“Cole that was amazing!”

Phee hugged me about my neck as we walked along the boulevard towards the tailor’s and I blushed a little as the big lady crushed me against her massive bussom. Yunni joined in the hug as well, her tiny arms wrapping around my waist from behind.

“I knew you were the right one,” Yunni said with a gleeful squeal as she bounced along behind us. “We’re going to win for sure!”

Devena watched the three of us from the side, groaning with another roll of her eyes. “You two are getting all loopy just because he got us a meeting? A damn clerk could have done that.”

I chuckled at her sour grapes and checked her relationship with my discernment ability status.

Devena current relationship: -200 Slightly negative

Yup, that said it all…I guess deep down she was still pissed about me choosing Phee over her. Taming the dragon lady was going to be a lot harder than cajoling a civil servant like Percival, it seemed. Hopefully not as tough as winning over Rheghar was going to be, but a minor challenge nonetheless.

“Stop being so petty, Devena,” Phee said. “This was a win for all of us and you know it.”

“It will be a win for no one if we don’t convince the High Commissioner to let us compete. You two are acting like it’s a sure bet already.”

“I’d say it is,” Phee said and gave my hair a playful rustle. “The way he smooth talked the Vice commission, I don’t think Lady Celine stands a chance. Especially when she sees those dreamy eyes of his.”

That comment made me blush a little more. My eyes were blue but I didn’t think they were anything special. But hearing Phee say that stroked my ego even more. Damn, I liked her and was doubly glad now that I made her my Firstbond. Having a powerful firstbond based on character stats might have made sense in theory, but Phee made me feel like a superhero all day long…and you just couldn’t put a price on that.

“Thanks babe,” I said, giving her waist a squeeze.

“Don’t get your hopes up,” Devena said dismissively. “Running circles around a subservient policy pusher like Percival is one thing, but Lady Celine is Holy Royalty. She’ll be no push over and we’re about to disagree with a Holy Edict that she already decreed. You think that’s going to go over well with her?”

“Wait,” I said. “Holy edict?”

“Yes,” Yunni said. “As the royal representative of the holy imperial throne, her orders are considered divine instruction from the Goddess Lythandra herself.”

“Holy crap,” I said. “So your religion is also your government?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Yunni asked. “The Goddess Lythandra controls all and the Holy Emperor is her divine representative here on Grandia.”

“I see,” I said. “Sounds a lot like Shia Islam. Or the Catholic Church back in the day, maybe. ”

“Like what?” Devena asked.

“Nevermind,” I said. “Not important. What is important though is that it gives me a better understanding on how to approach things now. And on that point, I think ‘ole Percival was spot on. We need some new duds if we’re going to be speaking to the Pope slash Grand Ayatollah’s top representative here in the Vult.”

My companions looked at me even more strangely and I was reminded that no matter how awesome Phee thought I was, I was still pretty much a major geek on the inside. Who else would make such a comment based on a religious studies elective back in college?

“Nevermind,” I said again, laughing. “Let’s get to shopping.”

* * *

We arrived at the place, which was little more than an open air stall set outside the doorway of a stone faced building. On display were a myriad of fine patterned textiles and what looked like silk in various colors all spooled onto rolls. There were sets of premade clothing as well, but not as many as I had assumed there would be. Then I had to remember that this was all pre-industrial revolution era stuff. No mass looms and factories to make suits by the hundreds. Clothing here was likely all handmade and to order.

As we approached, a short, portly man who could easily pass for a dwarf, minus the beard, beckoned to us.

“Welcome,” he said cheerily. “Can I help you with something?”

“Are you Sebastian?” I asked.

“I am indeed,” he said and waved his hands towards his wares. “Are you interested in fabrics today? I’ve just had a shipment arrive from Aziz. Some of the best cashmere in all of Grandia right here in the heart of the Vult. You must see. Come!”

He then proceeded to give us a tour of his garments, showcasing the various rolls of fabric. Phee seemed about as interested in it all as I was, which was to say, not that much, but Yunni on the other hand was like a kid in a candy store, oo’ing and ah’ing at each piece. Devena too seemed quite interested, but was far more discreet in her observations, turning her nose up at most of the fabrics, but making a big show of something that she thought was valuable—like a snooty connoisseur at a wine tasting or something.

Totally obnoxious, but totally dragon like also, I supposed.

Eventually I pulled Devena to the side and asked her the most important question on my mind. “So how much of this stuff can we actually afford, Devena?”

She grunted in a laugh and magically produced a small book in her palm. She opened it and just like the one Percival had been reading from, the pages were more like the screen of an Ipad, expect driven by magic, I guessed. She showed me a huge table of figures, which I recognized as a balance sheet and at the bottom was a total.

Current Account: 87 Gold.

“Whoa,” I said. “I wasn’t expecting to see thousands, but I wasn’t expecting for us to be that broke either. Can we actually afford any of this?”

“Nothing that’s worthwhile, but if you go with Yunni’s tastes you should be able to look slightly better than you do now.”

It seemed I would have to pour on the charm again if we wanted a good deal.

“My good man,” I said, calling to Sebastian. “You came highly recommended to us, by my business associate, Vice Commissioner Percival. Do you know of him?”

His eyes widened at the name drop.

Oratory versus Sebastian: Success!

+150 Relationship

Current relationship: 150 Mildly Positive

“But of course,” he said. “The great Percival is one of my most cherished clients and a good friend as well. And I dear say, any friend of his is a friend of mind. So are you looking for something in particular, Mr…? I’m sorry I didn’t get your name.”

“Cole Jacobs,” I said. “Guildmaster.” I flashed my amulet quickly, but purposely didn’t say the name of the guild, fearing it might earn me some negative reputation. “And a pleasure to finally meet you in person. Percival was singing your praises as the best Tailor in New Haven.”

“Percival is too kind,” Sebastian said as we shook hands. “An honor indeed it is meet you, Guildmaster Jacobs.”

“Please, call me Cole,” I said with a smile.

+150 Relationship

Current relationship: 300 Positive

“Very well, Master Cole. Now how may I be of assistance to you today?”

“To be honest,” I said. “We’re in a bit of a jam. I’ve just arrived from a distant travel and was accidentally stranded in the jungle for two days.”

“Oh dear,” he said. “How dreadful.”

“You can say that again.” I then gestured to my ratty clothing. “Hence why I’m here, as you can see. But the real problem is, I haven’t had time to set up my accounts or do any sort of business to get settled. And now, because I was delayed for two days, my meeting with Lady Celine is in only two hours’ time and I’m completely unprepared!”

All blood seemed to drain from his face as his jaw fell open.

Oratory versus Sebastian: Massive Success!

+500 Relationship

Current relationship: 750 Amicable

“It’s no wonder Percival sent you to me…as I do relish a challenge. Two hours you say?”

“Yes,” I said. My story wasn’t totally accurate, but it wasn’t far from the truth either. In any negotiation, the control of information was key and in this case, the main thing was, we were in a jam and we did need his help. And luckily our previously established rapport with Percival had garnered his trust. Now I just prayed that it was enough to give us a break.

“More than enough time.” He grinned at me cracking his knuckles. “But we must start immediately.”

“Yes, thank you,” I said. “But as to the matter of payment….”

I purposely left my words hanging in the air, while smiling at him imploringly.

Negotiation versus Sebastian: Success!

+1 Negotiation

“Say no more,” he said waving his hand. “I’ll open a line of credit for you. You can pay once you are established. As for now, we must move quickly.” He looked up at Phee. “We’ll start with you, my lovely. Your skin tone would look absolutely striking in gold, but to soften those chiseled shoulders of yours, it will take a master’s touch of elegance indeed. Come with me. I shall fetch my assistants.”

* * *

As we left Sebastian’s about an hour and a half later, I felt like I was walking on cloud nine. After taking my measurements, the master artisan had gone to work fashioning me a silk suit that had me looking like a Barron from the 1800’s. Crafted black leather shoes with brass buckles, trimmed pants and a shirt and vest coat combo that matched my dapper feathered cap. The color scheme was a subtle brown tweet, but it seemed to match the tropical locale. What was more, the clothing breathed and felt cool even in the heat. And when I put on the whole ensemble, I received a +5 bonus to communication based skills.

How frigging cool was that?

My companions looked equally amazing. Phee’s outfit had taken the most time, possibly because of the amount of material involved, but Sebastian had crafted something that reminded me of what an Egyptian Pharos or Greek goddess might wear. The golden material was fashioned into a long hemmed dress, with full length slits at the sides to show off her sexy hips and thighs. Her top resembled more a bikini, with straps that tied about her neck in a crisscross fashion. He finished off the outfit with a translucent white silk shawl that draped about her back and covered her shoulders. I thought she looked amazing in it, but the Half Ogress seemed more uncomfortable than anything else, constantly fidgeting with the shawl.

Yunni’s outfit looked much like she normally wore, a frilly white dress with pink stockings, but Sebastian had kicked it up a notch by adding some fine accessories and a colorful white hat that made her look both sexy and smart.

Devena’s outfit was actually dictated mostly by her and she and Sebastian had even exchanged some intense words over it, but the professional that Sebastian was had her satisfied with a minimum of conflict. In the end I thought she looked stunning as well. Devena never wore actual clothes I realized, as her scales did the job of concealing her vital bits, but Sebastian crafted a dress of sorts made of stainless steel chains and silver pendants than draped over her shapely frame and stood out against the fine black scales of her skin. She went from looking like a sexy woman in a black body suit, to some ethereal succubus that registered an 11 out of 10 on the hotness scale.

But despite how good she looked, Devena’s countenance was twisted in a scowl as she walked alongside me. The reason for that was the ledger in her hand that she was now looking at with intense scrutiny. She grumbled and shook her head at the figures within.

“How in the nine hells are we going to pay all this back?”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “We can make that back in no time. Kill a few monsters. Sell some crystals. Easy.”

“Two thousand gold?” she said, showing me the book. “Do you know how much that is? That’s a quarter of what we owe in taxes.”

“True,” I said. “But this will be worth it. Besides no one knows the contents of our bank account besides us….well and the bank of course, but that’s beside the point. What matters is, is when people see us now, they’re going to think we have money and that counts for a lot. Back where I come from, we have a saying: ‘fake it till you make it’. And with these clothes we’re going to do just that.”

“I get what you’re saying, Cole,” Phee said, tugging at the bikini strap tied about her neck. “But these clothes aren’t going to be useful for what I need to do. I can’t fight in the jungle in these.”

“Hopefully you won’t need to,” I said. “You just need to look your stunning and impressive self for this meeting. And as for hunting in the jungle, hopefully we can afford you some better gear than what you’re using now. Eventually anyway.”

“It’s still a hell of a lot of money,” Devena continued her lamenting. “And we haven’t sorted out any kind of income yet, besides what Phee can drag in from the jungle. And with her lame-ass-non-magical abilities that isn’t much.”

“Well it’s more than you’re doing,” Phee snapped back. “And it’s probably your stupid outfit that’s costing most of that money anyway.”

“Hey, it was his idea,” Devena said, jabbing an accusatory thumb at me. “And it’s not my fault that my requirements to look good are magnitudes above the two of you.”

Phee scowled and looked like she was about to punch Devena right in the face.

“Ok easy with that talk,” I said, resting my hand on Phee’s tensing forearm. “We all realize you have your special dragon standards, Devena, but you don’t need to go saying stuff like that. And like I said. It doesn’t matter anyway. We’ll make the money back. Trust me.”

I had a half-baked game plan cooking inside my head already. Even at level 1, Phee was a great warrior; her taking down the boar was a testament to that. If I could spend a few days hunting with her, I think we had a chance of scoring a really big win.

If I was calculating things right, the smaller monsters wouldn’t be worth much, but would be easy to kill and plentiful, like those Bullywogs. But there had to be other massive creatures out there like those worms that were worth tens of thousands of mana crystals each. All we needed to do was find some lower tier one, and then farm smaller monsters until we great strong enough to risk taking on the bigger one. Classic RPG progression with a boss fight for the win. I had to admit, the idea of it all had me eager to get back into that jungle with a decent sword and start hacking away, but even that rested on our meeting with the Lady Celine first.

As we arrived back at the Cityhall I spotted Percival surrounded by three other men in addition to the guard. I couldn’t understand what the conversing was about, but by the body language of the men and the wary look on the guard’s face, it had to be a rather terse conversation.

The men were all similarly dressed in sleeveless red robes with baggy gi-like pants. The outfits were clearly designed to show off their well-built arms and shoulders which were adorned with a myriad of tattoos. They also wore similar hairstyles, shaved on the sides with the hair on the top grown long and pulled back into a pony tail. I couldn’t describe their ethnicity as being the same, but they were all human and well-tanned from what I could see. If I could liken them to anything, they reminded me of a Japanese Yakuza gang, or maybe Ken from Streetfigher.

Yeah definitely more Ken, I decided. Or Akuma maybe as I noticed one of them looked a lot older than the other two and had red hair and a thick beard.

God I’m such a nerd.

As we got within earshot, I heard the Akuma looking dude shout at Percival. “You denying us entry, you prick? We had a meeting set. Get the hells out of our way!”

“I’m very sorry, Master Kino,” Percival said with the poise of a seasoned civil servant, completely unfazed by the verbal assault. “Lady Celine had an impromptu engagement with Duke Valace via spirit link. I trust you can appreciate that and will accept my offer to reschedule your appointment with the High Commissioner at her earliest convenience.”

“We’re likely the reason for that spirit link,” the Akuma looking dude named Kino said, leaning right into Percival’s face. “So for your sake…Pretty Percy…I suggest you honor our damn meeting time and let us the hell inside.”

The big man’s hand curled into fists and blue flames engulfed them.

The fat guard grabbed the hilt of his sword, but then quickly backed off when Percival gave him a shake of his head. “Sir, I insist you respect the authority of this Commission. It would be a terrible sin for the great house Ifrit to suffer disqualification due to their Guildmaster falling afoul of city ordnance.”

“Oh?” Kina said, not backing down. “And what ordnance is that?”

“Threatening a Commission official. Unwarranted display of power. Use of Offensive Magic within City boundaries. Loitering. Need I go on?”

Percival’s cool demeanor remained unflinching as Kino gritted his teeth. I had to hand it to the guy. While Percival didn’t have a great physical presence, the dude had to have balls the size of watermelons. Finally Kino turned and let out a curse in frustration.

“Fuck you, Percival! You sword swallowing, prick,” he spat. “One day the power will swing, and you bloated Commission bureaucrats will remember where the true power of the empire lies. You’ll be groveling before me sooner than you think. You’ll come begging me for my power!”

“That may very well be,” Percival said smiling pleasantly. “But until then, I bid you good day, sir.”

Percival bowed and Kino and his two-man-crew reluctantly took off, heading down the stairs towards us. My eyes locked onto Kino’s and he immediately looked down at the amulet about my neck. He then looked back and forth between my three companions and let out a huge belly laugh.

“Will you look at this, boys?” he said leaning back to his subordinates. “Them filthy she beast whores finally managed to land themselves a patsy. Guess House Velmutt is competing after all.”

His two lieutenants joined in the laugher, which sounded forced and ridiculous. I glanced up at Phee expecting to see her eyes glaring with rage, but surprisingly she had turned her head away and was staring at the wall.

What the hell? Was she ashamed?

The sight of that filled my heart with anger, but I forced myself not to react emotionally or rashly. I lacked the civil servant authority to stand up to these guys like Percival and I had nowhere near the stats or abilities to step to them toe-to-toe in a fight either, but if there was one thing I had learned from working in the field, it was how to stand up to a construction site bully.

More than once I had to put some meathead foreman or union rep in his place in front of his own crew, and normally the louder and more obnoxious they were, the easier they were to troll into submission. And hopefully this guy would be the same.

I put on my best smile and wrapped my arms around Devena and Phee’s waists. “Hey, what can I say, man. I enjoy surrounding myself with beautiful exotic women to make love to, but I see House Ifrit prefers the company of sweaty cocks and balls under the covers all night.”

I referred to each of his male lieutenant in turn and then let out a forced laugh of my own. Normally on a construction site that would garner a laugh from the entire crew and the bully would be forced to either retort with an even more witty reply or come off looking like a loser by resorting to threats or violent…at which point they would easily get themselves fired. In this case, Kino’s own boys were certainly not going to laugh, but I got a couple of discrete chuckles from Percival and the guard.

Kino’s nostrils flared, clearly triggered. “What did you say to me, boy?”

Oratory versus Kino: Critical Failure

-500 Relationship

Current relationship with Kino: -750 Disdain

“Hey look, I’m not judging, man,” I said holding my arms wide behind my two women. “To each their own. But what I don’t get, Kino, is you being so disingenuous about the whole thing. I mean, here you are calling Percival a sword swallower when clearly you’re the biggest cock gobbler in the room. I’m surprised you aren’t dropping to your knees and serving your two fuck boys right now. ”

Oratory versus Kino: Extreme Critical Failure

-750 Relationship

Current relationship with Kino: -1500 Hatred

Oratory versus Percival: Great Success

+400 Relationship

Current relationship with Percival: 810 Extremely amicable

“You piece of shit!” one of Kino’s lieutenants shouted as he leapt from behind the Guildmaster, his hands erupting into flames. “How dare you disrespect our Guildmaster like that!”

I barely had time to think before my Akido instincts kicked in. I took a backstep and spinning, moved out of his path while leaving my foot in the way. He collided with it and stumbled down the stairs in a fiery mess.

Phee surprisingly let out a scream and leapt away, pressing her back against the wall.

Kino’s second lieutenant glared at me with a murderous glint in his eyes and raised his clenched fist in my direction. “Incinerator!”

As he said the word a stream of liquid flame leapt towards me. It was so fast I didn’t have time to even move.

“Cole!” someone shouted and I realized it was Devena. The dragon lady threw herself in front of me, turning her back to the flames. She let out a grunt as it hit her and the bright yellow flames leapt around her body, heating the chains of her outfit to an orange glow.

Yunni flew forward and with a sharp clap of her hands caused a flash of lightning and thunder. The huge explosion caused both the Lieutenant and Kino to falter, and the flames quickly disappeared as they both raced to cover their eyes. Thankfully, due to suspecting what she was about to do, I had looked away at the last moment before Yunni let lose her flash illusion.

But now Kino was standing right in front of me…totally dazed.

The anger I had felt before returned and I balled my hand into a fist. This bastard and his men had just tried to kill me and my friends. I didn’t know if I could even hurt this guy with my measly level 3 stats, but I sure well was going to try.

I drew my hand back but stopped when a blaring whistle pierced the air.

We all looked around and I saw it was coming from the guard who was now furiously blowing a brass whistle between his lips. Within moments what had to be a squad of twenty or so guards appeared from both within the city hall and from around the streets surrounding the building itself.

Slowly I lowered my fist, but not before making sure Kino had seen me raise it.

“Saved by the bell, motherfucker,” I told him.

His eyes grew wide with shock at what I’d said, but before he could retort, the guards were on all of us and pulling us away from each other. I looked for Devena and saw her being hauled off the floor, looking semi unconscious. I prayed it was no worse than that.

“Don’t resist guys,” I said to my companions as the guards lined us up against the wall.

Thankfully I saw Devena come around and with a quick flash of her palms she healed herself. The flaking scales on her back, now scorched white, quickly regrew before my eyes and turned her skin jet black again. I still couldn’t believe it. The dragon lady and sacrificed herself for me. I then looked to Phee and after meeting my stare, she turned her head away…shamefully, perhaps.

Their roles seemed suddenly reversed in my mind. Devena had demonstrated herself to be the cowardly one, not Phee. At least when Phee had her running around the room anyway. What was going on here?

Suddenly a tall soldier in full plate armor appeared. He wore the crest of the Commission on his breastplate and looked to be in his sixties, with a fully grey beard and a receding white hairline. All the guards seemed to come to attention as he approached.

“What’s going on?” he demanded. “Who started this?”

“They did!” Devena shouted pointing at Kino. “They attacked us using Fire magic!”

“Is this true?” the battle worn looking soldier asked looking to Kino, who said nothing. He then looked to the guard who had blown the whistle. “Speak up, Dunn! You blew the alarm didn’t you? You must have witnessed something.”

“Er… yes captain!” the guard said, clicking his heels together. “It was–”

“A trivial showboating exercise between guilds,” Percival suddenly cut in, silencing the guard. “Nothing more. Certainly not enough to concern you or your men, Captain Wells. I apologize for the disruption.”

Captain Wells furrowed his brow at Percival. “Are you certain of that, Vice Commissioned? I would be well within my powers to arrest the lot of them for the unauthorized use of offensive magic within the city bounds.”

“They certainly di–” Devena opened her mouth to speak again, but I quickly stopped her, grabbing her hand and giving it a quick by emphatic squeeze.

Devena was perhaps too emotional to realize it, but Percival was saving us yet again. If he were to accuse Kino and his crew of using magic, then Kino would accuse us of the same…or more specifically…Yunni. I looked to the Nymph and could see the fear and a hint of panic in her green eyes. She was smart, so she had no doubt put the pieces together for herself.

“It’s true,” I said. “Guildmaster Kino and I were simply trying to impress each other. A bit of friendly rivalry before the competition.”

“Yes, correct,” Percival said. “Isn’t that right, Guildmaster Kino?”

Kino let out a huff as he eyeballed me. “Yeah…that’s right…all fun and games. No harm intended, Captain.”

It was clear the captain wasn’t buying any of it, but he knew who outranked who in this situation. “Very well then. I’ll leave you both with a warning.”

He then looked to Kino. “I suggest you save your fireworks display for the expo, Guildmaster. Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal, captain,” Kino said with a tone of thick disdain, his eyes still locked onto mine.

“And you…” Captain Wells turned to address me. “You save…whatever it is you do…for the expo as well. Whoever the hells you are. Men, back to your posts!”

Captain Wells left and the guards began to disperse, Kino and his crew moving with them.

“I’ll be seeing you, Velmutt,” Kino said as he walked past me. “You can count on that.”

“The name’s Cole,” I told him. “Cole Jacobs. And don’t you forget it.”

Asshole, I added inwardly, but refrained from saying it out loud as to not escalate tensions further. When the guards and Kino had all disappeared, I breathed out a huff of relief and realized my legs were shaking. Playing chicken with a guy like that took nerves and while I was pretty good at it, it didn’t mean I wasn’t shitting myself on the inside.

Fuck, I thought. We just made ourselves a major enemy and while I was happy we stood our ground and I didn’t punk out to his bullying, as that would have possible lead to a scenario even worse down the line, Kino was now a risk that I had to deal with all while trying to get the Guild off the ground. This was definitely a setback we didn’t need.

“Man, I hate assholes,” I muttered. “Always getting in the way of progress.”

“Indeed,” Percival said, smiling as he approached. “But well done, Master Cole. I don’t think anyone has stood up to Fire Master Kino quite like that before. It will be something he shall not soon forget.”

“Yeah,” I said with chagrin. “Thanks for reminding me.”

“Anyway, my apologies,” he said. “The Fire Guild are not known for their cool demeanor. As you can tell.”

“No problem,” I said. “And thanks for that save too. I know we were probably all in a bit of hot water with the Captain there.”

“Not at all. Now if you’ll follow me,” he said “I’ll show you to the Lady Celine.”

As Percival took the lead, I looked to my own team. “Are you guys all okay?”

Devena seemed agitated still, her face fixed in a scowl. Yunni looked a bit traumatized but the ordeal, but managed a nod. Poor Phee looked like she had just seen a ghost and was still up against the wall. I needed to do something to pull them all together.

“Hey,” I said. “You all did amazing back there.” I turned to Devena and smiled. “You totally saved my life, Devena. Thank you. I had no idea you were fire proof!”

“Dragon heritage has its perks,” she said dryly but gave me a wry smile in thanks of the compliment.

“And Yunni,” I said. “You saved the day with that thunderclap spell. That guy was aiming to roast both me and Devena alive for sure.”

“And Phee…” I said looking up at the Half Ogress but then instantly realized my folly when I failed to find anything to say about what she had done. I was about to make something up but the pause was too long and Phee spoke ahead of me.

“And I did nothing,” she said casting down her gaze. “Nothing while you almost died.”

A silence fell and I didn’t know quite what to say to her. “Look, don’t worry about that. We all beat them. Together. That’s the main thing.”

“Are you coming?” Percival called to us and Phee was the first to walk away, leaving the rest of us standing there.

“Is she alright?” Yunni asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t know. It’s the first time I’ve seen her freeze up like that.”

“What do you expect?” Devena said and I looked to the dragon woman, expecting to see a condescending smirk on her face or something, but instead I saw a frown and a look of genuine concern in her eyes. “Those were fire wielders we were up against.”

“Yes and…?” I said, still not grasping the connection.

“Didn’t she tell you?” Devena asked. “She said she did.”

“Tell me what?”

“About her past,” Devena said and when I still didn’t draw a clue she added with a sigh, “When Phee was a kid, she witnessed half her family get burned alive.”