“Ta-da!” Olahr presented you with two gently-cooked slices of toast.

“Oh! Toast.” This is not the breakfast you were hoping for, but you smile anyway.

“S’olahr, you’re trying to make him feel better, and you gave him plain toast for breakfast?” Erden sighed. “Give me a minute Anah’to, I’ll get you some jam.”

“It’s not just ANY toast!” Olahr smirks confidently. “It’s ASTRAL toast!”

“Are you serious?” Erden grabbed a jar from the cabinet. “Making me use fire magic to cook bread does not imbue it with astral aether!”

“But you’re full of astral aether, some of the residue should soak into the food while you cook it!” S’olahr put his hands on his hips. “I know it’s not the most luxurious breakfast in the world, but this is a proof of concept!”

“This sounds like something a six year old would try to convince me is true.” Erden spreads jam over your toast. Since it’s still fresh, it smells lovely. “And I’d play along, just to humor them. Actually, I guess it makes a lot of sense that you would propose something like this, S’olahr!”

“Well.” You grab a slice. “Technically, your fire magic would release ambient aether into the environment, and it would be partially absorbed into the food you’re cooking!”

“HA! Told you!” S’olahr stood proudly.

“...But only to the same extent that any open flame would.” You add. “Any cooked food is ‘astral’ food, I suppose. It’s just a really small, unremarkable amount.” You take a bite. The jam is a pretty good addition!

“Hmm. Maybe if we infused it more directly?” Olahr ponders.

“You can’t be serious.” Erden shakes his head. “This is just a terrible, roundabout way of Anah’to and I directly exchanging aether.”

“I’m just trying to make sure you don’t fill him up with your…voidy…weirdness!” Olahr said, throwing his hands up. “Anah made it very clear that I’m responsible for watching his recovery!”

“What would Astral food even look like?” You wonder aloud.

“Probably like coal.” Erden says. “...Bet it tastes like it too.”

“Alright, wiseguy.” Olahr crosses his arms. “How about you do something, then?”

“Gladly.” Erden turns to you. “Want some eggs with that?”

“Yes, please!”

He takes half a dozen from the cabinet and begins to cook them over the still-burning fire.

“So…” You grab the second slice of toast. “Get Phekda anything for starlight?”

“Oh gods, that’s only next week isn’t it?” He knocks on the side of his cheek. “I was working on something, but I dunno if I’ll have enough time. Plus there’s you and Erden this time too…” He groans. “How am I gonna pull this one off…”

“I was thinking of inviting K’yoko and Mizu, too, if that’s alright.” You say, taking a big bite.

“UGGHhhh” Olahr rubs his temples. “Okay, I can do this!” He pauses. “Um. Who’s Mizu again?”

“Oh, you are in for a treat.” Erden snickers.

“She’s a childhood friend I made in Ul’dah. She has her moments, but once you’re friends with her you can tell she really cares.” You say. “Just try not to come to any superficial conclusions when you meet her, alright?”

“Hmm.” S’olahr holds a skeptical grimace. “Alright…I’ll try.”

“Anyway, I doubt that Mizu will be making gifts for anyone besides Erden and I, so you really don’t need to worry about getting her anything.”

“Good morning, everyone.” Phekda joined us at the table. “Everyone still in one piece? Nobody got into another fight while I was sleeping, right?”

“Hardy har.” Erden grabs a spatula and prods the eggs with it, adding dashes of salt and pepper as he goes. “Do we have any chives?”

“Chives? For eggs?” S’olahr asks mockingly.

“Every time you speak, it makes my head hurt.” Erden says, looking through cabinets for options. He pulls out some cherry tomatoes and cheese.

“So, how was last night? You didn’t give us any details.” Phekda asked, getting right to business. Erden grabbed a few medals off of the counter and placed them in the middle of the three of us.

“There’s one for Hana, too. Is she around?”

“She doesn’t tend to stay put for long.” Olahr answered. “I saw her leaving this morning, and she said she’d be back in about a week. Pursuing a lead with the kobolds, I believe.”

“Right.” Erden turned back to the eggs and pulled out four plates. “Anyway, after Anah and I finished up in Ul’dah, I went back to Horizon to head home, but our little Viera friend tailed me, as you know.” He distributed the eggs mostly evenly across the four plates, but put extra on the last one. He placed the plates in front of each of us, saving the final plate for himself.

“Thanks,” You took the plate and ate as he spoke.

“Oh, for us too?” Olahr asked, and he nodded. “Thanks, I appreciate that.”

“Breakfast and a story, nice!” Phekda said as she grabbed her fork. “So? Can we finally hear what you talked about?”

“She told me who ordered Louix’s death. It was his uncle, Apont Drehont.” He sighed. “But she was also mad that we tried to trap her like that, and now the blades and paladin’s guild are looking for her. So she asked me to help her…feign her death, to get the heat off her back.”

“Apont Drehont, was it?” Phekda wrote the name down.

“Feign her death?” Olahr tilted his head. “What exactly has she done to deserve that kind of help? She killed a child!”

“She also said that she would pretend to be Halone’s Champion, so I’d get the same benefits.” He says, though he’s clearly embarrassed to be saying it at all.

“Great.” Olahr doesn’t seem very excited by the news. “So this is what we do now? We consort with criminals to get…criminal favors?!”

“Well hang on, Olahr.” Phekda holds up her hand. “Maybe Kuromi is just looking for the same opportunity to redeem herself that Erden was! What do you think, Erden?”

“Well. Maybe!” Erden said, but he said it in the kind of way where he clearly wasn’t sure if she would go and kill a second smaller and sadder child within the next few days. “I think she’s just trying to survive as best as she can.”

“Well I don’t like it.” Olahr shook his head. “I know I can be kind of a downer about these kinds of things, but if I try really hard I can at least understand where Erden was coming from-- but he never killed kids! He killed people he thought were really awful.”

“They were really awful.” Erden emphasizes.

“What could drive someone to do something like that? It’s unforgivable!” Olahr protested.

“I dunno.” You poke at your scrambled eggs. “What would drive you to do something like that?”

“Nothing!”

“What if you needed the money to save Phekda?” Erden asks.

“I don’t think Phekda would want me to do something like that…” Olahr says, though the question has clearly made him a little sad. Phekda nods in agreement.

“What if the elementals told you to?” You ask with an almost worried look-- you feel like you might know the answer.

“...Well, that’s…”

“I’m starting to think that Gridania is just one big cult.” Erden says half-jokingly.

“The elementals wouldn’t ask us to do that, because they’re not monsters!” Olahr vehemently says. “And Gridania is NOT a cult. The elementals are just in tune with the world in a way we don’t understand, which is why the hearers tell us what the will of the elementals demands!”

“So you need to have unquestioning commitment to what a very small group of people tell you, with little to no accountability?” Erden laughs. “Yeah, okay.”

“I think I know someone the elementals should ask me to kill.” Olahr says sharply. Phekda smacks him on the back of the head.

“Olahr, that was mean.” She adds.

“...Sorry.” Olahr silently resumes eating his eggs.

“Let’s just focus on the next steps.” Phekda points to the paper she’s written on. “We can turn this information over to the Wood Wailers and let them investigate from there. As for this Kuromi business, I’d really rather we speak with her together before we make any big…legally and morally questionable choices. When are you meeting with her next?”

“...” Erden stares blankly. “I’m not sure.”

“Huh?” You ask, surprised. “You didn’t get any way of contacting her or anything?”

“No. She didn’t really mention any timeline or anything either.” He says. “I assumed she had some kind of…business to take care of? Stuff she wants to wrap up before she is supposedly meant to die.”

“Gods…” Phekda holds her forehead. “Alright. I guess she will make herself known to us again when she is ready. I’ll make a trip to Gridania and hand this over to them.” She quickly downs her remaining food. “Why don’t you three take the day off? We’ve been working hard lately, so I think a little break is in order.”

“Well, sure.” Erden says. “Do you not need any help? I could confirm that he’s guilty if I look into his eyes.”

“Let’s only resort to that if they can’t find any evidence.” Phekda says. “We don’t really have any legal jurisdiction beyond what we’ve already done. Given he has a clear motive, I feel like this will probably be a shut-tight case.”

“That’ll give us time to do some morning training, too!” Olahr cheers.

“What did you have in mind?” You ask.

“Nothing physical, just enough to get you both started on your aether balance journey.” Olahr explains. “After you’re both done eating, let’s head outside so we have plenty of space to work with.”

-

“So, do you know any astral magic?” Olahr asks you.

“Mizu taught me some thaumaturgy when we were kids.” You say, cupping your hands together and producing a small, harmless flame. You expand the fire until it fits nicely in your palm, and then hover it in the air next to you. “It’s useful if you want to venture into the catacombs or a cave and keep track of your oxygen, but it’s a lot less bright and more aether-hungry than making orbs of light, so I only use it for narrow spaces.”

“Hm, alright! That makes this a lot easier. How about you, Erden? Any umbral magic?”

“No. I only just started using magic at all a few months ago.” He says.

“Right.” Olahr crosses his arms. “Is there anything in particular you were interested in?”

“Ice would probably be the best choice.” You chime in. “Given that all of Erden’s studies so far have been rooted in thaumaturgy, even if he has been using lightning instead of fire.”

“I was thinking of ice as well.” Erden agrees. “We already have earth and water well-covered by you and Hana, Olahr-- but not even Mizu seems to use ice much. It could help give us a good spread of capabilities, should we need it.”

“You’re right, that would be good.” Olahr says. “But the problem is that now there’s nobody to really help teach you how to use it. How did you learn in the first place?”

“I learned some techniques from Mizu’s notes, and some thaumaturgy books.” Erden reaches into his pocket. “But that was easy. Lightning was compatible with my soul crystal, so it was just a matter of changing my thinking.” He exposes his soul crystal to the sun. “There’s not a scrap of umbral aether in this thing, and I’m over aspected as it is. Can I even make ice?”

“When thaumaturge’s use umbral magic, they draw it from the part of their aether which is closest to the soul, and thus the most stable.” You explain. “This kind of cycling in and out is what lets them recharge so they can fight for longer. It also literally helps to cool them off, which can help a lot. Of course, the more balanced your aether is, the easier it is to do that.”

“I see.” Erden says, though this is clearly a bit too abstract for him. “So Mizu must do that, too, then?”

“Mizu mostly just passes out after she overexerts herself.” You chuckle. “But when she’s taking things seriously, yes, she does.”

“Maybe I should ask her how to get started then.” He suggests. “Even trying to envision it…” He looks down on his hands and tries to focus, but only ends up producing small crackles of electricity.

“We’ll see her for the starlight celebration-- maybe you can ask her then?” You say.

“Yeah, good idea.”

“We can pick this up again after that.” Olahr says. “In the meantime, I guess you two can just exchange a bit of aether every once in a while to stay stable. Anah’to, how about you just…maintain that fire? Whenever you need to see stuff, I guess.”

“Sounds like a plan.” You smile. “How about we go see K’yoko, Erden? We had questions about Mortar, and we can give her…some updates about the Louix situation.”

“That’ll give me plenty of time to get started on gifts.” Olahr cracks his knuckles. “Have fun with your little visit, and tell K’yoko I said hi!”

“Will do!” You say cheerfully. You turn to Erden. “I don’t suppose your return crystal is attuned to Limsa, is it?”

“I think it's still set up for Ul’dah, actually.” He shrugs, pulling it out. “It’ll still save a lot of time compared to the ferry.”

“I’ll meet you there, then.” You pull out your crystal, too. “Maybe we can bring K’yoko out for a bite to eat, too.”

“Alright, see you there!” He says, releasing the aether from the crystal and being whisked away, and you do the same.