The Tower of Tattle

Just like everything else in this house, the study's all mahogany, all day.

Everything in this house is stiflingly wooden, but at least this room has a nice view. It must be facing the south given how much sun the room gets. Outside I can see that the patchy not-quite-fields of flowers and weeds surround the whole house. Beyond, though, are deep woods. The foreboding kind, without any real path into them, unlike the woods we've been walking through till now.

Just at the edge of sight, though, one corner of those woods seems to be cleared out. In fact, there's a gate, suggesting something important lies past.

"What's past that gate over there?" I point it out to Shiori.

"Hm? I think there's an apple orchard there. Actually, your mom owns those, technically. I think she hates maintaining them, though, because everyone in town always talked about how they miss the local apples. Hannah doesn't maintain them, either."

"Doesn't seem like Hannah maintains anything."

"Yeah that's just... how she always was," Shiori says, a hint of sadness coming through. But she doesn't waste any time moving The Codex around the room, listening for rustling.

Rows and rows of books, some of them absolute tomes. Though on the lowest shelves there's a preponderance of children's books, the vast majority of them never even opened. Given Hannah's antics... yeah. Don't need to be a wizard to figure out why those are there.

"It was the right move coming here," Shiori says thoughtfully. It feels like the further away from other people, the less she gets sucked into the role of her kid self. "Look. The Codex is rustling like crazy. Even more than usual. Maybe there's more than one entry here?"

Looking around, the study's actually got a few curiosities on its shelves. Over to the far right shelf, rather than books, there's a bunch of stuffed animals. Something tells me though, that unlike the hopeful children's books, those stuffed animals are all actually hers. They look worn down.

On a few of the shelves though, there are standing photo frames. These aren't actually weird just by themselves, but... The Codex leads us to one of them. And it's a picture of a smiling kid. He's giving a thumbs up by the camera. It makes me shudder a bit to look at it, though I can't quite put my finger on why...

"Doesn't this look kind of like... a stock photo?" Shiori asks.

"Yeah, you're right! Jeeze, why would someone have that?" I shudder again. The photo itself isn't creepy. But having a framed stock photo is just... weird. Maybe it's just Hannah being really weird about kids again."Oh, hey."

As we're holding up the frame, the photo takes on that telltail snitch quality, that sudden bursting to life with way too much personality. It starts pecking at the inside of the frame as if to say, hey! Let me out of this prison! And we more or less oblige. Though I do make Shiori wait for a second until it starts pecking nicely.

"It's not coming out until it says please," I say.

"M..." Shiori starts. "You're kinda mean sometimes...

"Creatio ex nihilo..." Shiori mutters. Something seems to stir in her, and I think I can see her hands shaking a bit. It's like all the childishness from earlier got knocked right out of her.

I look her way. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Just thinking." She says it a bit listlessly though. "I can't believe I'm seeing something supposedly written by Arcani Netabare."

The name stuck out to me, too. It seemed like Arekusa Netabare was already one horrible villain enough. Now we've got another Netabare with a ye olden name. "Who's Arcani?" I ask.

"He's the founder of the the entire lineage. The Netabares. Like I told you, when magi chase The Root, we're not talking about just one mad scientist alone once in a blue moon... It's a big, big, big project!" Shiori thrusts her arms out to show me just how big it is. "Entire families go after it for centuries. Big families."

"He's the founder?" I pause a moment, confused. "But..."

"The Netabares are a young family."

"Oh. That makes sense."

"And by young, I mean that the first mention of them in the literature would've been from four centuries ago. If this is talking about the founding of the family, this 'document' would be at least four centuries old," Shiori says.

Now I'm tapping my foot trying to figure this out. Weirdly, though, The Codex despite taking in a new snitch, has not stopped rustling. Which means there probably is another snitch here. But the rustling makes it terribly hard to concentrate. "Okay, so what's this 'lineage of the face' stuff? You ever met one of these 'Kaobu Kakei' just running around the magi world with big ears or eyes?"

"No, I haven't..." Shiori stares fixatedly at The Codex. "Most magi lineages are discreet... but the Netabares are like, a family that built everything around the idea of secrets. No one really knows what they were up to. I don't even know who 'Eris' is supposed to be."

Shiori closes her eyes, rests her chin on one hand, and uses the other hand to tap her temple. She continues. "In fact, they disappear from magi society for decades at a time. Even when they're 'around', you can hardly catch sight of them. And if you do, they always, always wear masks."

"Wait," I say. "Is that including... Arekusa?"

Shiori opens her eyes and turns to me."Yeah it was a miracle that she ever taught at The Clocktower as a professor. It was the closest thing the family ever had to a public presence. I mean, she was before my time though... She'd already faded out of magi society by the time I was ever a proper mage."

"Huh. For some reason, I always got the sense that you'd met her before. Or at least seen her," I say.

"I've just known a lot of people who knew her. She was a really big deal. A huge prodigy in the magi world. Anyone I've ever heard talk about her always said the same thing, though. She had a creepy laughing mask. That always matched badly with her apathetic voice," she says thoughtfully.

"That is creepy."

"Isn't it?" A voice asks from seemingly nowhere. And once again, there's Alexa right between us, making Shiori and I yelp.

"Stop just popping out like that!" I sigh. "Can't you make The Codex glow whenever you come out?"

"Sorry!" Again Alexa tilts her head cutely and sticks her tongue out, hopping up and crossing her legs to sit on the shelf we were just rifling through. In doing so, she accidentally knocks The Codex to the floor, which makes it ruffle up in umbrage. "...Sorry."

"Why do you keep disappearing, anyway?" Shiori asks, tilting her head in the opposite direction from Alexa.

"Things get a bit bothersome if I've seen by other people," Alexa shrugs. "Everyone has times when they want to avoid being seen. For example, if they sneak downstairs to steal candy when they shouldn't."

For some reason she's giving me a reproachful look that's making me squirm, but Shiori's mind is somewhere else, bothered a bit by that answer. She starts pulling and kneading Yorick like he's bread, though he doesn't really seem to mind... I really want to try that too.

"Why would it matter... if NPCs see you?" Shiori asks, mostly herself.

In response, Alexa leans back to stretch and yawn in a manner most cat-like, making a point of peering down at Shiori with a cat-like smirk. "It's not gonna help anybody if I just spoil the answers for you two, you know? I like to think the best way to teach is Socratic. Why do you think it would matter?"

"You know Socrates' most famous quality was being annoying, right?" I ask.

"Clearly you don't understand Plato," Alexa shrugs. It's kinda infuriating, but also I haven't actually read Plato, and I've had my foot in my mouth enough today.

"Maybe... maybe if the NPCs are actually antagonistic...? If there are things that could set them off..." Shiori's really about to make a pizza out of Yorick.

Alexa gives us an "Ok!" symbol and a big smile. "Hey, you said it. Not me. But that's not even why I'm here. I just wanted to let the two of you know that you were about to let one of her," she points to me, "diary entries slip right past you."

Shiori and I look at each other confused. I definitely don't hear any rustling. And lately I feel like I've been able to hear just about everything. But Alexa gives the two of us a wink and pulls a little slip of paper out of her pocket:" Not every snitch is as keen on being found as the others. They are daytime creatures. But some need a little coaxing out of the shade."

"And that is?" I ask.

"A secret," Alexa says.

"Great. Really helpful."

"No. It's your secret." Alexa hops off the shelf and flaps the small looseleaf note open in front of my face.

"M tells everyone her favorite color is black, but actually it's pink."

"Wha-" I start.

"What?!" Shiori squawks, actually looking a little indignant. "W-why would you even lie about that? That's not even that girly!"

"I-I don't know. I just..." I'm suddenly on the spot for something really dumb. I don't even remember saying that. Though, given my track record lately, I can believe I'd lie about something that dumb. "O-oh, who cares anyway?!"

"It's sad," Alexa laments, making theatrically fake tear dabbing motions with one hand. "What small little lies and secrets can tear apart a friendship..."

"Yeah!" Shiori huffs.

"Don't just agree with her," I hiss.

Our spat is interrupted by the sound of a book falling off the shelf. And instead of the usual rustling noise, instead there's something more like the sound of paper in a gentle wave. The book scooches back and forth like a curious creature. Looks like it was... one of the children's books?

Little Rabbit in a Big World

There's a cute green eyed bunny on the cover, looking like it's getting ready to board a train, all nervous and excited. I open up to the front matter and see that there's a note there. Oh?

Dear M. I know this world is scary sometimes, but I hope you'll see that out there is one big adventure. Even a little rabbit can conquer the big world!

Love, Hannah.

I guess she was planning to give me this as a gift. I don't really know how to respond, honestly. I feel the slightest twinge of sadness, but I also met these people just today. At least... from my perspective. And them... technically they don't even have a perspective right now. The disconnect between it all is making my head hurt.

"That's really nice," Shiori says softly.

Looks like this page Hannah's written on is the telltail snitch, because the page rips itself from the book with the usual ceremony. But instead of being a bird like the rest, this one's actually a rabbit.

"Oh, it's so cute!" Shiori gushes.

I've gotta agree with her. This one's a lot cuter than the other ones.

Its ears twitch, and it turns its head in the direction of the secret that Alexa's placed gingerly on top of The Codex. Curiously, curiously, it hops cautiously toward the secret. The Codex is dead silent. And just when the rabbit grabs the little slip of paper with its tiny paws, and looks like it's about to start nibbling, The Codex flips open and grabs the rabbit, slamming open and shut on it over and over while Shiori shrieks.

"That's nature for you. Cruel, isn't she?" Alexa sighs and tilts her head toward us like we're just gonna agree.

"W-what's wrong with you?!" Shiori stomps her foot.

"What is wrong with you? That's way too mean." I shake my head at Alexa while patting Shiori's head.

"Wha- it's not like I ate the stupid snitch!" Alexa fumes and grabs The Codex off the floor, but slams it on her finger in the process. "Ouch! Ugh, just read the stupid entry!"

Way ahead of you, Alexa. We're already flipping it open while she sulks in a corner.

"Hey, look! We got another letter!" Shiori says excitedly.

"Mˍˍˍˍˍˍu 's Diary."

"That's not my new nickname is it?" I ask warily.

"It sounds like... µ! Like you were your mom's life project or something."

"Now that one's especially not true. And I don't like the name Mu!"

"Aww, but it also sounds like we're calling you 'moo...'"

Ugh. Shiori is staring at me. Hard. Seriously, she's about to burn a hole right through me, and it's all I can do to not hang my head in shame.

"Wh-why would you even lie to your diary?" she asks.

I don't know. I just don't know. Are the rest of my journal entries just going to be a greatest hits of kid shame collection?

Ouch. That's kind of heavy. It's supposed to be me but all I can think is 'wow, that's really heavy.' Frankly, the searing hot shame of my other entries made me feel a bit more connected. Reading this, it feels like some other sad little kid wrote it. But Shiori looks absolutely devastated reading it.

Well... no. One thing hits home, right in the hippocampus. The bewildered look. The one my mom always gave me. It's flashing through my head, all the times I'd come to her with something... at this point I don't even know what specifically. Just that, you know, if I felt sad, she'd give me this confused look, like she had no idea what to do. And if I couldn't do something, it was like she couldn't understand not being able to do it. It always seemed like she could do anything in the world, as long as it didn't involve me.

It was like the only thing she wasn't great at was being a mom. Like she avoided it sometimes because she couldn't handle not being the best at something.

Just as I start getting lost in my navelgazing, though, I hear the door of the study creak open. Sure enough, there's Al, looking a mite tired. And just like before, now that there's someone else in the room, Alexa's nowhere to be seen.