Chapter 457: 8: Crumbling Foundations

When Harmony got home that night she stowed her hoverboard, and then fed her cat. Both she and her pet were eating food straight from cans, but it was served on mismatched decorative porcelain, with equally mismatched but equally elegant stainless 'silver' ware. 

It amused her somewhat that the tableware others would dismiss had probably been crafted before she had been born. Her residence was as colorful and comfortable as the outerwear she used when riding her board. Old items stood proudly beside new ones, equal in their owner's regard.

She discovered that she had two messages waiting after she logged in to 'Living Jade Empire'. Both of them were from Jade's friend Appella. 

The first one read, "I'm sorry, nothing against you, I just can't talk to him right now." The second read, "P.S. Hisui isn't what you think he is."

Harmony found that she could not reply because Appella had already removed her from the friend list. 

If she could have, she would have told the younger woman, "Jade is always Jade." 

She gazed into the virtual distance thoughtfully. She couldn't quite imagine Jade committing the kind of assault that such words too often implied. But sometimes the best people did the worst thing, or the worst people did the best thing. 

Both of them usually seemed far more tolerant of others and kinder than the average person came across. She would bet that there had been some kind of misunderstanding.

She sent Jade a cheerful message that didn't carry any trace of her speculations, and waited until he came online. She had promised she would be waiting to hear his troubles after all.

--

Jade didn't even notice the usual quests pop up and complete as he made his way home after his shift. 

He watered his plant, and logged into the game without eating more than the minimum required to fulfill the system's usual request. A moment later he couldn't have said whether or not he had even had the usual request to fill. It wasn't important.

A message from Skyheart Snowsong arrived in his smithy almost as soon as he did. He caught Harmony's note in his fingers and read: "Where are you? Let's meet up!"

Inexplicable relief filled Jade as he replied: "At my smithy on the edge of the great desert, I can come to where you are!" 

The messenger fluttered off and a moment later hers arrived, making him smile again a little. "No, wait there! I want to see it!"

Jade was closing the message with a smile, when he noticed that a name was missing from his friends list, and his smile faded. Appella was gone. 

He frowned. It wasn't impossible that she had died again, and had to restart for a third time. But after the celestial dragon ride had killed her character, she had sent him a friend request right away, and there weren't any requests waiting.

Harmony seemed to be taking a while, so he sent, "Are you sure you don't need me to come get you?" 

Jade was starting to worry when her reply finally arrived. It insisted, "No, I'm almost there (I think!) I just had to stop and rescue a kitten on my way over the mountain!"

--

Jade was still frowning at his menus, debating whether or not to put in an inquiry with support because he found that his searches for Appella weren't returning any likely results at all, when Harmony finally arrived. 

She saw him standing beside his anvil frowning at nothing, and rapped loudly on the edge of one of the wide open doors.

"Jade," she called out, "sorry, I mean Hisui."

He looked up and smiled. "Hey," he greeted her casually. He finally noticed where she was standing and insisted, "Oh, please come in! You don't need to wait outside!"

Harmony's brow was wrinkled, but she summoned up a return smile for him. After a moment she sauntered into the smithy and began looking around. 

The pudgy little airship took up most of the vast room. The walls were hung with both traditional tools, and fantastically strange devices that she couldn't recognize. There were three different forges, ranging from enormous to small.

After a bit, she looked at Jade who was frowning again, and asked, "So? Want to talk about it?"

Jade looked away and swallowed hard before replying, "I… this is going to sound… um… I don't know if I should tell you."

Harmony tucked her arms up behind her head and replied with a bit of amusement, "I'm old Jade. There isn't much I haven't heard before."

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"I seriously doubt you've heard this before," Jade replied glumly.

Harmony winked and suggested, "So just tell me as much as you want to. You don't ever have to tell me more than that."

After a minute, Jade nodded and took a deep breath before saying all in a rush, "I died in front of Eric yesterday, and today I can't get an answer, and I'm really worried."

Harmony blinked. "Eric?" she questioned. "Is that the name of Appella's player?"

Jade had been expecting her to ask, "You died?" It took him a moment to comprehend the question, and then he replied swiftly, "No! I mean Appella is a girl I've known for about five years in this game. Eric is a guy I go to school with! We just met this year, but he's already a good friend."

Harmony rubbed her eyebrow and then asked the question he'd been expecting, "You died? Of embarrassment?"

Jade hesitated before answering. Finally he said, "I got hit by a car the day before yesterday."

Harmony stared at him. "I know you were gone again but you looked okay, just kind of out of it, when I saw you this afternoon?"

Jade nodded and assured her, "I'm okay."

Harmony gazed at him uncomprehendingly for a long moment, and then complained, "Usually, I feel like we understand each other pretty well, but I feel like I can't understand you today,"

"I'm sorry," Jade replied uncomfortably, without explaining.

Skyheart Snowsong walked over and sat down on his anvil, which lowered her face close to Hisui's dwarven one, where he stood beside it. 

Harmony spread her arms invitingly, and asked, "Hug?"

Jade gave her a fragile smile and stepped into her hug. 

She stroked his tangled dwarven hair with one elven hand while he leaned into her trustingly. After a bit she told him as comfortingly as she could manage, "I don't understand, but I think that if you give your friend some time, things will probably work out."

 He nodded. She heaved a sigh after another minute, and he pushed away from her to look into her face questioningly. 

"Speaking of your friends, what happened between you and Appella?" she asked.

Jade frowned and replied, "I don't know what happened to her, she is just gone from my list, and that's a bit worrisome too. I hope that she is okay."

Harmony tilted her head. "She's gone from mine too. Nothing happened that you know of?"

Jade replied, "You have seen her since I have. What were the two of you doing? Did she say anything?"

Harmony didn't answer right away, and Jade returned her earlier words with mild amusement, "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"I want to," Harmony declared. But then she looked away and muttered, "But I feel like I'd be betraying her trust."

 He suggested anxiously, "Maybe she died?"

She immediately assured him, "I do think she is still alive and all, so don't worry about that."

Jade blinked and asked curiously, "What made you think something happened between us?"

Harmony gave him a wry grin and said mysteriously, "I didn't get to tell her that Jade is always Jade." She reached out and ruffled his hair. Jade rolled his eyes at her and she added, "Even if he spells it Hisui here." She stuck her tongue out at him.

Jade smiled. After a bit he asked, "So, you said you rescued a kitten?"

Harmony laughed, and explained the event that had caught her halfway across the desert with her usual energy.

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