Book Four – Chapter Seven – Part Five – Reunions and Reunions; The Birth of a Sanctuary

Upon giving the note to the guard, he took out a key and opened the door. Servi stepped in to find a palatial room reminiscent of a fancy lounge. Two waiters stood off to the side. A single couch faced a coffee table filled with books. A fully furnished bar was nearby, but no one was running it. Other than the waiters, there was a smartly dressed woman with glasses sitting behind a desk that faced the entire room. She looked up when the door shut and welcomed Servi in.

“My name is Tonia. Can I help you?” she asked. She waved Servi over and pointed to a chair in front of her desk. That was filled with documents neatly organized in a series of equal stacks. An inkwell with black ink was filled to the brim, and the feathers on her four quills sparkled with a pretty yellow shine.

“Hi. My name’s Servi, and I was told I could take out my money from my Dimensional Storage.” Servi sat down.

“That’s right. How much would you like to deposit?” Tonia’s hands began to fill out a document with Servi’s name and other information after asking for her ID and dog tags. The latter was just optional information that wasn’t required to make a deposit.

After thinking about it, Servi decided on twenty million. She figured that would take care of any unforeseen problems during construction.

When Servi told Tonia that, she froze solid and dropped her quill. Ink splashed down, ruining the document. She took her glasses off, cleaned them, and put them back on her face.

“Ma’am, please do not jest,” she spoke in a stern voice.

“It’s not a jest. I have twenty million I need to deposit. Here.” Itarr knew that was her sign, and out came the glorious rain of shiny dupla. What seemed like a hundred thousand metal coins spontaneously appeared from the nether. Tonia tried to say something, but her voice was held hostage by the absurdity of it all. After Itarr had let out half of the desired amount, she stopped and gave a small break. Servi turned around and stared at the speechless waiters. Their eyes were big and wide. One was shaking in his dress shoes while the other chattered his teeth. Servi heard a noise and faced Tonia’s desk. Her inkwell had fallen over, staining the entirety of her desk with a murky mess.

In a flash, the chaotic dupla returned to their home within Servi’s ring.

“Do you believe me? Itarr, can you absorb the ink and fix her papers?”

I’m on it.

It seemed as if the world was rewinding as the trashy state of Tonia’s desk returned to how it was before. Her eyes stared in wonder when the blackened-stained deposit documents became as clean as when they were first printed off the press. Absorbing the small molecules was an incredibly precise technique Itarr was quite proud of. It seemed the work she did at the Old Onyx and the help she gave Feral came in handy.

“Yes, ma’am… Of course you have twenty million… Ha… Haha…. Hahahaha...” Tonia was broken, but the experienced woman returned in a reinforced state. She apologized and asked Servi for her forgiveness. She replied there wasn’t anything to say sorry for since her reaction was expected.

“I know I’d freak out someone dropped a rain of coin from nowhere. Take my apologies as well. I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry if it frightened you.”

“Thank you, Miss Servi. If you would have me, I am ready to handle your deposit. If you need anything to drink, please ask the waiters. Both of them are trained bartenders as well. If alcohol isn’t to your favor, we have an assorted selection of juices.”

“That sounds like a plan to me. Ah, I do have one little request. Could keep what happens in here a secret? Regarding the dupla suddenly appearing and the tidying of your desk?”

“Whatever are you talking about, ma’am? As far as I’m concerned, you’re just making a deposit.” Tonia smiled. She was smart enough to not question the unknown and unexplainable. The two waiters shared her feelings in that regard. As such, Servi gave them each ten thousand dupla as a tip. A round of thanks approached Servi, and she sat down on the couch. One by one, ten dupla, each worth 1,000, appeared on Tonia’s desk. She counted them up in a flash and marked something down on her document. When she did, Itarr brought forth another stack and waited for Tonia to signal.

By my count, we have just enough 1,000 dupla coins. In total, we'll have a little bit of 6 million left in total. That doesn’t include the gems since I do not know their worth. The same goes for the nadrium armaments and jewelry.

“Got it. Thanks again, my love.”

You are most welcome!

Meanwhile, the speechless yet incredibly happy waiters were busy making Servi's favorite mixed beverage: the aviation. Servi believed that lavender-colored drink was just about the most delicious liquid in the world. One of the waiters audibly asked about the amount of alcohol Servi was consuming, but she only said she could handle her drink better than anyone else. She eventually had to stop ordering them because the ingredients to create them dried out. A switch to juice was on the table, and as she sipped a cup filled with the flavor of cranberry, she flipped through a book on the table. It detailed modern-money-making tips regarding proper investments and predicting a healthy market.

In other words, information that did not immediately matter to Servi.

Making investments? I shouldn’t immediately disregard that. If I’m being serious, I really have no need for money at all. Create Water takes care of Momo’s thirst. We can hunt for food. With Itarr’s help, she can dress a thousand animals for cooking in less than a second. We have those tents to sleep in…

On the other hand, perhaps this is the way I can atone. I never know when I might need a shit ton of money. I keep hearing talks of dragons and how powerful they are. Wouldn’t be hard to take one down and carve its body. Or if they’re as intelligent as they say, I could bargain its life for good and treasure. If I don’t want to do that, I can always get a job making or maintaining walls. Earth Wall would make it a cinch. I could fix wells, create lakes and fill them... What's really off the table other than time?

Time?

I don’t have the time to always do that. Having a passive way to make income… I should really look into that.

Hmm… What if there’s a niche out there that only I can do? Note to self: Re-read over every skill you’ve learned to see if you missed something. With how I am now and how I’m adapting to Itarr’s power, something may have changed.

By Itarr’s account, she would need 2,000 stacks to fully have the twenty million, and there just wasn’t enough space on the desk for it. After a while, she shifted the 638 coin towers to the air in order to have more room.

“Thank you for making each stack 10,000 in total. It makes it incredibly easy to count and markdown.”

A few minutes later, the hefty 20 million was accounted for. Tonia dropped her dry quill and rubbed her sore wrists. She used 20 sheets and four full inkwells to document it all, but the hard part was done. Tonia reached under her desk and pulled out a large bag embroidered with the bank's name. She explained that it was enchanted with Dimensional Storage, and it was the next step in the deposit. Itarr directed the floating coins into the bag, but it could only hold 100 stacks. Minutes later, twenty bags sat upon Tonia’s desk as she handed twenty pages to Servi to sign. With the help of the ring, Itarr handled it in mere seconds. The forms popped back into the world for Servi to grasp.

Sweat cloaked Tonia’s brow, and she thanked Servi for choosing the Bank of Gea. The mysterious red-eyed girl said her thanks and apologies once more and walked out. Momo and Fisher were still standing over there with Terry, so she rushed over and dropped off the documents. Fisher had to sign them all because the account was in his name, and Servi had to give her signature on a few other papers Fisher filled out that. There was a whole mess of scribbling and the exchanging of signatures that sidetracked Servi for a moment or two. Poor Momo didn’t understand anything at all, and that was after Fisher had tried to go through it slowly.

Finally, everything was ready for Terry. He took one look and sighed. Immediately, he disregarded it because there must have been some mistake. Servi was irritated, but Tonia came to the rescue since deposits in the millions were so scarce. She explained it to Terry, and he stubbornly refused to process it unless their boss looked at it. So then the big boss, an Elf with slick back orange hair, had to be fetched from his office. He had to personally recount everything, but it didn’t take long for the elderly expert. He saw nothing that would indicate fraud, and he personally accounted for the total of twenty million spread out over twenty bags. With word from his superior, Terry couldn’t not accept it. He begrudgingly finished up the process and handed the ID back to Fisher.

“Thank you for choosing the Bank of Gea…” He lazily waved his hand and immediately knew he was going to be written up for how he acted towards someone with a large amount of capital. Especially someone personally traveling with the captain of the city guard. Terry heard the tapping of a furious heel and the words, ‘I need to see you in my office.’ He knew the reaper of unemployment had arrived to swing his sharp scythe of termination. Perhaps if he was lucky, it would miss by a thin margin. He walked away with trembling steps, unwilling to face his punishment.

Servi didn’t want him to get fired, but it really wasn’t up to her. She wished him the best of luck and finally signed in relief. It was finally time to meet the governor and finish a task months in the making. The next step was to go to where the governor’s mansion once stood.

“It’s you… You’re the girl who…” A trembling voice stopped Servi before she reached the door. She turned to face someone she knew very well.

This woman had her life turned upside down, which resulted in her husband’s suicide. “Emi…” Servi whispered. Emi and her two children stood huddled together in dresses that would make her deceased husband weep if he knew how much they cost.. “I’m…glad to see you’re safe and sound. It seems to me you took the reparation and used it to good avail… I take it you found a place to stay…” Servi walked away back to the little waiting area. Momo, Fisher, Emi, and her daughters followed. No one sat down, but being in the corner allowed a mediocre amount of privacy.

“I…have mixed feelings… You saved our lives, but it was at a cost… Considering what happened to Arcton…we should be fortunate we still breathe,” Emi whispered in an unsteady voice. “My husband was a no-good gambler who lost and hid money from us… But he’s still the father of my children… Dal’s the one man my heart wanted to be with.” Her blue eyes swiftly switched between being fearless and fragile. Lori and Leigh, her daughters, stood behind their mother. The atmosphere was tense and surreal. Emi didn’t think she would ever see the villain responsible for ruining her marriage ever again.

“I don’t have anything to say. Hate me if you wish,” Servi said. She felt Momo grab her hand and squeeze it. “As I’ve said before, you and your children were never in danger. I’ve lied about a lot, but I hope you can trust me on that.”

“… Captain Fisher, please ignore what you’ve heard… All this was just a little…”

“I didn’t hear a thing, miss. Not at all.” Fisher nodded.

“Thank you… I’m sorry about your wound. Word has been spreading so fast that I heard about it before you walked in here.” Emi glanced at Momo, who silently stood still. Her tail tried to distract Emi’s children, but it wasn’t having much luck. The two girls hugged their mother from the safety of behind her and only barely peeked out. They certainly recognized Servi, though, and they didn’t also didn’t know the correct response.

Servi turned around and walked out with Momo. Fisher just nodded to Emi a second time and left. The windowed mother felt her heart hurt and suddenly found a small box that had miraculously materialized on the empty seats. Upon picking it up, she found it held 100,000 dupla and a shiny ruby. Tears fell down her eyes as she felt an unequal jumble of emotions. Money for her husband’s certain death? If he hadn’t found her yet after telling him where they were going, then he had to have passed away in the Arcton incident.

But getting paid for it? By the girl who she most suspected to have caused it? Money was needed for her children to live a life free of pain and worries, but if it came as a constant reminder of what she once had and what could have been in a world beyond this one?

It was almost the most painful reminder in the world.

The anger she felt at such a girl who caused it all would never leave her heart. Perhaps the most she could do was ignore her if she saw her in public, but that was it.

Was Emi an awful woman?  Was she righteous in her feelings? She didn’t know, and she didn’t know how to pass that on as a lesson to her daughters.

A sinister agony crept up her heart, and she thought she knew the answer. Emi handed the closed box to Lori and told her children to stay there while she rushed out the door and dashed to the left. Her heels clacked against the ground loud enough for Servi to turn around.

She hadn’t gotten that far at all.

Emi skidded to a halt, raised a hand, and slapped the girl who ruined her life right across the cheeks with an open palm.

Smack!

It felt like Emi bashed her hand against a brick wall. The dulled pain was numbed by the various emotions swirling around inside her complicated mind.

A stunned Momo stared with an open gasped expression of surprise. Thankfully, no one else but her and Fisher saw the assault because the festival provided the perfect camouflage. Even the sudden noise of the slap connecting was drowned out. The one-armed captain stared down at the shivering Emi, who resembled a wild animal instead of a mother. Before he could move, Servi just turned around and kept on walking. She felt absolutely no pain from the slap, and she knew most of the damage went to Emi’s hand.

It still hurts… That’s the weight of a wife and mother…

Emi stomped back to her children inside the building. They were waiting so patiently with the box of dupla she believed was earned with the blood of her husband.

Emi thought she would feel better after hitting Servi, but it only doubled her suffering. Her only consolation was the sudden healing of her fractured hand, and she only bit her lip. Of course, the woman who changed their lives forever had to be the one to cure her injury. She wasn’t sure it was her, but who else could it have been?

Emi just sighed and put on a happy face for her children.  Lori and Leigh were smart with sharp minds. They most likely knew what had transpired by just reading the expression on their mother’s face. Likewise, they knew that false smile had a crumbling origin.

As their mother’s daughters, they strived to make their mother happy by pushing the discomfort and any other negative feelings down into the pit of their souls.

No one knew how many years it would take for this family to be true with one another.

“I see… That’s what happened?” Fisher asked as they continued their journey. Servi explained to him the past between her and Emi. Her husband, Dal, was a man who put gambling above everything else. Perhaps he was a kind husband and father, but he wasn’t a responsible one. Servi had to tarnish his reputation with his family and drag his name through the gutter.

“In that regard, I’m responsible for his death. Emi's in her right mind to hate me. He didn’t have any money at all, and he was telling the truth. I was the one who put it there and framed him as a liar. Her slapping me was…something I deserved. It didn’t hurt at all. To her, it felt like bashing a wall, so I made sure to use Remedium Lux.” Servi closed her eyes and sighed. Momo squeezed her hand and rubbed her shoulder. She was upset Servi was attacked, but Momo didn’t know what to do. The only thing that eased her mind was knowing her lover wasn’t injured.

“In my experience… It’s going to be painful… Servi, can you bear it?” asked Fisher.

“I have to. And I know I’m not alone. The desire keeping me going? That's Necromancy. I have to use it to correct all of my mistakes. If that wasn't an option? I don’t want to think about it.”

“Servy…”

“I’m sorry for ruining the mood, Mosie. Changing topics, I met the governor once before.”

“Eh? When?” inquired Fisher.

“It was back after the fire domes, right?” quipped Momo. Her tail danced from side to side.

“Yeah. I told you about it. I was just walking through the town when I saw them. Some girl had tripped and hurt her ankle, and the secretary healed her with Deus Lux. We talked, and I’m sure we both used fake names. Can’t tell for certain, but I’m almost positive the two are nobles. Powerful ones that because they didn’t have to chant.”

Her intuition is incredibly sharp. Fisher knew not to underestimate anyone, let alone someone like Servi. “By the by, what name did you use?”

“Flyneria. It was the first thing that came to mind. Now, if I need to use a fake one, I’ll use Williana. It just sounds right for some reason. Or at least makes more sense."

“Williana? To me, it’s just as odd as Flyneria. I wonder if those names are common somewhere.”

“Ah! Servy, why didn’t we think of that?! If we find out where those names are used, wouldn’t that help in discovering your past?” Momo exclaimed.

Servi smiled and wondered if she was that much closer to finding out her hidden past. “That’s an option, I suppose… Wouldn’t hurt to ask around.”

Momo was glad to see Servi’s mood had brightened by just a little. She knew the cute little smile on her Servy’s adorable face wasn’t wholly genuine. After an encounter with someone like Emi, hardly anyone could be in a spunky mood. She knew Servi just needed a bit of time to think it all through. Of course, Momo could help out by jump-starting a conversation with happy connotations. It was about Srassa and her status as a new member of Servi’s and Momo’s party. That lasted long enough to keep them busy for about half of the journey to the mansion’s grounds. The other half was occupied by thoughts and theories of what Itarr would look like with a body.

The Goddess joined in herself by floating in the middle of the three-person group. With how much fun-filled excitement happened around them, hardly anyone was paying attention. For the select few that did turn and look, they just believed their eyes were playing tricks.

The rest of the trek wasn’t all flowers and dandelions, however, as news of Fisher’s injury was becoming more and more commonplace. Itarr had to go back to Momo’s warm embrace a couple of times as the one-armed captain had to convince the curious citizens of Canary that he was fine, safe, and otherwise unharmed. The prowl of an uncomfortable headache flowed his way after a while. When he retrieved his canteen, Itarr offered to fill it while doing the deed simultaneously, giving Fisher no time to politely refuse.

He found it odd to use a Goddess as a simple resource, but emptying the canteen was a no-go. He just thanked her and opened his eyes in surprise at how pure and cold the glorious water was. He couldn’t make something ten percent as delicious, and even the finest restaurants failed to come close. Such purity and cleanliness required far more Skill Energy than he had in ten lifetimes.

She’s certainly living up to her status as a Goddess.

Eventually, they approached the place where a gate used to stand. It was out of the way and nowhere near any festivities.

“If I remember right, you had to snake along a long, wide driveway to get the second gate?” Servi questionably asked.

“It was something like that. Governor Blasé decided to get rid of it all. The gates, the walls, the storage buildings… Everything that remained was ferried out of here and recycled or destroyed. Now you can approach it from every which way.” Fisher blinked, and the eyesore of an ugly, sickening monstrosity glimmered for a moment. He hated that place even before he had realized the errors of his past and became the new man he was today. So much wealth was poured into its creation. Not to mention the horde of coin required to maintain a building of that size with maids and butlers to clean and mop and dust… It was practically a fortune—more than a commoner would earn in a lifetime was spent every month on the bare necessities.

And it was finally gone. Fisher led the way to the grounds. Instead of the black ash resulting from the hellish flames, the grass was so green and soft.  Each individual blade had as much beauty as a flawless emerald.

This plot of land was large enough to house a miniature village. Servi was easily able to picture the orphanage, the little farming lands, and the guard towers in her mind, and she loved how it looked. A fruitful smile came to her pretty lips.