Gin scratched his head. He checked his notes, reread them several times, paced around a bit then scratched his head again. By his estimations, he must have walked past his classroom several times as he continued down the corridor that looped in a circle. So, there are the classrooms, here’s the elevator, some stairs… I’m getting nowhere. Is the place really on this floor?

He paused for a moment, looked around for anyone around, let out a sigh when he found not a single soul and trudged his way towards his classroom. There, he stopped just outside the door, peering inside to see if Joan stayed behind.

Lo and behold, the medic sat at her desk where she flicked through pages worth of writing. She went back and forth between two pages in particular as if stuck on a certain matter. With hands clasped around her head, Gin couldn’t help but chuckle at her struggles. For all the troubles he went through the last couple of months, he always seemed to keep face in front of those who try their hardest.

‘Maybe I shouldn’t disturb her,’ he muttered to himself.

But just as he stepped away, he heard the calling of, ‘Ah, Gin. Perfect timing. Help me out a little.’

‘Sure. What’s wrong?’ he turned back. He entered the classroom and noticed a short stack of Joan’s nails all lined up next to the pieces of paper. His eyes then wandered over to her hands where he could see the skin ebbing a bright red where the nails should be. ‘Are you hurt?’

‘No, it’s fine. They were getting in the way. I’m used to the pain anyway,’ she retorted, her voice cracking a little on that last line. ‘Can you pronounce this word?’

She pointed towards another sheet of paper with what seemed to be her handwriting. It looked like a mess and Gin needed to lean forwards and wrap his mind around the puzzle. He half-expected the word to be a long and convoluted one that needed proper mastery of the English language to know. However, he scrunched his brows once he figured it out.

‘Um, “Through,”’ Gin doubled checked. ‘Yeah, it definitely is “Through.”’

‘Ok. I got that correct then. What about this?’ Joan pointed to another word.

‘“Tough?”’ Gin grew confused.

‘And what about these?’ Joan flipped over the piece of paper to reveal a whole bunch of words.

‘Let’s see,’ Gin needed to lean further forwards to make out the letters. ‘We got “Bought, Cough, Drought, Thought and Thorough.”’

‘Do you understand where I’m getting at here?’ Joan appeared ready to rip her hair out.

‘No? Not really,’ Gin just shrugged.

‘They all have this O-U-G-H lettering and yet why do all these words make different sounds?

‘That’s just the way it is. You simply need to learn how to spell and pronounce th-’

‘It’s borderline frustrating, that’s what it is! Don’t get me started on the grammar side of things too,’ Joan interrupted. ‘Sheesh, why can’t this be any easier? And you better stop smirking before I put my nails back on!’

Before he knew it, Gin’s smirk turned into a burst of laughter. He could feel his medic’s wrath looming over him but he didn’t care. War? Bad dreams? An upcoming meeting with a man he wasn’t fond of? All of that didn’t matter when you could enjoy the stupid things in life once in a while.

‘I’ll tell you now,’ Gin calmed down as he took a seat. ‘Don’t be expecting much from any language. They all have their silly rules on what you can and can’t do but then they all break their own rules!’

‘Don’t tell me you can speak bird or any other animal too. Didn’t know they had their own set of spoken rules,’ Joan scoffed. ‘Maybe I should ask Syndra about it.’

‘I’m not talking about that. You do know we humans used to speak more than just English to one another, right? Some didn’t even know English themselves and spoke their own language.’

‘Um, excuse me?’ her jaw dropped. ‘Please say I don’t need to learn them all?’

‘Heh. You couldn’t even if you tried,’ Gin helped himself to another chuckle. ‘Pretty sure there have been thousands of languages in our past all of which had their own sets of rules and stuff. For example, having separate forms like datives and genitives etcetera or having items being split into male or female and making your words change to suit their gender. Most even had their own alphabets and I believe one language had thousands upon thousands of different letters to symbolise different things.’

‘I don’t know if I should take you seriously or not,’ Joan shuddered at the thought of learning how to read any of that.

‘I’m dead serious. Or at least that’s what I know from the books in my village. Though it’s funny how we just ended up all speaking English as some sort of universal language while the others just went practically extinct.’

‘If it’s anything like what we learnt about the manush, then they probably haven’t died out fully,’ the medic raised a quill pen and started writing something incomprehensible.

‘Yeah. I suppose so.’

Gin’s thoughts wandered off. He stared at the nonsense Joan wrote then at the wall where the clock on the wall carried on ticking. Its wood material reminded him of Artemis and how she would speak in riddles. However, now that he thought about it, some of the words she mentioned were actually names of languages, weren’t they? Something about Scythian, Latin or some other languages.

‘So that’s how it is,’ he spoke out, the ticking of the clock appeared to grow in intensity with each passing second.

‘Hm?’ Joan looked up.

‘No, it’s nothing. Just found another reason I want to go back to my village one day,’ Gin gave a meek smile.

‘Can’t wait for that to happen since I’ll be joining you hehe,’ she teased back.

The clock ticked some more. It taunted Gin. Almost as if…

‘Oh!’ he sprang up from his seat in an instant. ‘Joan, I wanted to ask if you knew where Gargarensis’ office is. I’m forced to speak with him.’

‘Sure, it’s right opposite the elevators,’ she guided.

Gin raised an eyebrow, ‘Are you sure? I’ve been searching for the entrance everywhere.’

‘Mhm, you need to knock and the door opens automatically. I’ve been to his office several times, so I’m certain of that.’

Wait. But doesn’t that contradict what Sam said the other day? Gin began to doubt himself, a few pieces starting to click in his mind. Or did I simply misremember what he said?

‘Do you not believe me?’ Joan looked puzzled at him still standing there.

‘I do. Just finding this Rezah to be so much more complex than squadron W’s one, that’s all,’ Gin didn’t want to say what’s on his mind. He could be wrong, after all. ‘Well, thanks anyway.’

‘Thanks for helping me too,’ Joan gave him a wave goodbye (which he reciprocated) then kept her head down and concentrated on her work.

At first, Gin hesitated a bit as he took his time to leave the room. His mind worked in a clockwork of analysis. Little puzzles popped up that appeared to link to a larger picture. Something about the manush, most likely. Something about what happened in the forest. Something about Sam? Possibly. Regardless, he couldn’t quite piece them together.

However, his attention got diverted when he heard squawking. Before he knew it, Gin found himself outside the elevators and opposite Gargarensis’ supposed office. He inspected the wall in front of him but couldn’t see any way to get in.

Then he heard another squawk.

‘Aqmi?!’ Gin’s heart lurched forwards at the realisation.

Without hesitation, he knocked on the wall. It rumbled before the wood receded in a vine-like fashion. It revealed a long corridor illuminated by little rocks that appeared to move. Are those bugs? he looked closer, his eyes lighting up in amazement, before shaking his head. No, I can’t get distracted. Aqmi’s in dan-

However, as Gin made his way through the short corridor, he caught Gargarensis sitting at a desk with the bird right in front of him. The animal wasn’t hurt nor in any sort of danger. Rather, it enjoyed some sort of rodent meal presented on a stone dish.

‘Ah, Mr Gale, you’re just in time,’ the spiked man greeted. ‘I thought you were a little late, so I took the opportunity to get this little fella its lunch. Take a seat.’

‘Uh-huh,’ Gin grew confused as he shuffled his way to a chair. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘No problem. Having observed you for a while now, I realise you’re not the type of person to be not punctual unless something happens. May I ask the cause of that today?’ Gargarensis leaned forward with his hands clasped on his desk.

‘I got lost. There’s no sign to tell me where your office was,’ Gin answered. He didn’t want to drag Joan into any trouble for his lateness. Also, did he just compliment me?

‘Ah, that makes sense,’ the giant of a man let out a subtle sigh. ‘Honestly, I think this room’s a bit of a cruel joke on her part. After all, while I am good with animals, I don’t quite like bugs or mice for that matter. But she insisted on having them light up my office when simple torches would do and sent me a mouse today of all days. Not to mention no one can seem to reach me here unless they know what they’re doing.’

Gin’s confusion grew in intensity. Wasn’t this the same person who shunned him and his battalion all this time? Why was he being so talkative now?

‘Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m extremely grateful to Diana. That fact can’t be understated enough. She’s helped me out plenty of times in the past but…’ the mage paused and lowered his voice, ‘between you and me, she can be a bit spooky at times. Anyway, sorry for going on a bit of a tangent here. let’s begin with this meeting. How are you finding your time in our squadron?’

A few disbelieving blinks later, Gin composed himself. He didn’t know whether to laugh or to act as if nothing happened. Did he get it all wrong? Maybe, just maybe, the giant that sat in front of him, with such affectionate eyes towards his mage-eater, wasn’t all that bad. But Gin prided himself in his ability to judge a person’s character. He wouldn’t dare change his mind that quick without double-checking.

So, with a stern face, Gin asked, ‘Before we start, can I ask you a question?’

‘Sure. We have time,’ Gargarensis raised an eyebrow.

‘When we first met,’ Gin held off on the question, making sure he worded it the way he wanted to, ‘Was I disturbing you?’

‘Ah,’ the mage uttered a single word. He didn’t speak further, but the tips of his ears began to turn pink as opposed to the purplish complexion they had beforehand. ‘If I may, I don’t want to talk about that. It’s rather embarrassing.’

Embarrassing? The word caught Gin off guard. ‘I just wanted to make amends if I caused you any problems, that’s all.’

‘No, no, no,’ a little bit of panic settled in Gargarensis’ tone. ‘It’s the opposite. It was I who didn’t want to disturb you since I caused the mess. It’s my duty to tidy it up and no one else. I couldn’t trouble anyone, let alone people I have to look after. I do admit I have an unhealthy habit of being clumsy though.’

‘I see,’ a smile crept up on Gin as his focus turned to his (full and now) sleeping bird who, upon closer inspection, appeared to have grown almost twice in size since he last saw it. ‘When I next met you, you said you would “deal” with Aqmi. Did you mean actually looking after him?’

‘Precisely.’

‘And when I was helping out my battalion members with their bed, was that you I noticed watching us for a moment?’

‘I remember that. I believe I told you that you didn’t have to do anything, correct?’

‘Yeah,’ Gin shrank in his chair.

‘Well, sir,’ Gargarensis seemed to grow in size in his chair, ‘that was simply because I was meant to help them instead. But I am certainly impressed by your comradery and willingness to help others.’

Wow. So that’s how it was. If Joan could read my thoughts, she’d be calling me an idiot by now, Gin refrained himself from asking anymore out of courtesy. He asked too much already.

‘Mr. Gale, I believe I got the gist of your questioning and why you’re asking them,’ the mage began stroking Aqmi’s feathers with an ever-so-gentle touch. ‘Were there more instances where I may have been unprofessional in your eyes?’

‘Er, yes,’ the prompt took Gin aback, so much so that he answered an immediate, simple, honest reply.

‘Go ahead and list them and I will try to explain my thought process at the time. I will most likely remember everything.’

‘If you say so,’ Gin stroked his beard, thinking back to a few weeks ago. ‘You kept leaving classes early without teaching anyone anything.’

‘Oh, but you see, I am willing to teach. Every lesson, I ask if anyone is confused or if they have questions or if they need any help. I thought no one needed me and the booklets were enough, so I decided to let you lot concentrate on learning,’ the man tensed up a little and lowered his voice once again. ‘I can tell my presence causes people distress, so I tend to leave them be unless they come to me more often than not.’

That’s not how teaching’s meant to be, Gin thought to himself. Yet, he started to understand how the strange human in front of him worked. ‘Then when you missed training and practical testing, it was because of a similar reason?’

‘Apologies, but that’s not correct,’ Gargarensis bowed down in his sitting position. ‘I was unfortunately ill that day and Diana has an annoying habit of forcing me to stay and recover despite my protests of wanting to help out with physical training.’

Mages can get ill? Huh, who would have thought? Gin made a mental note before continuing, ‘How about last week when I was out running to get my times down, why were you always sitting outside, just watching from a distance?’

‘Uh, sir?’ the mage’s face softened into a look of concern.

‘Yes?’

‘I was simply eating…’

‘Oh,’ Gin’s eyes widened. Then he smiled. Then he forced himself to not laugh. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with me but I have severely misjudged you it seems.’

‘Is that so? I’m sorry if my gluttony is a bit unnerving. I do have an appetite for all sorts of food. It’s not that I like it – Well, I do enjoy eating – but I need to eat a lot since I use a lot of energy for my poison spikes. I do have a reason for that trait of mine.’

That’s not what I mean, Gin didn’t dare correct him.

Gargarensis leant backwards and rummaged behind his desk. He then picked up a leather bag and emptied its contents. Out poured a few, small oranges that rolled until they either stopped or fell off.

‘Clementines,’ he picked up the remainder of the fallen fruit. ‘They’re a favourite of a certain plucky redhead I know and I like them too. I also had a few other treats here and there but Sokolov keeps stealing them. Thankfully, he’s chained up in the SS Tanya to reach these ones. Although sometimes my stash does disappear and I think Diana’s the one who keeps taking them. Want one?’

‘No, thank you.’

A period of silence fell upon the room (you could even hear Aqmi’s breathing). At that time, Gargarensis put away the fruit while Gin’s initial bewilderment turned into amazement. Misjudged was an understatement and he felt ashamed of thinking the way he did before.

‘That’s it for my questions. Sorry for taking your time,’ Gin gave a meek apology.

‘It’s no problem at all, good sir. I hoped my answers were good enough. Shall we start the one-on-one meeting then?’ Gargarensis put on a serious face.

‘Yep,’ Gin couldn’t help but return a smile instead.