Chapter Text
LUMINA POV:
"Well I think that's a stupid system, why didn't it stop us before in the loops?", You rebuke, that flag system is idiotic and you just want to get these loops over with already.
"Because before now it was always frozen? I mean it probably was, right?", Mirabelle replies with.
"And the mechanism was probably frozen in the open state as well!"
"I guess so... But why do we need the orbs then? I thought that was what lowered the drawbridge?"
"Behind the drawbridge is a crafted door, which can only be opened with the orbs, when it opens, it pushes the drawbridge forward, making it drop."
"So why didn't we just open it now?!", You raise your voice a bit too much, causing Stardust to walk closer to you, worriedly. You want to wish that they didn't care, but you can't bring yourself to so much as push them away.
"S-Sorry..."
"It's quite alright... The whole system is actually really crabbing stupid. If you open the door while the drawbridge is up, but still pinned by the internal mechanism. The entire gatehouse will break and collapse.", Mirabelle chevalier swearing! You are aghast! But that does indeed sound stupid.
"Gems alive...", Odile sound so incredibly disappointed in the design, or is that frustration? That's difficult to tell with Odile.
"Is it wrong I kind of want to see that happen though?", You say, making yourself look like a crazy person. You really really want to obliterate the ever-loving stars out of the house, reduce it into fine powder and hurl into space forever. Frankly you deserve to after being interred there for years.
"I vote with Lumina, if we find an alternative route into the house and know there will be another Loop we destroy the gatehouse.", Odile?!
"M'dame?!", Isabeau blurts out.
"Quiet Isabeau. This stupid gate is the reason we had to trek across the whole of the shattering country!"
"But this is a sacred place!", Isabeau tries to bring reason into the conversation, which you thoroughly do not care for, you will be blowing the gatehouse up at earliest convenience, or earliest inconvenience, earliest possible point, whatever the saying is in Vaugarde.
"In Ka-Bue, if a shrine becomes desecrated, it is the duty of the followers to tear it down it.", Odile says, but you can't whether or not Odile is telling the truth here, not that you will be pointing that out.
"Well...The House is kind of desecrated... Maybe just the once?", Mirabelle is on your side too? Fantastic.
"Mirabelle?!", Isabeau blurts out even more shocked.
"Yeah! Let's blow up the stupid crabbing gatehouse!", Bonnie affirms their vote.
"I'm not surprised that Bonbon agreed to this, but Mirabelle! I thought you were a good Housemaiden!"
"Uhm! I am! I am advocating for Change by reconstruction!", That's definitely not a thing.
You find yourself giggling at that statement. You can scarcely describe how much you appreciate having this back. Stars... you wouldn't trade anything for it.
Stardust however, isn't sharing in your weird sappy emotions right now, instead they join in on the conversation.
"What do you think Locke?", Which isn't quite what you expected out of Stardust, you thought they would side with you in wanton desire to destroy the House. You don't even think Locke could have a strong opinion on this.
"... I could take it or leave it. I've seen fair number of buildings demolished before, so it wouldn't be too special to watch."
"Really now?", Odile asks.
"Yeah, It gets boring after a while, unless something new happens.", You can certainly relate to that one! Teehee~!
Did you just... 'Teehee' in you internal monologue? Stars you're such a weirdo, how does Stardust tolerate you.
"But... Depending on how much force the door outputs... It could be an interesting one to watch.", Locke seems to contemplate for a moment.
"Ah but... There wouldn't be any fire or explosions so is really even worth it?"
"Frin said they made a bomb before! So we could use that!", You would prefer to use it against the powerful sadness occupying the space with the king more than anything else.
"Some of the bomb parts were on the third floor...", Stardust says remorsefully.
"Ok?", Bonnie responds with, not seeing the fairly obvious problem.
"Meaning we would have to get to the top of the house, then all the way back down, at which we could likely just be able to kill the sadness that's holding the curse up.", Odile explains on behalf of Siffrin.
"Can you make an explosives Locke?", Bonnie turns to ask.
"I don't really have the ingredients? And I could only make a chemical explosive, not a craft explosive, so it's unlikely anyone would carry the ingredients I would need."
"Whats the different between a craft explosive and chemical explosive?", You ask find yourself asking.
"I don't know exactly... I guess just assumed they were different because there was never craft in my world. Maybe I should go ask Mirabelle's roommate about explosives at some point.", Poor Mirabelle, now she knows two pyromaniacs! Or does pyromaniac just mean fire?
"That reminds me, what should we do with the down time?", Isabeau asks excitedly.
"Don't get any fun ideas, we have two extra party members who don't incorporate well into our current formation, that needs to be addressed first.", Odile interjects before you could say anything. But you wanted to cause mischief! You've not caused mischief in forever!
The whole party turns to face you and Locke. You started to walk side by side because neither of you wanted to interrupt the usual formation, but now it leaves you feeling exposed. So you just look at Locke, to avoid looking at anyone else.
they seem similarly uncomfortable with so many eyes on them. But eventually they speak aloud to everyone.
"I'm self taught, I'm not trained in any specific weapon. Currently I have a great sword and few pieces of armour, I don't know any craft and... I guess I try and get fights over quickly.", You already knew all of that from their first ascent through the house.
"Tell us something we don't know.", You tease.
"I'm also not used to fighting sadnesses.", They aren't?
They... aren't used to fighting sadnesses, and yet they are covered in scars. Oh stars...
You feel your blood run cold. Just who were they before they came here? M-Maybe you're just over-reacting! Maybe they meant they were never trained in fighting sadnesses. Before you can think on it anymore you decide to make your own introduction statement.
"I'm just like Stardust, I know Rock, Paper and Scissors craft, as well as some healing craft. But I'm definitely a bit rusty."
"Perhaps you and Siffrin can take turns? So you don't exhaust yourselves.", Mirabelle gives a practical idea but neither you or Stardust could stand the idea feeling useless. Odile notices this and gives a follow up idea.
"Only one of you will be fighting in front, the other will be supporting from the back. And for the more important fights we will have you both in the front. But only if you practice that first.", Why would you ever need to practice? Stardust also looks confused at this.
"Gems alive, you're both used to being in the same position while fighting, of course you will have to practice.", Oh...
"Well... Sif usually sticks to my left side, so maybe Lumina could be on the other side.", That sounds a pretty reasonable idea.
Suddenly Odile raises a hand to her ear in the secret craft sign. And Isabeau begins sputtering.
"MADAME!!! YOU CAN'T DO THAT TO ME!!", Isabeau buries his face in his hands and turns the shade of a tomato. Odile just laughs sharply and walks off... You'll never get to hear what was said, will you?
"Za what did Dile tell you?"
"It's nothing Bonbon, it's mushy and gross and weird and you wouldn't care about it at all."
"Oh... Can you stop being mushy and gross and weird then?"
"Yeah sure Bonbon.", Isabeau shoves his hands in his pockets and looks very far away from both you and Stardust, then walks way at a swift pace. Oh you're going to go mad over not knowing what Odile said.
Everyone else follows along, the walk back to Dormont is much quieter without Isabeau saying anything.
As soon as you get back to Dormont, Mirabelle informs the head Housemaiden about the whole gatehouse issue, and that you will all be departing tomorrow. And she informs a few other Housemaidens. That way no-one around Dormont will shower you with excessive questions... Hopefully. Vaugardians may be kind, but also exceedingly nosy at times.
Along the walk through Dormont, you notice a number of decorations around. you can't remember the names of any of these things, if they even have names. Strings run between buildings over the street, small pieces of differently shaded cloth are to the strings, some of them have Change symbols drawn on, sometimes circles, sometimes eggs.
Every now and then you see a larger decorative piece, a tree draped in various shades and patterns, or a Change statue surrounded by many small trinkets, and you have to resist the urge to scoop up some of them.
Mirabelle and Isabeau look absolutely infatuated with all of it. Odile takes mental notes on all of the larger decor pieces. Bonnie runs around burning off their excess energy.
It almost feels like one of the festivals you used to see with your baba. Where you could stay on the whole day, and then go night fishing. Or stargazing at the observatory. But you could never go to both because...
Because...
You grab Stardust by the arm and start recounting what you just remembered to him. Everyone else winces as you speak. You have to tell Stardust all of this otherwise-
. . .
Why do you suddenly have a skull-splitting headache? And since when was Stardust holding you up!?
"Memories?", Someone asks. To which Stardust mumbles an affirmation.
Did you remember something and tell Stardust? That would explain the headache, and the memory loss...
Curse you, Universe.
"Let's get them inside.", Someone else says.
You're lead into the clocktower and sit down on. When you look up Stardust is standing next to you. Odile is speaking to them, notebook open.
"Odile you don't have to-"
"No Siffrin, I don't have to. But if you think that some notebook paper is more precious than your memories, then let me remind of the promise we all made to you at the top of the house. I'll say the dreaded L-word, do not test me."
"But what if you run out of pages?"
"Dormont's librarian has spare notebooks, I already asked. And I know how to erase ink with craft so I can re-use my old notebooks anyways."
"What if there is something important in there?!"
"I can re-organise my rough notes on craft spells into a few pages maximum, don't worry about it Siffrin, I know what I'm doing."
Reluctantly, Siffrin repeats what you presumably said to them, with Odile noting it all down. You feel weird hearing it all second hand, and also Stardust is holding your hand and you just noticed and your stomach is flipping upside down and you don't have any gloves on and-
"Lumina? Is everything alright?", Stardust asks with an innocent look on their face.
You abruptly get up and start walking towards the kitchen.
"I really need a glass of water.", Is your excuse you give to slip out of Stardust's grasp.
You pour a glass of water and sit at one of the stools. You were actually thirsty so you drink it pretty quickly...
But now your hand feels cold and you miss holding hands with Stardust and you don't understand why! Vaguely you remember the phrase 'touch-starved' being used to describe Stardust, and that probably extends to you by virtue of being the same blinding person.
But you're fine now! And you are not going to think on this anymore.
After a second and third glass of water you become concerned that you are drinking too much water and put the glass away. A long time ago you needed to re-hydrate someone, and you made sure to give them a small amount every fifteen minutes, because despite your sieve of a brain that is life-saving advice. You just can't remember who it was you helped...
Whatever! You've had enough of your awful memory so you think about anything else.
. . .
This is not working in the slightest...
"Watcha thinking about?"
"Ah! Bonnie! Where did you come from?"
"I've been here for a whole bunch of minutes... Lulu did you not notice me?"
"N-No... Sorry..."
"Nuh-uh! You don't say sorry. My sister REALLY doesn't like me sneaking up on her, so I try to be loud all the time!", Is that why Bonnie is always so loud? That makes a lot of sense...
"One time, someone snuck up on her, and she suplexed them into the sand!"
"Did she now?", You ask, wary of making Bonnie upset from thinking about their sister.
"Ehehe, yup! I can't wait for you to meet her!"
"I hope we do meet her...", You mutter under your breath.
"We will.", Bonnie says, perceptive as always.
"And don't say that we won't cus that's dumb and stupid and Dile said we jus' need to beat up the sadness. So you're gonna meet Nille and you're not gunna die or anything because-", Bonnie starts sniffling profusely. Nice going Loop! You made Bonnie upset! And you also just forgot your own name internally! Better not tell Mirabelle or she'll hate you.
"We'll be ok Bonnie, I promise you that everyone will be fine."
"But, what if- But what if something gets really hurt on one of the loops and then it stays and they are really hurt forever?", Bonnie's face is streaming with tears.
"We've already seen that Locke's better now. And I won't let anyone get injured during the loop's either.", Bonnie is still crying.
"Don't- You shouldn't- Don't want you to get hurt again, you shouldn't have to protect me, and-", Oh Stars it's this conversation... You've never had this one before, and it's been a while since Stardust did this in a loop...
But if you mess up, they'll remember! They all will and Stardust would never forgive you for it!
. . .
Wait that's not right... Stardust said some awful things to everyone, and they were forgiven. You hid your identity from Stardust and you were forgiven... You even forgave Stardust for crying out loud!
So even if it's not perfect, no one is going to hate you... Even if you can hardly believe that at least you know it's true.
But you have an emotional crying kid in front of you right now, so enough thinking and back to this conversation!
"Kid... Bonnie. Stardust and I have spent far too long fighting in the House, and we have two whole extra people to stay alert. So nothing's getting past us, not anymore.", Which you hope is encouraging.
Bonnie sniffles and tries to look you in the eyes, and stars being taller than before is a weird experience. You're just below Odile's eye level now... With heels...
You stoop down to look Bonnie in the eyes.
"I super promise.", You offer.
"Do- Do you super duper promise?"
"I super duper promise.", You make an easy smile, this little ritual always helped cheer up the kid.
"Ok... As long as you super duper promise... And if you get hurt I will never ever forgive you."
"Good thing it will never ever happen.", You know it's almost inevitable, the Universe has been so cruel to you.
Bonnie is still sniffling a bit, and you don't have anything more to say so...
You open out your arms, and then suddenly you have an armful of pre-teen hugging you back. You take a single knee to be at the right level, which is slightly more uncomfortable, but you just stay quiet until Bonnie speaks.
"... You need to eat more food."
"what?"
"You're all bony, like even more than Frin was when we got them from the house."
"I guess as a star I just burnt all that energy off."
"Why did you say that like a pun, did you make a pun? I don't get it.", Of course no-one would get a star pun! You're genius is wasted...
"It's a star pun, for star people."
"Well you aren't one of those so stop making star puns. Stop making any puns, ever."
"But if I don't make puns they were will my mischief go?"
"Uhh... I don't know?"
"I know!", You pull back from the hug.
"Boop!", You say as you boop their nose.
They look at you, offended.
"Boop!", You do it again.
"NOOOO!!! BRING THE PUNS BACK THIS IS WORSE!!!", You chuckle. They stick their tongue at you and cross their arms, which you copy back at them.
With that bit of levity, you think the kid is alright again... Congratulations Lumina! That's one big emotional conversation done! Only three thousand more to go!
LOCKE POV:
At Odile's suggestion, everyone has made there way outside to 'practice formation', mostly to make sure there is no 'friendly-fire' when it matters.
Siffrin and Lumina went first, demonstrating their incredible proficiency in various crafts, everyone was impressed, but Siffrin unfortunately had a mental spiral, you noticed it and got someone more emotionally intelligent to help them out of it.
They test out a formation, with Isabeau at the centre. Siffrin and Lumina on each side of him. Odile naturally falls in behind the others. But Mirabelle seems to be struggling to find a suitable space, her increasing exasperation only visible to you and Bonnie
"What's wrong Belle?", Bonnie thankfully asks. You don't want to make things awkward by getting too involved.
"Well usually I have free space in front of me to step into, so I can attack with my rapier but...", She trails off.
"The front-line is too crowded.", You finish her sentence under your breath.
"What was that Locke?", Lumina asks, clearly having picked up on your comment.
"I was just finishing Mirabelle's sentence."
"You were? I uhm... Wasn't going to say any more?"
"Oh... My bad.", Nice going Locke, can't not be terribly awkward can you?
"No no! It's fine, what did you think I was going to say?"
"That the front-line was too crowded?", even if the house could fit a formation that wide, who's to say it would be any effective.
"It is?", Siffrin asks.
"I would say so, you can fit three people side by side in the House, but you only need two to cover the width of the hallways."
Everyone shares a few indecipherable looks with each other.
"Any other advice?", Odile asks you.
"And what you recommend otherwise?", Thinking back to the ancient military tactics you read about instead of actually learning in history class. God history was such a boring class, thankfully the textbook still had interesting stuff but boy were you happy to drop it.
Oh wait the tactics, you recall a few important things.
"At least two people on the front-line if we can manage, two people directly behind giving what support they can, stepping in for melee when they can. At the back you only support and use ranged attacks, but focus on resting so you can swap out. When you get tired in front you swap out."
You look around to see what people think of that.
"It might be slightly archaic but that's the closest things to battle tactics I know.", You tack on.
"Definitely archaic, almost too organised for us.", Odile muses.
"But it could perhaps work. We would need to figure out how capable everyone is more precisely.", Odile makes gesture towards you with the last part.
Well then, it must be your time to be assessed then. You draw the sword and give yourself an open area to strike the air in. It's not like you can demonstrate craft like Siffrin and Lumina could.
Before you can even start, Mirabelle shouts something out.
"Wait I learnt how to use a shield so you can practice it on somebody!"
"Excuse me what.", You reply with.
"Is that a good idea Mira??", Isabeau asks
"It's a perfectly solid shield! So no one would get hurt, and if I focus on the shield then I can keep it up for maybe a whole minute."
"Oh! That's impressive Mira!"
You lack the explicit language in Vaugardian to describe how idiotic this whole plan sounds.
"We used to use defensive crafts when sparring all the time! It helped us not get hurt.", Isabeau reads your expression.
"But what if the shield fails?", You mention, because swords are pretty damn effective! You don't want to kill anyone. You have never wanted to.
"It won't fail! But if I get tired... I'll shout the word croissant out loud, so you know!"
"No clue what one of those is... But that works I suppose."
"So then, who are we testing Locke's swordsmanship on?", Odile asks.
Bonnie immediately raises their hand, causing Siffrin to promptly grab and lower their hand. Which is definitely for the best, that would be worrying for everyone involved.
After a moment, Isabeau raises their hand and steps out in front of you.
"Give me everything you have!", You... Don't want to. You've never liked going all in on anything, least of all fighting. Unless you had to.
Your reaction gives Isabeau pause, he seems to realise something.
"You won't be as strong as before, if that's what you were worried about and we already saw you fight in the House.", They did see that before didn't they? That manages to make you feel less uneasy about this now, they know at least some of your capabilities.
"Shield is up!", Mirabelle says with little warning.
You make sure your first attack is obvious to give warning that you are going to start attacking, but after that you don't give any warning.
He dodges some of the attacks, but you have enough experience to know to not commit too much into any strike.
The way you fight is rather tiring, but you've always never had the luxury of taking a fight slow.
Eventually you think you have a pretty good read on Isabeau, so you let him deflect one of your strikes, only to pivot and land a punch into his diaphragm. It rings out loudly, while the gauntlet absorbed some of the damage you still probably hurt yourself in doing that.
You step away from Isabeau and lay the sword down in the grass.
"I'm done now. Croissant or whatever the word.", You say, loud enough to make sure Mirabelle can hear. Although for some reason, she starts laughing profusely.
"What's funny?", You ask.
"Your accent!", Bonnie responds in lieu of Mirabelle. Who is failing to control her giggling.
Mirabelle tries to say something but she can't control herself yet.
Every accent says something funny... although you've never been on the receiving end of this, despite having learnt a number languages before.
"Either way, your performance was... Enlightening.", Odile says, you gather that you did pretty bad...
"If Isabeau fought back I don't think I would do very well...", You say. Isabeau shakes his head at that.
"Maybe it's just my inexperience against someone armed like that, but I never saw an opportunity to counter-attack.", Isabeau says sounding... Impressed?
"Of course I have an advantage, I have a superior weapon. But I don't have a way to counter craft used at a distance."
"So... You would have to get right next to an enemy then?", Lumina asks.
"I don't like the idea of having someone in the line of fire like that..."
"Hold on don't most of you use melee weapons anyways?", Siffrin has a dagger, Isabeau has knuckles and Mirabelle has a rapier. Do they just... Not use them?
"We only use them if we have to! Like If a sadness starts getting too close, or a craft spell requires it.", Mirabelle tells you, which does put things into place.
If only you could learn craft, that whole 'setting things on fire' craft was fun while it lasted, but If you need to receive a traumatic injury to use it all of 3 times then...
Wait a second do you even need that to happen? Sure there was excess craft in your body but who says you can't just do it normally? You had assumed you couldn't channel craft, mostly because you failed at using the other types of craft. Maybe you just have a knack for this one specifically?
While the others begin discussing your ability, you go fish a branch off the forest floor. Focusing on the same feeling as before you try to set the branch on fire. It feels like there is a power just below you skin, which is certainly an odd feeling to have. But the branch doesn't light on fire, maybe it's just because you need to have an excess amount.
But... You do remember something about rituals and hand-signs being needed for craft to work. Maybe you just need to use one of those? Also everyone else said things out loud when they used craft. Odile used practical names, Mirabelle used artsy names and Isabeau... Used loud names.
So perhaps if you made some sort sign with your hand, and said something to with your attack... While they wouldn't be perfect, maybe it would push you over the edge into making it work? That way you can actually support everyone else instead of getting in the way.
You actually have no idea where to start on the hand-sign, so you just make something up and try to think of something to say instead.
You settle on saying just saying 'Inferno' in Kulsoronan, and raise your hand to the branch again...
Nothing happens, you get the tingly feeling again, maybe a little bit stronger this time.
Thinking back to what Odile told you about craft, channelling the craft was the easy part, people can do it subconsciously. The hard part is actually moving it somewhere, which you now have first-hand experience with.
The feeling under your skin reminds you of that 'skill' you got before in the house. You have no idea how exactly you knew how to use it, you just did... Was that craft? You don't think anyone made a comment on it being craft, but maybe it just wasn't visible?
Picking the sword back up, you toss the branch high into the air, and try to channel the fire into your attack in place of whatever it was before. Surely if you could channel something there, replacing that feeling with another is the easy part.
"Hey Locke, what are you-", Someone asks from a distance, loudly interrupted the sound the branch makes upon being struck.
A loud snap rings out, the stick detonating much more violently than you expected. The chunks light and fire and scatter around the area, too small to actually start a real fire, but it looked cool at least.
"So as it turns out I don't need a traumatic injury to do that.", You announce.
But when you turn around everyone is looking at you wide-eyed.
You... They must be scared of what you just did. Maybe now they see you for the monster that you are and-
"That was so. CRABBING COOL!", Bonnie shouts, shattering you train of thought.
"I-It was?"
"DUH! Of course it was! You hit it so hard it EXPLODED!"
"Fascinating, given the fact the branch detonated in similar fashion to before, I would say that you tried using craft again?"
"I tried to replace the feeling of that other attack with the feeling of the wish craft, it somewhat worked?"
"Only somewhat?", Lumina asks in disbelief.
"I can only imagine what would happen to a sadness if you did that."
"Well I wanted to figure out some way to use the craft at range, so I don't get in the way of everyone else."
"That shouldn't really be an issue! When Siffrin and Isabeau first joined they didn't know much ranged craft, so we got very good at aiming our craft!", Mirabelle says proudly. You look over to Lumina and Siffrin who both look worried all of a sudden. They must have forgotten how to do that after all this time...
Odile seems to catch on as well, and she looks towards Siffrin and Lumina.
"You two know various buffing and healing crafts, correct?", She asks, both Lumina and Siffrin nod.
"Alright then, from now on when either of you aren't front-lining, only use your supportive moves.", Siffrin and Lumina nod again, although hesitantly.
Odile opens her notebook and begins sketching some sort of diagram.
"And Locke, you need be on alert during a fight so you can interrupt a sadness if it tries to attack any one person in specific. Isabeau the same goes for you."
"Have you come up with a formation M'dame?"
"Indeed, here.", Odile turns around her notebook for everyone to see.
It's a rough plan, inspired by your earlier suggestions, but modified to better fit this group. It places you and Isabeau at the front, gives both of you space to retreat when needed. When you need to back out it lets someone easily rotate into your place. It even lets Bonnie safely pass out tonics and other items to people in the back-line.
"Wow M'dame! This looks fantastic."
"Perhaps, but it could fall apart when we actually try it, so if that happens we need to default to our original formation."
Odile makes sure everyone gets a good look at the diagram before shutting the book.
"I believe that is everything attended to for now. Go... do whatever it is young people do."
"I'm 30.", Lumina says flatly. A few people grimace, but this isn't really any realisation.
"Only in your mind so that doesn't count.", Odile counters with.
"Why not?"
"Because I said so, now shoo, child. I have books to read."
Odile makes her way back into the clocktower, you don't have anything to do in the village, so maybe you should just make your way over there?
"Unless anyone wants my help for some reason, I'll head into the clocktower too."
"I would um. I would like to, have some help.", Isabeau says nervously. Which is weird because Isabeau is usually pretty confident. You won't mention that though.
"Alright sure, what is it about?"
"Can I explain on the way there?", Isabeau says, having regained his composure.
"Of course."
Isabeau led you to a small clearing near Dormont, and now you are both sitting on a bench under the shade of a tree.
During the walk Isabeau didn't actually explain anything, instead he only became more nervous and fidgety. You don't mind, if he needs time, you can give him time.
"Sorry, this was a bad idea I shouldn't have-", Isabeau start to apologise and get up. But whatever this is, it's clearly affecting him. You grab his arm before he can go.
"It's not a bad idea, If the thought of discussing this is making someone like you nervous, then you need to talk about it. Even if it's not me."
"I don't want to invade Siffrin's privacy! It's bad enough that you know a bunch of stuff that happened to him. I shouldn't use you as a way to get information that Sif doesn't want me to have!", That's a reasonable stance, but you know enough about Siffrin to know that is a rule worth breaking sometimes.
"If Siffrin got food poisoning, would they tell Bonnie?", You think already know the answer to this.
"Well... No.", Isabeau admits.
"Do they still need to deal with the food poisoning?"
"Yeah? But this might not be like that!"
"I wouldn't know, I just have to ask you if this is more like food poisoning, or more like a secret."
"... Both? I think?"
"Can you explain it enough for me to figure out what you are referring to? I also promise to not tell you something unless I'm fairly certain it's for the best."
Isabeau pauses for moment, contemplating.
"Alright... When we were walking back from the House, Sif admitted some things about touch. And we all had some misconceptions to clear up, and that went fine! It's just..."
You wait patiently for Isabeau, making sure he has the space to speak.
"He's still jumpy about touch around me and I don't get why. He's made progress with Mira and Bonbon but... It's like he's scared of me and I'm worried that I did something to him in the loops...", Oh... Oh dear. You can assume what might have caused this, but something else might have happened.
"I would have to confirm but... I think it's Siffrin feeling guilty about something."
"Wait... Really?"
"Did... they not tell you at the top of the house?", If you remember the end of the game, Siffrin told their party about a number of things they did in the loops... Is it possible that Siffrin never told them everything here? Maybe because of your presence...
"No? I can't think of anything, Sif just spoke about puns and one time he knocked me out with a telescope."
"Ah, well. There might be something that Siffrin hasn't said."
"Which is fine! Privacy!"
"Not if said privacy is making him feel awful all the time. I'm not planning to tell you outright, especially if I risk getting it horribly wrong. But I believe Siffrin isn't saying anything because he thinks you'll react badly."
"Would I?"
"I don't think you would, it is kind of messed up, but given the scenario, he could have done worse."
"Oh that's... That's a huge relief I think?"
"It is?"
"Yeah! I know Sif is over-thinking things, so if he's just over-thinking this and I didn't do anything to him then it's fine! Well it's not fine, but less not fine!"
"Less not fine.", You repeat.
"Yeah... Less not fine."
With that you fall into silence for a while. Just appreciating the atmosphere. Eventually Bonnie finds you and asks you both to help them go buy things from the market, so you go with Isabeau and start carrying the somewhat heavy bags. As it turns out Isabeau isn't too much stronger than you, something about body-crafted muscles having an upper limit of strength that no one can break.
When you get back to the clock-tower, Bonnie prepares lunch, forcing Lumina to help. Once again the food is great, some of the best you've had in a long time.
You have the afternoon to prepare, and tomorrow you will be making your first serious delve into the House of Change. You can only hope it goes well this time.