Book 2 Chapter 48

They were only a week’s travel away from Acerorazon when her luck inevitably ran out.

“Mu, is that you?” The mousy man they’d just passed called from the road.

She had tried her best to not cross paths with other members of her sect, but knew it was ultimately a futile endeavor.

“Hey Mu!” He began to chase after them after they refused to acknowledge him or slow down in the slightest.

Rotter was just too big and noticeable, and despite mostly sticking to herself there were a lot of busybodies in her organization. It came with the territory of joining a group founded to protect the common folk as much as they were able.

The mousy man kept up with them with relative ease, leaping in the air periodically so that they were close to eye level when he spoke. “C’mon, slow down!”

But of all of them, why did it have to be Leonard?

Her apprentice looked between the strange bouncing man and her with growing confusion. She also noted that he’d put away his flower spirit when the stranger had started chasing them.

Smart.

“Why aren’t we stopping for him?” He asked.

Mu let out the cloud of smoke she’d been holding since she’d spotted Leonard, blowing it directly into his face the next time he hopped up causing him to sputter and stop for a bit.

“Because he’s a pain in my arse.”

***

They had eventually slowed down and let the strange man onto Rotter, with Miss Mu grumbling the whole time. Willow was still unsure why exactly she was so miffed to see someone so excited to see her, but the answer became relatively clear in short order.

“Boyo, this here is Leonard, a fellow Wanderer.” She introduced him with a sigh, letting out yet more smoke.

Right, she was trying to keep him secret from the rest of her sect for now. So running into Leonard was probably not something good for either of them.

The strange man’s core was heavily metal aligned, but there were many different concepts floating near the surface, which made sense since Willow sensed five different spirits on his person. Likely tool spirits since they felt more solid than any of his friends, but without the animal characteristics of spirit beasts. A knife on his hip and a pin hidden in his unruly hair were the obvious ones, but the ones in his bag were a bit jumbled together so Willow couldn’t get a clear picture.

Willow belatedly realized he was being a bit rude since he hadn’t introduced himself to someone who was his senior in the organization he would eventually fully join.

He dipped his head in a small seated bow. “Greetings to Senior Leonard. This one’s name is Willow.”

The mousy man both looked and felt pleasantly surprised. “I don’t think I’ve ever been called senior before. Lovely to meet you, Willow!”

Miss Mu rolled her eyes. “Don’t be gettin’ a big head over it. Willow recently got done with some etiquette lessons so he’s a tad more formal than usual.”

Leonard didn’t seem to let that bother him. “So it’s an escort mission of some kind? I was wondering why you, of all people, were travelling with a child.”

Willow’s mentor puffed up, mildly affronted. “What’s that supposed to mean? I’m plenty good with children.”

He held his hands up. “I didn’t mean it like that. Just meant it was odd to see you travelling with one.”

A thought seemed to occur to him and he looked at Willow a bit closer. “Unless he’s your kid? No… there’s not any resemblance at all. Plus I doubt you’d force etiquette lessons on your own child.”

Miss Mu spluttered. “You saw me five years ago, you daft bastard! There’s no way for me to have a child twice that age in that amount of time!”

Leonard shrugged. “You could’ve done some weird experiment on them to age them up. Sounds like something you’d do.”

Willow watched the interplay between the two adults with growing amusement.

His mentor rubbed at the bridge of her nose, clearly exasperated with the strange man.

“If you must know, the boy’s my apprentice.” Willow was slightly surprised she gave up that information so easily. Then again, he supposed that being more upfront about it might make him less inquisitive about some of the finer details.

Leonard cocked his head to the side. “Really? Someone so young? Is that even allowed?”

Miss Mu puffed away on her pipe, but looked a touch insecure. “There’s no rules against it and he’s got some gifts and extenuatin’ circumstances that make it preferable he joins up with us.”

The wanderer nodded slowly to himself as he gave Willow an unnerving stare.

“Does it have something to do with why Equivalence has been acting up ever since we got near you?” He pulled a set of shining copper measuring scales from his bag which began to twitch and float around Willow.

The tool spirit felt conceptually related to the twins in a distant way, though it definitely lacked the depths of his friends.

Both Mu and Willow stilled.

“It might.” His mentor eventually revealed.

Leonard continued to stare at her expectantly, but she didn’t speak any further on the matter.

“Come on Mu, you have to give me more than that to go off of.”

Miss Mu scowled. “I have to do no such thing. All will be revealed at the gathering in a few years time.”

But the man didn’t seem to want to give up. “Can I at least see the boy’s spirit? Equivalence is being quite insistent, and I’ve never seen them get this rowdy. If you’ll pardon the pun they’re normally very even tempered.”

The two wanderers stared at each other, until eventually Mu slowly nodded. “Sure. Willow, bring out Xandra.”

Willow was unsure what exactly his mentor was planning, but brought out his reflection spirit with minimal fanfare.

The copper scales observed the newcomer with clear confusion, but eventually returned to its master's side. Though Willow could tell the tool spirit was still casting ‘glances’ his way.

Leonard seemed equally confused. “Is that a reflection? Never heard of someone managing to bind one of those.” He pulled a circular piece of metal with an empty center and a fine chain dangling off of it from his bag, yet another tool spirit making an appearance.

He then placed the strange object in front of his eye and looked through the empty center at Willow’s spirit. “From its size and potency it looks like it was in your family for at least a generation or two, right? Still not sure why Equivalence was making a fuss over them though.”

“Maybe they were sensing themself and got confused?” Willow threw out a theory, hoping to distract the man.

Leonard scratched at the minor amount of scruff on his chin. “Maybe? They still feel something strange coming from you, but if your core is attuned to a reflection then that makes some sense.”

He looked between Mu and Willow with a small frown. “It still feels like the two of you are hiding something from me, though.”

The man eventually shrugged. “So long as you reveal what’s going on in time, I suppose it doesn’t really matter to me if you’re hiding secrets. Need to get back to my mission anyways. Safe travels to you both!”

And with that he hopped off of the giant snake beast with not another word.

Leaving Willow and Mu to wonder if that was going to be fine.