The Charlatan

35. A Leopard Can't Change Its Spots

Clara plucked at her short strands of hair, trying to pull them down over her forehead. She felt exposed. "Dye it white if you feel so bad about it." Clara heard Air's voice from across their room.

"Is that what you do to cover up your lies? Dye them white?" Clara called back without hesitation. There was no answer from the usually bubbly troubadour. "I tire of your games of subtlety," Clara continued as she walked over to Air's bed and confronted the Genesese man directly. She wasn't entirely sure why she was suddenly acting out like this, but something in her heart spurred her to direct action. Perhaps it was Safiya's boldness that had kicked her well enough this time, or perhaps the booming voice of Hollow's Chancellor that had turned heads in respect. Clara had her name to remake; it had been sullied by King Jin, but not yet enough to bring her down entirely. The underground support of the couriers and the offhand but still sincere jokes Isi and Cahaya had made had to mean that. Remaking her name meant making headway on the alliance's objectives. Clara had gotten on stage in front of thousands of people of Hollow and named herself the leader of an alliance poised to take the Citadel down. Clara had promised herself to not run, and to instead be the voice she needed to be. And that meant getting crucial knowledge out of the Charlatan, the instigator. "Tell me what you can," Clara said, softer this time but still assertively.

Air laughed. "You seek to ruin me."

"The name of the Charlatan hasn't ruined you enough? What is worse than being called the catalyst of war and massacre?"

Air said nothing but his composure cracked. Who is he protecting?! And why?! Clara could not wrap her mind around Air's actions. He sounded so nonchalant, he could rival some of Velt's ancient warrior kings. But Clara also remembered the terrified rumble in his voice when he thought she had been buried under a cave collapse, and this was when he had barely known her. Contradictions abound, Clara could not make any sense of the enigma before her.

"I am trying to help you," Clara pleaded, letting her frustration through her voice.

"Why?"

"I've told you before. I didn't lie."

Air paused again, but he looked more unsure this time. "I saw white dye at the shop the other day. It is inexpensive and, as you've astutely pointed out, sometimes throwing on something bright and distracting can have the opposite effect of what you might expect from something so eye-catching."

"Why won't you answer my question directly?"

"I can't."

"No, you can. You have said that you won't."

"My answers... have far-reaching consequences." That was something. "Listen, why won't you let me accept my actions and atone for them? Is that not the right thing to do?"

"You don't deserve all of the blame," Clara responded easily. Something seemed to shift in the air between her and Air after that. "Justice must be fairly distributed to be true."

"This is as much about you as it is me," Air realized aloud.

It was. Still was.

Clara descended the stairs of the inn, intending to go for a walk outside and bask in the warm sun before it set over Hollow's western crater edge. Air had already left, giving her a cryptic grin as he scampered out the door of their room. Clara was still frustrated, as well as incredibly tired from meeting with countless representatives and citizens of Hollow day after day. Being drilled on what she was trying to accomplish, when and how she would take down the Citadel (a feat Clara was still trying to come up with an excuse to avoid), and what she had witnessed as a courier was draining. Very few asked about the Charlatan. It still eluded Clara how Air had supposedly bankrupted Velt but neglected to tell everyone about it, despite that second part being the arguably more important thing to do for his whole scheme to succeed. Maybe... he was supposed to, but backed out. Air did not seem to be on the run, however. If he had gone back on his deal, he wouldn't be travelling around the continent so freely. Had it all been a bluff? To scare the King into blind bloodshed? Was her King always so gullible?