Adam was surprised that Helen was there. He had felt the he had yet to properly apologize for the incident in the bath house, even if he wasn't at fault. The only other time he had been able to talk to her, was when those two men tried to harass her in one of the private booths. He could not see, so even if she passed him by in the hall, he would not know. Though he rarely thought about it, he felt that he had just been leaving the situation hanging, without getting it resolved.

Helen, on the other hand, just wanted to forget about the whole ordeal. During the birthday party, she had wanted to congratulate everyone too, but she simply couldn't muster the courage to talk to Adam. Not only had he been in her presence while she was taking a bath, he was there when she cried in Janette's arms from the ordeal with the harassers. She was too embarrassed to interact with him. It also seemed that whenever Adam was involved, something bad happened.

Seeing the reactions between the two children, Vivienne was a little confused. They were obviously surprised by each other and not in a good way. Vivienne had yet to be told the exact details of Janette's plan to get Adam out of his depression. And Adam was a too embarrassed to bring it up.

Janette simply had a small smile displayed as she watched everyone's expressions. Before anyone could start asking questions she took the initiative. “So, Helen, you said the wall garden is an excellent spot that is both secluded and quiet right?”

Awakened from her surprise by Janette's words, Helen stumbled a little as she replied: “Wh-? Um, yes, Madame.”

“Good! You see, Adam needs a place like this to properly do his studies to become a spiritualist!” Janette immediately said.

Helen's eyes turned round as she looked at Adam. “A spiritualist?!” She thought to her self.

Only those who were close to and paid attention to Adam had heard that he went for testing. Hardly anyone that went to Madame's would ever go for testing, so they found anyone that was studying to become a spiritualist, shocking.

“Why don't you go ahead and take Adam there? I still need to talk to Vivienne about something.”

Vivienne gave Janette a questioning stare to what was said. Vivienne was unsure about whether she should let Helen take Adam or not. There was something afoot, and she wanted to know what.

Helen gave a slightly worried look at Adam before she looked back at Janette. Helen was a little afraid of the awkward situation of being alone with Adam. But, truthfully, Janette was an intimidating figure for some of the children, Helen included. Even if Janette was motherly and acted good in front of them, she was still a figure that controlled Madame's and their lives. Helen gave into this intimidation and replied in a shy manner: “It is not too far. I should be able to take Adam there and back.”

Adam then spoke up: “Okay. I can follow you out of Madame's easily enough. When we get out to the street, though, I will need you to guide me.”

Adam was a little relieved that his mother would be staying. He could try to properly apologize to Helen without mentioning what had happened to Vivienne. Helen got up out of the chair and made for the exit. She gave Vivienne a single shy glance on the way out. Adam followed her and closed the door behind him.

Vivienne then gave Janette a sharp look. “What is this about? Those two were too surprised to meet each other for something normal to have happened between them. What are you hiding from me?”

Janette felt helpless against Vivienne's dominating glare. If it was Vivienne's normal glare, Janette could handle it. But this time she had to face the anger and concern of a mother, rather than that of an old friend. Janette began to hesitantly speak under this glare: “Well, you see, remember when Adam was depressed and I had a plan to help him? Well.. part of that plan was to take Adam into the girl's bath house and-”

Vivienne cut in with a heated voice: “You took him into the girl's bath house!? I should have known better than to leave him to one of your schemes! Even if he is blind he is still a boy!”

“Exactly! That's why I did it!”

Vivienne was dumbfounded by this response. Janette continued to explain herself, as Vivienne momentarily paused: “Helen told him the exact same thing. It doesn't matter that he is blind, he is still a normal boy. In this way, it was more meaningful to Adam than if either of us tried to preach it to him.”

Vivienne continued to give Janette a death glare as she mulled over these words. “So Helen was in the bath house at that time then?”

“Yes. But I swear, I did not plan for this to happen. It is by extreme coincidence that she knew of a good spot for Adam. I didn't tell her who needed the spot, as I feared she would get to nervous.” Janette then showed a mischievous face: “But just think about it for a moment. Isn't Helen a cute girl? Wouldn't you be happy to have Adam bring a girl like her home?”

Vivienne emphasized three words to Janette: “No. More. Schemes!”

Janette gave a sigh. It was hard to find such good material to play with. She answered Vivienne with a slightly depressed voice: “Fine.”

Vivienne then turned on her heel and left. While she did agree that Helen was a cute girl, she also wouldn't mind if she was a girl that Adam brought home, She didn't want the poor thing to be victim to another one of Janette's schemes.

Adam had quietly followed Helen out of Madame's. He was familiar with the first floor, so he could easily navigate the area while following her. When they got out the courtyard of Madame's, it started to become harder, as there were no longer any walls to follow. Yet he continued to follow Helen in the awkward silence. Neither of them felt like being the first to speak up, not that they really knew how to break the ice with each other anyway.

Still, Adam was able to follow Helen's foot steps out of Madame's courtyard easily enough. However, when they hit the main roads he finally had to speak up, as he called out: “Helen?”

Helen jumped a little. During the time they had gotten here, she had been constantly thinking of ways to start a conversation or how she should respond if Adam started a conversation. All these thought clouded up her mind and she was actually unable to respond to Adam.

In the moment of silence that ensued, after he had spoken, Adam brought his hand up in the air and said: “This area is too loud. I can no longer follow the sounds of your foot steps. Can you please guide me?”

Helen could only come up with one awkward response: “S-sure.”

Helen hesitantly reached out and took Adam's hand in her own. She was unused to holding another person's hand since she had come to Madame's. Before, she would always be holding onto her mother's hand. But it had already been a few years since she had to come here. During this time, she did not actively seek out to hold the hand of anyone else, let alone a boy's hand.

After taking his hand, Helen continued to trod on in silence. If Adam was able to see, at least he could have distracted himself with the sights of the area around him. But, as it is, he could only pay attention to the hand that was guiding him forward. Even if it was a girl's hand, it quickly got tiresome to only be able to pay attention to that hand. The noises around him were too muddled with everything that was happening around for him to pick out any sounds. In short, there was nothing for him to do!

Adam was a young boy, so he quickly became restless. This restlessness eventually gave him the courage to broach the subject he had been secretly fearing. Adam started out by calling her name: “Helen?”

Helen's steps paused for a brief moment before she continued walking. She responded with an “Mhmm?” sound and a shy nod, that went unnoticed by Adam.

There was a brief silence on Adam's part before he spoke. He really had no idea how to go about this, so he just decided to dive head first into deep waters. “I don't know how to properly say this, I felt that I never properly apologized to you. I am sorry for entering the bath house while you were in there.” His face had started to turn red towards the end, in embarrassment.

Adam brought up the one thing Helen wanted to forget and never remember again. Her own face also turned red in embarrassment as well. Even if Adam was blind, she wasn't. Seeing a boy while she was stark nude was a very discomforting feeling to her. She retorted Adam: “Don't talk about that! I just want to forget about the whole thing!”

Helen's steps sped up as her heart raced in embarrassment. As the memory of that time barged it's way into her mind, she became very conscious of holding that boy's hand who had 'seen' her while she was naked. She just wanted to let go of his hand and run. But she knew that was not an option. She would immediately feel worse if she left him, after she cooled down a bit.

Adam was also stunned into silence. Apparently, he had said the wrong thing. He was hoping to properly apologize and put the whole incident behind them, but it seems he had just made it worse!

Adam and Helen continued on in silence. Passers by were treated to the sight of a red faced girl leading a red faced boy by the hand. While they wistfully thought of young romance, in truth it was just an embarrassed girl leading an embarrassed boy, nothing more.

After another few minutes of walking, Adam got tired of the silence again. Adam tried to bring up a subject that shouldn't elicit a large reaction from Helen. “So, where are we going?”

Helen was initially startled by Adam speaking again. Though, she was glad to have something to take her mind off of that incident in the bath house. She started to tell Adam of the wall garden. Madame's was located in an area that was between the wards that each housed the upper and middle class folk of the city. This position put it a close distance to the walls that surrounded and protected the city. The are a few places on the walls where small parks were built. There were a few trees and small amounts of lawn with some benches. These were the only areas where civilians could go atop the walls and view the scenery around Hessler from high above.

Some of the rich nobles of the area had pressed to have these wall gardens built. In their arrogance of wanting a place that was high above the commoners, and a place to view the area around them, the nobles forgot they would have to go out of their way to get on top of the walls to enjoy the gardens. After they had been built, the wall gardens had been quickly abandoned by the nobles. It was a romantic idea that had failed. The gardens were still maintained though, there were those who felt it a waste to just tear the gardens down again. As such there were only a few people who would actually visit these gardens, keeping them fairly quiet and secluded compared to many other areas in Hessler.

What Helen didn't tell Adam was that she came here to clear her head at times. There were times where she would become emotional as she remembered her parents and how she lost them. The quiet and serene area would calm her down and she liked it there.

From Madame's, it would take somewhere between half an hour, and a full hour to get to the garden by foot, depending on how busy the roads were. This may seem like a long time or distance, but it was an acceptable amount for a city like Hessler. It could get very busy, slowing you down far more than one would expect. Also, depending on where you lived, it could take at least that long to make your way to a decent market square in the city. Though if you were rich and could afford a carriage, it would be much faster to reach your destination. If Adam and Vivienne had walked to the institute, instead of taking a carriage, it would have taken them at least three hours to traverse the distance.

Having something they could talk about, it made the atmosphere between Adam and Helen much better. There was still awkwardness between the two, but it was far better that when Adam had tried to apologize earlier. On the rest of the journey to the wall garden, Adam asked questions about the area they were passing through. It alleviated the boredom he was having.

This time, it only took a little over half an hour to make it to the wall garden. There were a series of steps that zigzagged up the wall to the top. Adam could not see them, but the walls around the city were actually much taller than the ones at Fort Erich. This was a little harder for Adam to traverse. Adam was quite curious about the sounds he heard on the last part of this journey. When they approached the walls, he had heard many sounds that were bouncing back off the walls and heading back into the city. It was mostly the louder sounds that he was able to hear doing this. As they ascended the stairs, he also found the sounds from the city dissipating into the air, more and more.

Finally reaching the top, the sounds of the city became the faintest of murmurs that you could barely hear. Adam was immediately impressed by the garden for this. He had gotten so used to the sounds of the city at Madame's that the quiet here was almost overbearing. He had never realized how much of the city sounds had been hearing until it was almost all gone. Right now, it felt a little like when he first became blind. It was as though nothing existed in front of him. His thoughts were the only thing that existed in the world.

The garden area had around ten trees separated onto three main lawn areas. There were benches placed around as well. Right now no one else was here. Helen spoke to Adam: “Well, what do you think?”

“... it's so quiet! This should be perfect, thank you!”

Helen felt a little happy at the gratitude in Adam's voice. This spot had been her own until she heard that Janette was looking for a quiet secluded spot for someone. Helen had been willing to share the area, it wasn't truly her's after all, and she had been thanked for sharing it.

Curiosity swelled within Adam as he asked: “What is on the other side of the wall?”

“I'll take you over there.” Helen said, as she grabbed Adam's hand and guided him towards the battlements, at the edge of the wall.

The battlements here were shorter than normal ones. Still they were taller than typical railings that could be used. This was done so that civilians were far more unlikely to fall, but could more easily see the scenery outside the walls. The battlements were also designed so soldiers could still use them if need be, but it was still not optimal for a battle situation.

As they approached the battlements, Adam could start to hear the breeze of the wind. In the open areas around the wall, there was plenty of room for the wind to start moving. At some point, when the sound of the wind was getting louder, Helen stopped. She placed Adam's hands onto the cold stone in front of him. He was a little started by the cold stone. He then began to lean forward slightly as he listened to the gentle wind over the battlements.

He could begin to hear various sounds that the wind brought over. Helen pointed out the area with her hand, even though Adam could not see it. “This side of the wall does not have a large area for farming. The forest is rather close on this side, perhaps less than two kilometers away.”

When Helen pointed out that the forest was close at hand, Adam was finally able to discern some of the familiar sounds he heard in the wind. It was very similar to the sounds he heard in the forest on his way to Hessler, but much fainter.

Helen watched as Adam tilted his head in thought before bringing his flute out. He had no time to put his flute back when they started heading out here, so he just brought it with him. Adam started to play some of the tunes he had used when traveling through the forest so long ago.

Helen was immediately enchanted by the tune. It was gentle and flowing. Unfortunately, not many sounds managed to make it to the wall garden from the forest, so Adam's tunes did not fully blend. They were rather dependent on the forest accompanying his flute.

Adam also felt calm while he was playing. He liked this place. It would be great if there was a bench nearby so he could hear the sounds of the forest as he studied his tool. Those sounds were rather calming to his soul, and he thought it could help relieve the stress of constantly concentrating on the formation.

After asking Helen, it turned out there was a bench not even a meter way off to his left. Sitting down on the bench, Adam wanted to see how well he could still hear the sounds from the forest. Since the bench was lower than the battlements, most of the sound passed over him so he could not directly hear it. There will still faint sounds he could hear, but it was inferior to leaning over the battlements to listen to the wind. Still, he could always take a small break to listen to the wind.

Adam spoke to Helen: “I really like this place, thank you, Helen. Is it hard to get here, though? I would hate to force you take me every time I need to come here.”

Helen replied: “No, it's rather simple. I also wouldn't mind taking you every now and then, I like this place my self. It should be easy enough to get someone like Alfred to bring you here.”

“You know Alfred?”

“Of course! We were brought to Madame's at the same time. Also, after you work there long enough, you get to know who everyone is.”

After this, Adam and Helen decided to go back to Madame's the return trip took just about as long as getting to the wall garden. After fully returning, Adam hurried off to tell his mother about the wall garden. It turned out that Vivienne already knew about the place, but had actually never gone out of the way to go there!

Vivienne also talked to Adam about Helen and the incident in the bath house. Adam was rather embarrassed when talking about it to his mother. He told her how he tried to apologize to Helen. Vivienne just gave a small sigh. At least, in this aspect, her son was the same as most other boys: he had no tact with girls.

Making plans, it was decided that Hansen and Alfred would primarily be taking Adam to the wall garden. The stair climb would be too tough for Vivienne to constantly undertake, so she would not be able to take Adam. Helen was also somehow squeezed into the planned schedule for when Adam would go study at the garden.

Adam would now be going to the garden once a day. Depending on when some one was available to take him, Adam would head out a varying times from early afternoon until evening. He would spend at least an hour everyday studying his tool there. It was currently Donnerstock, so he still had two days left to study before his first private lesson with Cathryn.

On Freitock, Hansen took Adam to the wall garden. Adam was extremely pleased with his efforts. It was a much better environment for his study then Madame's. When he took a break to listen to the wind, it allowed his mind to rest so he could sharpen it again as he studied the formation.

On Samstock, however, Alfred took Adam along. Alfred quickly got bored while Adam was studying the formation. He started asking Adam questions about the wooden box in his lap and what he was doing. In short, Alfred became a distraction. This day was less fruitful than when Hansen brought him.

Overall, Adam had made some progress. He was able to trace the formation a few stokes in, but it quickly became so complicated that this was as far as Adam could go. Since tomorrow he was going to see Cathryn. Adam was hoping that she could help him in this area.

Adam impatiently went to bed that evening. He had become excited about going back to the institution. While his efforts in studying the formation were going a bit slowly, he felt a desire to become a spiritualist. The strength training with Hansen was just something he could use to protect his life in the future, it was not really preparing him for an occupation he could take. No one would take a swordsman, who could not see, into the army or a mercenary band, right? If he manage to become a spiritualist, however, that would become his future occupation and encompass his life.

Adam and Vivienne woke up the next morning and prepared to go to the institution. Adam was eager to see Cathryn and ask her a few questions about the formation, so they decided to go early in the day this time. They didn't have to leave as early as they had last week, however, as Adam should be the only candidate receiving instruction today.

They took a carriage, same as last time. After the carriage stopped, Adam got out excited to finally be back at the institution and to learn more about spiritualists.