him as Wheek. “You can have Us’s ring, and I get to keep this one, yes?”
Wheek appeared to consider this for a moment, then reluctantly released the ring from her jaw in order to speak.
<<You have the ring here?>> She gave Us-neen a hopeful look.
“It’s in my room. I’ll get it to you tonight,” Us-neen assured her.
Wheek drooped sadly but agreed. Esh-erdi huffed. He preferred this sort of behaviour to the nervous deference and blind obedience some of the other summoned ewtwee were showing him, but couldn’t Wheek have chosen something else to try and steal?
Acquire, Esh-erdi mentally corrected.
“Come on,” he said cheerfully, “Let’s go find Lind. She’s in charge of giving the avowed instructions while your summoner is away this week, and I think she’s sulking about it.”
“Is she sulking?” Us-neen asked curiously as the three of them began walking over to the communal area where Lind-otta would probably be found. “She’s so unshakeable that it’s hard to tell.”
“She flicks her right eye around more when she’s grumpy.”
“I really do not think I’ve ever seen Lind-otta exhibit behaviour that can be faithfully described as grumpy, but I’ll take your word for it.” A year ago, Us-neen would never have dared to refer to an Instructor so casually, but the squad had developed an unusual familiarity with their Mentor over time. Lind-otta had said she didn’t mind, but it was still a long time after that before Us-neen could be heard dropping the honorifics.
Esh-erdi caught sight of Lind-otta first. She was surrounded by fifteen ewtwee. Her light green-blue coat stood out in the crowd of whites, oranges, greys and browns. He turned to Wheek and pointed at his mentor.
“See? Don’t you think that’s a grumpy face? Don’t- You’re not even looking. Stop looking at my ring like you’re going to be able to grab it when I’m not watching. Go and sit with the grumpy elder and learn patience.”
Lind-otta noticed their approach and waved. Ak-tel was sitting nearby under a tree that was only somewhat chaos-damaged, looking less distressed than she had when Esh-erdi had last seen her. Good.
He drew his dull red auriad from where it tied back his hair and cast a spell that turned some of the leaves of Ak-tel’s tree from green to sparkling white. He made a quick escape from the room as the avowed swarmed the tree, and by extension Ak-tel, but not before he saw the corners of Lind-otta’s mouth turn up.
******
The next morning, when Esh-erdi noticed that his auriad had turned a light, blue-tinged green, he blinked sleepy eyes at it and waited to feel his breath quicken with shock, or even his mind to race with confusion.
After a moment, he tilted his head at it and put it away without casting the spell he had intended to cast this morning.
It’s so nice, he thought, though he felt oddly guilty that it had replaced the cordovan colour of his little sister’s eyes. It feels natural.
Later that week, his beloved little sister received a giant herdcreature with an unsigned note around its neck that read:
You’ll just have to content yourself with the cordovan coat. I got your little girls something to ride to make it up to you!
She had no idea what the first part of the note was about, but she had a pretty good idea of who the note - and attached terackerin - were from.