Public transportation.

To some - the bane of their existence. To the rest - yeah, pretty much the same as the former. Point being the majority of people aren’t too keen when it comes to bus rides.

No one cheers upon the prospect of being chucked into a cramped space brimming with nothing but total strangers. And if you so happen to have motion sickness?

Heh… Then may God have mercy on your soul because you and I both know that your stomach most certainly won’t.

But that’s enough about its vices, instead, let’s talk more about its virtues for it is a rather virtuous vehicle indeed. For instance, I could think of nothing else that could have brought Ash in glee over all that was in sight.

And if that's not a virtue, then I don't know what is.

Balls of chewing gums stuck underneath flimsy chairs, rickety handlebars on even more rickety rails… the bus driver’s hat. Yeah, each one just kept widening that grin on her face.

Like a kid-elf in a kid-elf candy store.

I could tell she was holding herself back. I knew she wanted very much to eye and touch every square-inch of the place, it was only through sheer force of will that she hadn’t given in to her temptations, it was only that that kept her dutifully trailing along after me to take our place at the back of the bus.

Gotta commend her for that.

Once seated, she still wasn’t done vivaciously craning her neck around the place. Frenetically tapping the tip of the umbrella on the ground and having her ears twitch about underneath the hoody was her way of subtly expressing the enthusiasm flowing within her.

Adding on to it, I made sure she had the window seat so she could ogle with her face mere inches from the glass, her hot breath fogging up her view of the landscapes that passed us by.

I couldn’t help but be reminded once more just how dog-like her demeanor was right then, you stick a fluffy tail right on her and she might as well be.

“I take it you’re impressed?” I asked after giving her some time to settle.

“Impress?” She said with a short disbelieving chuckle. “I fear there may be no words to describe such a feeling that I hold within me.”

“Take your time, you’ll find them.”

Wonders didn’t stop there. Everytime the bus screeches to a halt on someone’s stop, there Ash’s eyes would be, glued to the door slamming open and close.

Seriously, I wouldn’t mind if we just stayed on this bus ride the entire day and night. It was just nice to be back on speaking terms with her again after so many long, long days of uneasy silence and tension.

Hopefully those days are far behind us now.

“Fascinating,” Ash whispered for the umpteenth time.

“Just how fascinating can it get?” I responded back for the umpteenth time.

She wasn’t listening though, she was lost in her own world now, speaking as if caught in a trance, “Not even in the wealthiest of regions of Astra would you find a carriage as extravagant and grandiose as this monolith.”

Astra. She mentioned Astra. Oh boy, Astra…

“What’s Astra?” I asked, feigning normalcy in my tone.

“A province located in the most northeastern side of Nilfa,” Ash explained, still very much in high spirits. “Amidst the many kingdoms situated throughout the land of Asteria, Astra is the most prosperous of its kind there is.”

A near-perfect word for word recital taken from the codex entry in-game. It’s evident she knew much about it. But she was an Elf, and if there was anything that I took away from my session today, it was definitely the fact that Elves and Astra aren’t really a match made in heaven.

“You’ve ever been there?” I asked again.

Ash nodded her head. “Indeed I have. Why, I believe it was mentioned in passing on our first meeting. I had served previously under the late King Ardvair, former ruler of the kingdom of Astra.”

“As a servant,” I muttered.

“In… Indeed.” She affirmed, a little less energetically. “As a servant.”

Okay, don’t need any reminding. I know her past was a touchy subject for her. Won’t push any further than I already have. I came this far to get her in a good mood and I’m not gonna let it come crumbling down just for the sake of sating my curiosity, so I simply let it go.

Thankfully, the conversation seemed to not have affected her as much as I thought it did. Still with a smile, still with eyes sparkling bright, it got to the point where I thought her joyful mood would never cease its spree.

Until it did.

Didn’t realize it at first. I was too busy meddling in my own thoughts about Astra and whatnot to even notice. But after five minutes of going without another mention of the word ‘fascinating’, that’s when I knew something was amiss.

When I turned to look at her again, that smile had already faded and the reason for it took me by surprise. Ash was staring away, no longer in awe nor in glee, solemn and quiet was the gaze she had fixated to the front of the bus.

A little girl holding her mother’s hand, baring smiles at each other as wide as could be.

Significant? To me not so much. I’ve seen that sight more times than I could count. My mother and sister are quite tight knit.

Ash, on the other hand, she never broke away, even after they finally took their departure, her gaze followed and continued to linger on the door flaps squeaking shut.

Sorry, couldn’t help myself, this was a bizarreness I couldn’t leave unaddressed.

“Ash?” I softly called out to her. “What’s up?”

She didn’t flinch, nor did she give any indication of having heard me. After a while though, she slowly shook her head.

“Nothing.” she replied. “Nothing at all.”

That was most certainly not nothing.

“Was it the little girl?” I asked. “The mother? Ash, what is it?”

“She was no mother, Master,” said Ash, taking in a deep breath. “In my eyes, I saw sisters.”

“And you could tell just by looking?”

“I… I merely guessed.”

I saw one scene, she saw another. I guess we only see what we really want to see.

Say, for example, two sisters as happy as could be in each other’s company. If that’s what her eyes wanted to see… then that’s what she’ll see.

“I’m thinking that was more than just an educated guess,” I said, staring at her grim expression. “You have a sister back in Asteria?”

When she shook her head again, I thought perhaps I might have missed the mark entirely. That I might have been wrong on that front.

But I wasn’t.

Not from the way the luster had left her eyes. Not from the way her expression had lost its life. I wasn’t wrong.

The soft mutterings that followed immediately after, confirmed to me what I already knew.

“I had a sister,” Ash said.

Looking back at it, I would really have loved to be dead wrong.

This side quest just got a whole lot complicated.