Like him, Nakama and Xanadu looked like they had a bad night. Their eyes were showing hints of fatigue, and the childlike liveliness Gaius was accustomed to seeing in Nakama’s face was gone. As for La-Ti, the little fellow was considerably sadder today, and he was sticking really close to Nakama.

Which was a good thing, in Gaius’ opinion, but he would have liked it if the cause weren’t something as traumatising as the God of Earth’s passing. Unlike the others, La-Ti’s soul didn’t venture into the depths of Orb when Rahwei passed away, and he had been understandably traumatised when everyone else dropped like flies around him.

Fortunately, Xanadu was unaffected too, and it was all she could do to comfort the frantic little fellow from breaking down into tears. They came back a few minutes later, just in time to reassure little La-Ti that nothing bad had happened to them.

He was still quite traumatised, however.

Gaius felt his head hurt at the sight of La-Ti holding on to Nakama’s shirt. He hadn’t even stepped on the battlefield proper, but there were already problems showing up. Fortunately, that was a hurdle that Nakama herself would have to deal with…or not, depending on her own thoughts. Gaius couldn’t be responsible for every single thing — it was something his sister would have to deal with on her own.

Wondering if he had done the right thing in bringing the kids along, Gaius rubbed their heads and tried to make them smile. With Isabelle and Xanadu’s help, La-Ti’s face slowly brightened up, and a skip soon returned into his steps.

“Phew.” Leaning his head on Isabelle’s shoulder, the small family headed towards one of the four canteens in the Guardians Barracks. The enormous barracks was too huge for a centralised kitchen, so separate canteens had been built in the four wings of the Guardian Barracks.

Incidentally, Nakama or La-Ti getting lost here was a huge worry for Gaius, so hours after their arrival, Gaius had forbidden them from stepping out without Xanadu to accompany them. His warning was backed up with a threat to send them back to the Library, so he was reasonably sure that the two kids weren’t going to randomly disappear on him.

Since they were in the East wing of the Guardian Barracks, the small group of five naturally went over to the canteen there. Not many people were up this early…but again, no one had a good grasp of time now. The destruction of the false sun had sent daylight back by six hours or so, and although the true sun was now rising, the clocks were now showing that it was three in the afternoon.

However, most people were now following the sun, rather than some arbitrarily denoted time.

“Alright,” said Gaius, “remember to be polite to the servers here, okay?”

Nakama and La-Ti bobbed their heads.

“Excellent. You guys go ahead and get something, then. Food’s free here.”

With little squeals, the two kids hurtled off towards the many stalls in the area, and Gaius made a mental note to tell them not to run in the canteen.

“Children, eh?” Xanadu chuckled. “Still, I thought Nakama would have known not to run, even if La-Ti didn’t.”

“Maybe it’s stress or something,” Gaius replied. “You two should get something too. I’ll just sit around her for now, just in case they forget where we were sitting at.”

“Very well.” Xanadu got up, her nose twitching, and she wandered off into a random direction. For some reason, Gaius had the feeling that she was actually trying to follow the stall that sold the most delectable food, and he stifled a smile.

“What’s making you laugh?” Isabelle asked.

“Well, Xanadu looks like she’s following her nose more than anything else,” Gaius replied. “See? Doesn’t that remind you of a puppy or something?”

“Oh, wow.” Isabelle observed the sniffing Phantom Blade and start giggling. It took her a minute or two to get her amusement under control, in which time Nakama and La-Ti were already returning with their breakfast.

Or lunch…or afternoon tea, depending on who Gaius talked to.

As Nakama placed her tray down, Gaius cleared his throat. “Nakama. Don’t you know that running in a canteen is a bad idea?”

His sister froze, and then hung her head. “S-sorry.”

“Just don’t do it next time. You’ll set a bad example of La-Ti,” Gaius replied. Eyeing her choice of breakfast — rice, scrambled eggs and sliced sausages — he and Isabelle got up and went off to get their own food. Since there were literally no queues going on, the two of them soon returned with their own dishes in tow, and as they sat down, a few Guardians began to stream in.

Intuitively, Gaius began to look around, but as expected, he recognised none of the Knights or Lords here.

“Anyone you know?” Isabelle asked.

“No one,” Gaius replied. “Come on, let’s finish this quickly. The people who run this show might get all panicky if I don’t show up on time.”

“True.”

As Xanadu babbled away with the two kids, Gaius and Isabelle focused on their food, enjoying the impromptu performance the Phantom Blade was putting up with La-Ti and Nakama. He rarely saw the more animated sides of Xanadu, after all, so it was fairly refreshing to see her chatter away with Nakama and La-Ti.

He didn’t know that she was actually quite the fan of board games, though. Apparently, Nakama had made it a point to drag Isabelle along to Xanadu’s room to play board games while he was in a coma, as their way of showing concern, and over a long period of time, she too had become a convert.

It didn’t help that Flynn’s toys were of an absurd quality either, so she had picked it up.

That three years of lost time had seen many things change…and even more remain constant. Nonetheless, nothing could make up for the fact that Gaius hadn’t been there. This interesting morsel of information was just more proof that Nakama had finally stepped out of his shadow, that her world had grown.

A second, problem child had come toddling along, though.

That, however, was a problem Nakama would take up on her own accord. Perhaps, in due time, she would grow and learn from her continued interactions with her younger brother.

Smiling, he got up with Isabelle, made some excuses and headed for the War Council.