Cut From A Tattered Cloth

Chapter 20

The next five days were, thankfully, uneventful.

Eijiro knew he shouldn't be happy about that. If anything, he should've been stressed. It had been a week since Sayuri arrived, and he still hadn't stopped her would-be killer. He hadn't found the bomb, and aside from a few feeble leads he didn't have anything on Miliare, either. Had he been working on any other case, Eijiro either would've been bored out of his mind or ready to rip his hair out.

This time, however, Eijiro couldn't help feeling relieved. For five whole days things had almost gone back to normal. That was a loose term in this line of work, and Eijiro was starting to appreciate how much of the humdrum he'd taken for granted. Catching up on reports, reading through the Taverns. Taking Melia to Junior Mage trainings and translating for her when she couldn't understand the instructions. All while dodging her questions about what he'd talked about with "Uzu Donny." Try as he might, Eijiro couldn't bring himself to tell her about the cardboard dummy. He himself still didn't know what to make of it.

Sayuri was still in the Spire, as were her attendants. That was another thing that was improving. While they still weren't on good terms, their relationship had shifted from one of open hostility to something more complacent. Like the transactional cohabitation between landlord and tenant. Although Eijiro had a feeling Melia was starting to get through to them. She now considered Kaori to be a friend, and was slowly winning favor with the other two.

It started on the second day, when Sayuri came down with a fever and Honoka developed a hacking cough. She coughed up so much smoke Melia complained she would set the Spire ablaze.

"Why don't you make them that healing drink?" Eijiro asked. "That always works for me."

"Demo aitsu ra wa warui hitotatchi!" Melia said, scowling. "I don't want to give them our stuff."

But with a gentle reprimand from Eijiro and a threat to do it himself if she wouldn't, Melia relented. Taking a bundle of herbs and a jar of honey, she stalked down to the floor below and blew past the Silverfangs, kicking the door open.

Goto pulled a gun, then lowered it when he saw Melia. Kaori stared at her in disbelief. Thankfully, Honoka and Sayuri were too sick to react. Melia wasn't in the mood for The Rude Woman's attitude or Honoka's hot head. She dumped the herbs and honey on the table.

"I don't like you because you're mean to Oyaji," she declared. "But if you make a tea with this and mix it with honey, it will help your cough. Taking a hot bath with the eucalyptus will make it easier to breathe, too."

Nobody thanked her, but Melia hadn't really given them a chance to. She disappeared through the smoke, eager to get upstairs and open a window.

A few hours later, the smoke cleared out of the Spire. The next morning Eijiro saw Honoka running laps in the training room, completely healed. A text from Goto confirmed that Sayuri was feeling better, too. And while she would never thank his apprentice, Eijiro knew she had a sort of begrudging respect for her now.

He could see that in the way she watched Melia training with Kaori below. Her nose wasn't wrinkled in disgust, and she hadn't made any snide comments about Melia being a pest, or a dog.

Below them, Kaori was showing Melia her tessen–a metal fan she kept hidden in her sleeve. The tessen was small, about six inches with a tassel hanging off of the end. Kaori had it folded up, and Melia ran her fingers along the pleated edge.

"Kore to tatakaeru no?" Melia asked. Can you really fight with this?

"Mochiron desu," Kaori said, nodding. "Would you like me to show you?"