the sign said satisfaction guaranteed

candlewax & polaroids on the hardwood floor

The Sugartide cuts a bright arc through the thin mountain air, sails snapping sharp and restless as Flora urges her little ship higher than she’s ever dared. The Draig Cordillera spreads out beneath her in jagged waves of stone, peaks breaking through low-hung clouds like islands in a stormy sea. Spice curls like a warm pearl around her shoulders, wings tucked tight, while Flora hugs herself deeper into a soft knit sweater to keep the chill from sliding into her bones. It smells faintly of cedar and salt, and she pretends for a moment that it’s the dragon and not the altitude keeping her breath short.

She talks to Mateo while she flies, voice rising and falling in bursts of colour like spray cast off the bow; what she’s been doing, what she’s avoided, what she hasn’t quite admitted even to herself. Mateo gets it all in that scattershot way only she delivers: friends and fights, what happened during the masquerade with Jack, howe apparently Sohalia knew more about the whole Kaisel thing than she let on, and how the rest of her house project is going.

As the Sugartide crests over one last ridge, Flora’s words slow and circle, finally curling around the reason she dragged Mateo up into the clouds. "Remi and Ronin said there’s a shrine up here," she says, sweater sleeves pulled down to her knuckles as if that small comfort could hold the mountain air at bay. "One to Ludo, to Mort. And honestly? I don’t think anyone’s been bothering with it for a long time. Figured that made it perfect for what I need to do for my quest."

Mateo

"So what I am hearing is that your life is as boring as ever, sorellina, and there is absolutely no drama to speak of." Mateo's grin is audible even before he gazes over his shoulder to beam at Flora, all dimples and wind-tossed curls and ruddy cheeks from the chill breeze at this height. Wrapped in a grey pattered sweater and a deep purple coat best described as swashbuckling, he's evidently dressed for the Cordillera at least, even if he's not entirely sure where they're headed until they get there and the Doubletake explains. 

Raising his eyebrows and hurrying to her side so he might also look out towards the summit of their little world, his breath catches at the rugged beauty of it, untouched by anyone for years, and likely for centuries before that. "It is not that I disagree with you, but you could not have simply gone to the one in the Greatwood?" He smirks. "Still, I suppose you are right. I imagine it could use a good clean after all this time, too."

I'm a scholar and a gentleman
And I don't usually fall when I try to stand

candlewax & polaroids on the hardwood floor

Flora huffs at him, the sound bright and fond, curls tumbling as she tosses him a look over her shoulder that’s all sparkling eyes and mock offence. "When," she demands, sweater sleeves slipping back enough for her rings to catch in the light, "has my life ever been without drama?" The grin that follows is irrepressible, tugging at her mouth even as she leans forward to rest her arms against the railing, gaze caught on the sweep of the peaks rolling away beneath them.

She rolls her eyes at his smirk, but it’s paired with laughter in her voice as she says, "Please. That would be like going to the local store for an outfit instead of a boutique." The Sugartide shudders gently in the thin air as if agreeing with her, sails taut against the wind, and Flora lifts her chin towards the mountain that waits like a secret no one else has bothered to keep. The Cordillera was one of the most dangerous places in all of Caido, so if Flora could get the spirits there to be amenable, she imagined it would bode well for her when Ludo decided which spirits to send to her house.

Mateo

"Oh, I do not know. I feel like there were a couple of years when we were kids in the Greatwood where things were about as calm as it got," Mateo says, cocking a grin towards her as she leans against the railing. "And it is quite peaceful up here, all things considered." Don't ask him how or why - he's just glad that neither of them have been eaten by dragons yet, though he supposes there's still time as the mountain peaks begin to draw inexorably closer. 

"Alright, you do make a good point there at least. Just tell me where you think would be a good place to land and we will get down and start to find this shrine," he says, assuming they will have to go and hunt for the thing and it won't just leap out at them to announce itself. "It is strange, isn't it," he says suddenly, spying a broken pillar against one of the cliffsides. "That this is where our fathers came and fought Caido themselves."

I'm a scholar and a gentleman
And I don't usually fall when I try to stand

candlewax & polaroids on the hardwood floor

Flora chuckles as she nods. "If that's the case, it's a low, low bar" she teases, flashing her brother a grin that’s all teeth and sunshine. "But yeah...I agree. And honestly? Even if it was kind of a dick move, I can see why they decided to live up here for a bit." Her gaze sweeps over the mountains, the wild hush that blankets everything in white and stone, and for a moment she almost feels the pull herself.

Nosing the Sugartide ahead, she gestures towards a flattish outcropping tucked against the slope, steady enough for the ship to hover over. [asy]"There," she says with a little flourish, already picturing the rope ladder tumbling down. Roughing it has never exactly been her style—and not Mateo’s either—so making their descent this way feels perfectly appropriate.

Her nose wrinkles as she glances at the jagged ruins of the pillar Mateo spotted, the agreement in her expression easy and immediate. "Right? I keep waiting for the sky to just...open up. The way it must have for them." Her hand curls tighter around the railing, sweater pulled close against the cold, eyes wide as if daring the horizon to split apart at last.

Mateo

"Mm... I suppose it is easier to see the reason they made their decisions when you get a little older," Mateo says, reluctant but sincere as he admires the beautiful if not lonely landscape below. "Especially given what they would have seen and gone through up here." Following Flora's gaze to where she suggests they set the Sugartide to hovering, he nods and immediately goes to assist. Between them they've got enough skyboat experience to work in tandem with ease, and he's ready and unfurling the rope ladder the moment they're steady over the landing spot. 

"It must have been terrifying," he remarks offhandedly, gazing up at the sky as he hoists himself over the railing and onto the ladder. To battle their way up here, to watch the heavens split and to see the face of the god of all gods, seized and possessed by The Core. 

Shivering to himself and turning his eyes away, Mateo focuses on getting onto the ground without being blown away by the cutting wind, then holds the ladder steady for his sister to join him. "Any idea which direction seems promising for a death shrine?"

I'm a scholar and a gentleman
And I don't usually fall when I try to stand

candlewax & polaroids on the hardwood floor

Flora presses her lips together, fighting the flicker of sympathy his words stir before finally letting it slip out in the curve of a smirk. "Fiiiiiiiiine, I’ll agree with you, but we can never let them know that," she warns, eyes bright with mischief even as her tone holds that sharp edge of sincerity. Their parents may have earned a little understanding for what they’d endured, but in Flora’s book they were still meant to stand higher, to be held to standards no one else could touch. She wasn’t about to let her own cracks and life experiences soften that resolve.

With a low hum of agreement, she follows Mateo to the railing and swings herself onto the rope ladder after him, sweater pulled tight as if she might will it into armour against the slicing wind. Predictably, the complaint slips out before she can stop it: "Ugh, I hate this," she mutters, curls whipping into her mouth as she squints upward into the searingly bright sky. Spice wheels overhead, tiny against the great expanse, and Flora cups her hands to call up to her, wondering which way they were meant to go.

The dragon trills, clear and bright in the thin air, wings banking to point out a direction along the ridge. Flora sighs, already conceding the choice, and when her boots crunch down against the rock beside her brother she loops an arm through his, grumbling with no real conviction, "I change my mind. I hate it up here."

Mateo

"Oh, definitely not. We do not want them thinking we are growing up, otherwise they may start expecting things from us," Mateo says with an equally as mischievous smile in return. That probably isn't true, actually, but he hasn't come this far in life to be held accountable for his actions, no siree. By the time Flora joins him he's forsaken the swashbuckling fashion of an open and billowing coat to button it tight against his chin, and his arm loops through Flora's without needing any persuasion.

"It is a bit nippy, no?" He says with a smile that comes out as a grimace, squinting up at the sky to watch Spice lead the way. "At least she seems to have a better sense of direction. And to think, we could be strolling along the boardwalk right now after leaving offerings at the Ludo shrine in Kaiholo. How boring." Chattering his teeth and shivering, he nevertheless hurries them onwards to follow Flora's companion, trusting Spice to get them where they need to be.

I'm a scholar and a gentleman
And I don't usually fall when I try to stand

candlewax & polaroids on the hardwood floor

Flora tips her head back with a dramatic groan, the sound bouncing off jagged cliffs that rise like broken teeth all around them. "Ewwwwwwuh," she drawls, scrunching her nose at him as if the very thought of their parents expecting anything from them is enough to make her break out in hives.

Another gust tears down the slope, whipping her curls across her face and tugging at the hem of her sweater until it billows like a sail. She groans again, this one more genuine as Mateo points out the obvious: they could be somewhere warm, somewhere with sunlight and boardwalk chatter instead of the eerie hush of peaks where only dragons dare to linger and the wind sounds like it’s trying to peel the world apart.

She sighs theatrically, sweater tugged tighter until she looks like she’s trying to fold herself inside of it, before nudging him with her shoulder. Far below, the air thins into veils of mist, and Spice’s shadow flits across the rock in quicksilver streaks as she circles ahead. "Speaking of places that are warm versus places that are windy..." Flora trails off, brows arching as she casts him a sideways glance. "Arrrrre you gonna leave Torchline now that the Family's gone?"

Mateo

Shuddering as another biting wind tears at them across the mountaintop, Mateo's arm moves around Flora given that she's only in a sweater and without a coat, and he hugs her close as they march in Spice's wake. Hopefully they've landed a very lucky distance from this shrine, and it won't take too long before the little dragon finds it. "Mm?" He has to turn his head towards Flora as she speaks in order to properly hear her against the bluster, though as he realises the nature of her question, his smile turns a bit guilty.

"I have been waiting to see how Stormbreak's leadership shakes out," he says. "But providing all goes to plan and the region is not left without anyone in charge... yes, I have been missing home," he admits. "I hope that does not upset you too much. You have made me feel more welcome over the past few seasons than anyone else, and I will be visiting you all the time. But I miss my flower shop and Molly's and all the good cocktail places and boutiques I know in the Silk Houses."

I'm a scholar and a gentleman
And I don't usually fall when I try to stand

candlewax & polaroids on the hardwood floor

Flora lets out the breath she hadn’t realised she was holding, the sound slipping away into the thin air and lost to the rush of wind scraping down the mountainside. The rest of what he says—about plans and leadership and cocktail places—hardly even registers. It all has the cadence of an it’s not you, it’s me, the sort of gentle justification meant to soften a blow that was always going to land the same way no matter how prettily it was dressed. She’d always assumed he would go back eventually, though some stubborn sliver of her had hoped otherwise. Not necessarily because Torchline had won him over, but for the way it felt having them all together again, even if their parents still sucked.

"Yeah, I thought so," she hums under her breath, shaping it into something light as she forces a smile over her shoulder at him before turning her gaze forward again. The rocks ahead break into sharper relief as Spice trills, wings flashing in the sunlight before she banks hard to the left, a sound so clear and certain that it could only mean she’s found the shrine.

"Guess my next trick will be those teleporting wardrobes, huh?"

Mateo

"I am sorry," Mateo says instinctively, his brow furrowed as he glances away from Flora and back at the rugged landscape. "But if nothing else, coming to Torchline means I now know how to pilot my own skyship more than adequately, so if you think you will be able to keep me away from lounging in your pool at the end of every week, think again."

Teleporting wardrobes would also be a nice touch, and Mateo dares to smile at his sister again even as they begin to follow Spice's directions to the inevitable shrine up here. "Teleporting wardrobes which also allow us to share the contents, yes?" he clarifies. "That way if I find anything I think you would like, I can hang it up for you to find."

And hopefully it would also work as a physical reminder that she is on his mind, even when he can't see her in person necessarily. 

"Ah, I think this is it..." He can't help but feel a little more solemn in the presence of a shrine to Ludo and Mort, straightening up unconsciously as the ornate fountain and its softly flowing waters comes into view.

I'm a scholar and a gentleman
And I don't usually fall when I try to stand

candlewax & polaroids on the hardwood floor

Flora shakes her head softly, curls catching the wind as she leans against his arm. "You don’t need to apologize," she murmurs, though her eyes narrow playfully a moment later. "Speaking of piloting your skyship, though—does that mean Everest is going back with you?" The thought lingers only a second before his wardrobe idea brightens her mood, and she grins wide, teeth flashing. "Trinkets appearing out of nowhere? Ditto. Honestly, can you imagine if we’d had a magic wardrobe when we were kids?" A laugh bubbles up, quick and warm. "We’d have been unbeatable at hide and seek."

The sound fades as her gaze catches on what lies ahead, Spice’s trill leading them down the last stretch of path. The shrine rises out of the stone like something forgotten yet stubbornly alive; an ornate fountain, its waters still running impossibly clear despite the years. A shiver runs through her, sharp and sudden, her grin slipping away as if the sanctity of the place has reached out and pressed cold fingers against the back of her neck.

Without speaking, she steps forward, tugging her sweater tighter around her frame as she begins brushing aside dried leaves and windblown debris that have gathered around the base. Spice swoops low in a bright arc, the beating of her small wings scattering dust from the carved stone, until the fountain gleams faintly under its veil of time.

Mateo

"You know, it would not surprise me if he decided to stay," Mateo says with a small smile and a glance towards his sister. "Since he was able to put all of his social anxiety into a little magical glass acorn, he has been doing very will with Isla I think. So if he decides to stay with her in Torchline, I can only wish him the best." He makes a mental note to meet with his best friend in the coming days, in fact, to see if he can tease his thoughts out of him. 

But then it's back to the magical wardrobes. "We really would have. And none of our outfits would ever go missing for more than a day or so. We could share changing fashions, and climb through to visit one another whenever we wanted." Sighing dramatically, Mateo nudges Flora gently with his hip. "Well, now one or both of us has to make it happen, don't we."

Releasing the Doubletake for her to approach the shrine, Mateo walks quietly at her heels to admire the solemn little area, the only sound around them now the trickling of water and the howling of the distant wind. While she and Spice rid the fountain of leaves and dust and debris, the botanist spends a little time teasing vines and ivy away from the stone to prevent it from rooting too deeply into it and ruining the infrastructure. 

"I did not expect it to be so peaceful," he confesses.

I'm a scholar and a gentleman
And I don't usually fall when I try to stand