Chapter 21: Chapter XX – Venti – The Big City

Once the two finished up their meal, they headed back out in to the city. Jess had a bit of a headache and so Venti offered that they should probably get somewhere higher up above all of the noise. Eventually, they found a nice building to rest on, Venti floating the two of them up on top of it. As Jess reached the roof, they gasped slightly, clinging to a pole that was sticking out of the room and trying to catch their breath. Venti walked over to them, resting their hand on Jess’s shoulder.

“Are you alright…?”

Jess held up a finger for Venti to wait, Jess clutching their stomach and attempting to not throw up. Once their body had settled down a bit more, they turned back to Venti, flopping down on to the ground and sighing.

“I really… don’t do well with flying… I almost threw up four times on the way to this island…” Jess explained, still looking a little queasy.

“I see. I apologize then. I will keep that in mind. Although… I have to ask… why do you have so much difficulty? I understand that if you were trying to focus on an essence signature in the crowd, that could be a little… disorienting, but only if it were a constant thing…”

Jess sighed softly. “I don’t have the best answer for that… I guess… I just… can’t turn it off… I can’t stop feeling the essence all around.”

“Wouldn’t that be… extremely draining? After all, I saw from your aura that you don’t have the largest essence supply and… if you were constantly sensing enough to make it nauseating to be in the city, I would think you would be passing out all over the place constantly.”

Jess shook their head. “It doesn’t cost anything for me to do that. I perceive things pretty well even just passively. It’s always been like that. I used to get splitting headaches all the time when I was younger until I learned to tone it down, but I’m still adjusting to the big city. I’ve been in Aeria for three weeks, but I only arrived in the city last night. Where I was previously was no busier than the largest village on my home island, so it wasn’t a big deal… This place is… way worse…”

Venti nodded, turning out upon the city, feeling the warmth as many of the lights were starting to come to light as the sun was setting off in the distance. They smiled softly and chuckled. “Could you tell me something…?” they began.

Jess gave them a confused look, moving over close and sitting down on the edge of the building next to them, taking in the sight of the city, finding that from above, it was actually quite beautiful. “Yeah? What’s that?”

“What does the sunset look like?”

Jess gave them another confused look. “How did you…” They stopped short, figuring out that Venti was likely rather attuned to those kinds of things, even without being able to see. “Surely you have to have asked someone before, no?”

Venti shook their head. “I have, but their descriptions have always… disappointed. I was hoping perhaps you would be the one to finally explain it to me.”

Jess thought for some time, staring off at the setting sun, admiring the beauty and feeling the warmth it provided. “It’s… warm… Not just in how it feels physically, but… emotionally… It provides this… warm comfort of the end of things, but with the promise that… they’ll return…” Jess stared down at their wooden arm, grasping it lightly as tears began to roll down their cheeks. “It’s leaving, but… it will be back… And with it… it will bring all kinds of new possibilities and life…” Jess sniffed softly, wiping away their tears. “Sorry… I guess that’s probably not what you were looking for, huh…?”

Venti shook their head. “I think that was… exactly what I was looking for, actually. Everyone always described it as beautiful, but they never seemed to be able to explain why. That was perfect. Thank you, Jessica.”

“Of course.” Jess paused for a moment, thinking before turning to Venti. “I have a question for you now though.”

“What might that be?” Venti asked, still facing the city sprawled out in front of them.

“Why exactly do you want to come with me? You just met me. You… barely know anything about me and, up until today, you had no idea about The Heart of Nature or the problems that had been created because of what the fractures did to it.”

As the question hit Venti’s ears, they fell silent. They had to think hard on what the answer was because, frankly, they didn’t have one. When they had asked to join Jess in their endeavors, it was a simple, spur of the moment decision, but thinking about it, it only became more obvious how random it seemed. It wasn’t like they were upset with their current living situation at all. They got to meet all kinds of nice people, learn all about weapons, and talk with the weapon spirits of their fathers’ creations.

As Venti thought more about it, the answer finally dawned on them, or at least a part of it. “You’re alone,” Venti offered simply.

Jess stared at them. “I’m sorry?”

Venti turned to face Jess. Obviously, they weren’t looking at them, but they had learned that, when having serious conversations, people preferred that you look at them, even if you likely weren’t looking in the right place. “You are alone. I really don’t think that someone embarking on such a mission should be travelling alone. I don’t mean to offend you, but you also do not seem like the type of person who would be alone. So, let me ask you, why are you?”

“Because I didn’t have a choice!” Jess shouted back angrily. Immediately they regretted their choice. “I-I’m sorry… That was… rude…”

“Why?” Venti asked simply.

“What?”

“Why didn’t you have a choice?” Venti elaborated.

Jess’s eyes widened, filling with tears as their hand quickly shot to their wooden arm, clutching it. “I… did have someone… originally… but… they’re gone now… It was my fault… I wasn’t strong enough… if I were to bring someone else along with me, I would just be putting them in danger… just like her…”

“You didn’t ask me to come with you. I offered.”

Jess sighed and shook their head. “That’s not the point…”

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“Well, either way, I think that you shouldn’t be alone. And I’m not saying that as someone who thinks they know you… I’m saying that as someone who is simply concerned for someone who has been open with them,” Venti explained.

“I appreciate the concern…”

“Would you like to go do some shopping?” Venti asked, catching Jess a bit off guard.

“Uh… What?”

“You said you’ve been in Aeria for three weeks. What have you been doing in that time?”

Jess gave them a confused look. “I’ve been searching for the wind fragment.”

“What else?”

“Nothing,” Jess admitted.

“Then, why don’t we take this night to give you a bit of a break? We don’t necessarily have to go shopping, but I think that it could potentially be a good activity to take your mind off of things. Plus, it should be easier to tune out all the input inside of a building,” Venti offered.

Jess thought for a bit before eventually deciding that they had a point and that it might be a good idea to take a break from time to time. “That could be nice… I didn’t bring nearly enough clothes for such an extensive trip… It would probably be good to get some more outfits… Though, I do still need to find a hotel to stay in while I’m in the city…”

“I could probably have you covered there,” Venti said, pulling out their phone and sending a text to their dads. Almost immediately, they received a response. “Yep. If you would like, my parents are totally fine with you staying at our place as long as you might need. Just be warned that you’re going to hear lots of loud work… They’re not really good at the whole being quiet thing…”

“Uh… Noted… And… thanks… I’m glad that I was able to meet someone so nice…”

“Don’t mention it… Just helping out wherever I can. Now, why don’t we head down. I know a few places that people like to get clothes,” Venti said, standing up facing down at the city and then back at Jess.

Jess nodded softly and the two made their way down from the building and out in to the wider city. It took a few minutes of them walking around for Venti to regain their bearings and finally lead them to one of the stores they were familiar with. After about ten minutes they had arrived at the store. As Jess looked up at the sign, they saw that the place was called “Cloak and Swagger”.

“This place is where my dad’s usually go to buy their clothes, but if you don’t end up liking anything here, we can try some of the other places I know,” Venti explained as they headed inside.

The interior of the building wasn’t anything fancy, but everything was kept in exceptional order. The store was broken up in to a few sections, broken down by style. Each of those sections were then broken down in to smaller sections of specific articles of clothing with a set of fitting rooms in the center.

“So, what kind of fashion are you looking for? Are you prone to the fashion of earth apprentices or would you prefer to look in one of the other sections? They do also have a section for neutral clothes as well where they basically just throw anything that isn’t specifically tailored to a type of apprentice.”

Jess sat there for a moment, trying to figure out what they were looking for. They were never the most fashionable type, unlike their mother who was always having to dress nice to uphold her general public image. She had tried to dress Jess more fancy when they were younger, but it didn’t last too long and as soon as they were dressing themself, they were always going for the most casual and basic clothes. Their primary outfit for this journey had simply been their retailored searcher trial outfit. It was durable and not prone to getting dirty, so it was perfect to wear for several days on end. Additionally, they had brought their disciple robes which they wore whenever they were expecting combat, finding them comfortable for such circumstances.

Jess finally realized they had just been standing there, not responding for over a minute now. “Oh, well, earth apprentice clothes should be fine…” they offered at last.

Venti then led them to the earth apprentice section, something they found a little ironic, given Jess’s likely higher aptitude for finding something in the store. Upon arriving in the section, Venti took a seat on one of the benches near the fitting room, waiting as Jess began to pick up various clothes to try on.

Jess picked up several shirts, skirts, boots, and even a dress that they thought they might look nice in. Once they were happy with the clothing they had collected, they headed in to the changing room next to Venti. Most of the clothes, they were rather happy with, but they didn’t want to get too much, so that they weren’t spending too much too needlessly.

Eventually, Jess arrived at the dress that they had picked out. It was light green with a soft gradient to a slightly brighter green. There was golden trim along the edge and around the center of the dress. The dress only had one sleeve on the opposite side of Jess’s wood arm, so they thought that it might pair nicely. Sliding in to the dress, they found they were rather happy with the fit. However, they were very sure of whether it looked too good on them. They opened the door to the changing room and stepped out, striking a bit of a pose before Venti.

“How do I look?”

Venti lifted their head up and turned towards Jess, giving them a blank stare before sighing softly, not out of annoyance or malice, if anything, they found the question rather funny. After a few moments, Jess seemed to realize. They blushed softly and apologized profusely before running over to one of the men who worked at the store, asking for his opinion on the dress. Finding that he said it looked nice, Jess decided that they would take it.

With all of the clothes tried on now, Jess had to decide which to keep. Thus far, they hadn’t really had any they hated or had particular dislike towards. After about ten minutes, they narrowed it down to three shirt, two skirts, two shorts, a new pair of boots, and the dress. They paid for the clothes and then the two headed back out in to the city where Jess realized that Venti had been right. The building had been much less horrible in terms of the buzz of energy. Now that they were back out, Jess was feeling it back in much greater intensity. Thankfully, the night was winding down, so there were less people and so the buzzing was less intense than before, but Jess was eager to get out of the city.

“Are you satisfied or would you like to go somewhere else?” Venti asked.

Jess shook their head. “I’m good. Let’s go.”

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