[crow]

Faber deliberated for a moment as to whether he ought to follow Akala. The man had said not to ruin things for him, but what did that mean? Was he just supposed to stay quiet, or did he have to stay put? In the end, he decided that Akala probably meant for him to stay in the apartment after all, which was disappointing. He had been looking forward to the shopping. But it occurred to him that he might go out for just a moment, to see if Akala was alright, without the man being any the wiser. He smiled to himself, pleased with the idea, and the thought hadn't quite finished in his mind before he was gone into thin air, and reappeared outside, nearby, where he caught sight of Akala.

[crow]

Faber's first instinct when seeing a friendly acquaintance was what it always was: to smile, and wave one long arm in the air to catch their attention. He wasn't good at shouting, or even waving very fast, but his gangly figure was hard to miss when he was being that conspicuous. He remembered just in the nick of time that he was supposed to be stealthy, and congratulated himself on avoiding that close call. In fact, he hunched over a little more than usual to make himself shorter, but that just made the passers-by look at him strangely. Not that Faber noticed, as he was focused on trying to follow Akala through the crowd. The man hadn't even put his jacket on.

[crow]

Whyever had he taken it, if not to put it on? It looked heavy. It wasn't warm enough out either. Faber, who had no jacket, felt the cold keenly. Thankfully, he didn't have much of an issue with cold; the knowledge that it was there was just that, and brought him little discomfort. It was heat he minded, and in light of that, the chill was almost a welcome thing.

But then, he reasoned, maybe Akala had thought it to be colder than it was, and this wasn't cold enough for him to want the jacket after all. And it would certainly be too much of a hassle to go all the way up to the apartment again to drop it off. But that still left the question of what Akala was doing, for Faber could see now that the man was just walking in aimless circles, not looking at anything in particular.

[crow]

Just then, Akala turned in his direction, and Faber ducked again, startling a whole circle of passers-by around him in the process. He grinned sheepishly at them until they went on their way, then peered over the crowd again for Akala. The man had turned to look at something else. Faber breathed a sigh of relief, and made his way over to a better hiding place, behind a street corner. Peering out from behind the wall like that, he looked more suspicious than ever, but at least he was hidden from the one he wanted to hide from.

Akala's behavior changed little as Faber watched him. The boy was convinced there was something genuinely wrong, but he couldn't say for sure what. Meanwhile, Akala's warning forbade him from doing anything about it, and he was beginning to feel that it was time to return to the apartment, lest he be spotted after all his efforts to stay concealed.

[7][7]

[crow]

With one last look at the wandering figure of Akala, Faber sighed and willed himself back onto the apartment couch. When he opened his eyes, he was inside again. The warmth was a shock against his skin, but fortunately the heating in the building was paltry and uneven. He found a place at the end of the couch which was the coolest, moving a few beer bottles out of the way as he did. There were an awful lot of them. Come to think of it, maybe Akala was drunk. Faber hadn't seen him drink, but Akala had been awake before him.

There was no use thinking about it though. Faber was self-aware enough to know it wouldn't do him much good. He wasn't in the mood for sleeping, so he began to strum a tune on his guitar, making it up as he went along.

[crow]

A long time passed before Akala came back. Faber had almost gotten sleepy again by then, and the sky was beginning to darken. The door swung open suddenly, and for a moment there was a look of surprise that flickered across Akala's face as he saw Faber on his couch. Then he smiled, though it was a humorless expression. "So, you stayed, did you?" he said. He didn't sound particularly pleased, though Faber had been sure that that was what he wanted.

"You said I should," Faber replied. Akala snorted, but his smile softened a little at the corners, and began to look more genuine.

"Well, I guess I did," he said. He took off his coat and hung it by the door again. So he had worn it after all.

[crow]

Akala had left to think. In the course of his thinking, he felt a little bad for having been so abrupt in taking his leave, but he was glad not to have Faber with him for it. The boy was entirely too comfortable with saying things that overturned Akala's understanding of the world. The casual manner in which he did so didn't help matters any. And Akala had thought, long and hard, about a great many things.

He sank down on the opposite end of the couch, tipping his head back until it touched the wall. There was room to spare on it, for the couch was made to hold three, and the space between left just enough room for their mutual comfort.

[crow]

Akala thought that Faber might begin to say something, but the boy remained silent. He had spoken so much this morning that Akala had forgotten how quiet he could be. He had been strumming only half-heartedly on his guitar when Akala first walked in, and now he put it aside, though still within reach. If Akala had been less tired, he might have asked about it. As it was, though, his thoughts were too slow to form that question.

So, here was a time traveller, then. Heck, they were the both of them time travellers, if Faber was to be believed--- and who or what else could Akala believe? Thus far he had no other source for guidance than an eccentric boy, not yet out of his teens. His mad grandfather may have been onto something with the way he went in his old age.

[crow]

That had been one of the things Akala thought about. When he had sense enough to put Faber's ramblings out of his mind, he attempted to recall what little there was to know about the Bright One. The Bright One was a lady, so it was said; she was beautiful and elegant and kind. She had something to do with magic, though nobody was sure what exactly. Most bets were on healing--- healing, and not time, though the two were not mutually exclusive. She had granted his ancestor some boon, for which said ancestor had felt obliged enough to pledge not only his own life, but all his descendants' lives thereafter, to her service.

And she had gone missing. So their service had been to look for her. And the shard was a remnant, the only piece of physical evidence the first Akala had had. "You said this was used for time travel," the Akala of now said, twirling his shard between his fingers.

[8][8]

[crow]

Faber looked up warily. He wanted to say yes, but he was cautious of upsetting Akala again. Caution didn't suit him, in the same way that wariness didn't suit him; his sleepy face and mussed-up hair suggested indolence, while the dark circles beneath his eyes suggested troubled sleep. When he looked as if he wanted to be alert, it seemed as if his appearance couldn't make up its mind.

But Akala soldiered on without his affirmation. The man had heard it in the morning, and he'd be hard-pressed to forget it now, for all the trouble it had caused him. "Do you have any idea where it came from? I'm asking, you know, because it's my job." It deserved more of an explanation than that, but first he wanted to see if Faber would answer.

[crow]

Perhaps it was guilt from the events of the morning, but to Akala's surprise, Faber did. "I don't remember much," was what he said. It wasn't a lie, but Faber was aware that what it suggested about his choice in the matter was different from the truth. "Where I came from, what I did before the jumps. I used to know it, now I don't."

Akala laughed, though the sound had an uneasy edge to it. "What, don't tell me it addles your memories to boot? That's an awful power to have." For all his joking tone, he glanced at Faber sidelong, to gauge the boy's reaction.

"No, no," Faber said immediately, shaking his head. "No, of course not, I---" He remembered himself then, and fell silent. After a pause, he repeated, "No... It's not the jumping, or the fragment that does it."

[crow]

Akala breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment, he had been worried, checking his own recollections to see if there were any strange gaps. He hadn't missed the way Faber reacted to the question, nor had he missed the way that the boy stopped himself, but if he was going to be enlightened as to why, it would be later, and on Faber's own terms, he imagined. For now, he contented himself with mulling over what he did know again.

Now it was his turn to share. "My family," he said slowly, "has protected this thing for a long time. Centuries, even." He lifted his own shard to see how it glinted in the light. Faber watched him, his expression neutral, with what might have been a suggestion of confusion. Akala thought with a smirk that the statement might not have the same weight with a person who could traverse centuries on a whim.

[crow]

He continued, "I'm told my ancestor knew someone who had something to do with this. It's also said that this shard is only a piece of the real artifact." He held his hand, with the shard resting upon it, out to Faber. "See that rounded end there, and how it's all smooth? This must have been an edge piece." Faber inclined his head. Akala said, "Go on, you can pick it up if you want. I don't care as long as you don't break it." As Faber inspected Akala's shard, the man went on. "My ancestor owed some kind of crazy big debt to that person, whoever they were. That's why we've been looking for her ever since. I'm told it's a her, anyway. I'm told a lot of things." He chuckled at his own joke, but faltered when Faber didn't respond. Ah well, it had been a lame one anyway. It was hard to tell if the boy was listening, since he didn't seem much for making eye contact.

[crow]

Still, Akala felt like he ought to explain. It might make Faber more open with him on those helpful details that the boy was withholding, though Akala didn't have much hope there. If he had to cite a reason, he supposed it just... felt right. Shard-holders Anonymous, sharing stories about how you ended up in the wacky situation you were in. Granted, Faber's was wackier, but that was probably because he'd tapped into his power sooner. The shard's power.

It was good to have someone he could tell these things to. It was rather difficult to explain the full extent of his own circumstances to anyone else. "As you can see," Akala said, "even with centuries of this, nobody's figured out how to use it. Well, until now." And the discovery didn't please him one bit either.

[9][9]

[crow]

His account left out a lot of things, like the mad grandfather, his own cynicism with his calling in life, the arguments and estranged spouses and second children gone off to better things. A few of the ones who held the Akala name had been female--- it had been just as well that the given name was gender-neutral. Which one was he? The eighteenth? Somewhere around there, he was sure. Most of the real story of the search was about discouraged people through the ages, and that didn't make for a good story to tell. And maybe he had some ghosts of his own. But he wouldn't run from them if asked, and they weren't very loud. He recalled the expression he'd seen on Faber's face sometimes, the haunted look in his eyes. The boy's ghosts were a different breed. For all that he looked so young, and acted so strange, there was a quality to him that made him seem terribly old.

"If you remember anything, or if there's more about this than you've told me so far, I'd love to hear it," he said. Faber finally turned to look at him, the boy's eyes searching his face.