Chapter Text
“The gambler's fallacy, also known as the Monte Carlo fallacy, occurs when an individual erroneously believes that a certain random event is less likely or more likely to happen based on the outcome of a previous event or series of events.”
“…is that who I think it is?”
“Th-that red cape! It's Rina!”
“You mean the one who trains the guardian spirits corps?”
“Oh my, did something happen?”
“Why would the esteemed Champion be in Austryr?”
For her part, the spirit in question ignored the hushed whispers from any onlookers who passed by her. Quite a few heads were turned by Rina’s presence, and understandably so. Her appearance here was certainly conspicuous, in more ways than one.
Not only did her distinctive red cape—a dead giveaway as to her identity, by the way—stand out on a visual basis compared to the muted colors of the nearby surroundings, it didn't help that she also normally wasn’t one to come down here without an envoy of trainee spirits, given the town’s proximity to the training grounds and Her Majesty, their Mother, the great Spirit Tree Adanu.
Suffice to say, Rina realized that her mere presence here had garnered quite a bit of attention. Even coming to the village under cover of night could do nothing to alleviate that, and the hushed whispers did chip away at her conscience, slowly affecting her stoic act.
It had been a day since the Leafharrow incident, and still the memory of the events that had taken place prickled at her. Seeds of hesitation had already been planted in her mind as she stood on an outcropping that oversaw the treetop village earlier that day, mulling about in contemplation.
The village of Austryr hadn’t been on her radar in recent memory, but circumstances had deemed it necessary for her to come here. On business.
Yeah. Business.
Surrreeee.
Despite what her inner critique was saying, she at least wanted to try and justify it as such. It was the closest thing to a break she would allow herself, all in the name of research.
After all, she wasn’t here to take a break in a traditional sense. Not in the slightest.
Rina grimaced and squinted her eyes shut, recalling the moment where everything had gone sideways for her. An image flashed in her head as she did so — a lanky spirit wielding a giant sword of light, one that was somehow even taller than his scrawny self.
“Also, I’m not lightless! Look what I got! Look and cry!”
That memory of Kili’s triumphant face was seared into her mind. It was everything she'd ever wanted, all ripped away from her in an instant. She never once imagined that her own dream could be dashed, and that of everyone, Kili would be the one to rob it away from her.
The Seed Spirit of Eldia, of all spirits.
Kili might act as an upstart, sure, but he wasn’t exactly trained in combat as a warrior. His destiny was what defined him — poised to become the next Spirit Tree, he did not have any innate ability to wield the light despite being a spirit.
Being the Seed was his role, his responsibility, his duty . To be bestowed this sacred role by her Majesty ranked amidst the greatest of honors! But instead of meeting it with the expected pride and ardor…
“That is not an honor. That is a curse! And you know it!”
…Kili had chosen to scamper away with his tail between his legs before lashing out on the world. Skipping instruction, causing havoc in general, refusing to meet their Mother… he’d do all that, and so, so much more.
Fists clenched and unclenched in agitation.
It was ridiculous. Absolutely absurd.
Such sacrilege, such blasphemy!
How could Kili be the one?
Not just the Seed, but Ilo’s chosen…
And despite her own great Mother reassuring her that such feelings were only natural, a small treasonous part of her deep down—
No, stop. Deep breaths.
Rina exhaled slowly, opening her eyes with hardened resolve.
That troubling train of thought wasn't new, she'd already had to quash them before, snapping herself out of her reverie while merely observing the outskirts of the village just a couple of hours prior. Despite her attempts to suppress those emotions, it still managed to get to her.
Perhaps the most infuriating part to Rina was that she had to suffer all of this in silence. If she were to vent her deeper feelings out to someone like Eni, he would most likely tell her that all her criticism was not necessarily warranted, and to just let things play out now that the chips have fallen.
She didn't have to ask him. She already knew what he'd say.
The simplest explanation was most usually the correct one. Following that logic, it would imply that Ilo did give Kili his gift of his own volition, no trickery involved.
What’s done is done. Kili had been chosen, there was no changing that. Instead of sending herself into a spiral of self-doubt, Rina resolved to find out why .
And fortunately for her, she managed to land herself a lead.
“Your Majesty! Kili has been cheating us out of our money ever since the day we invited him to our table! We demand reparation!”
It was that gumon who’d started it. She’d seen him panicking at the Carian Summit after a scare gone wrong, then witnessed him march up to their Mother in a fit of righteous anger alongside his two moki compatriots.
Sensing that something was amiss, she’d grilled Kai for more information after the battle was over, and Kili’s best friend was very forthcoming in letting her know more. Namely, that it was the gumon who had been the one who’d tipped Kili off to the location of Ilo’s memory tree in the first place.
To think that it’d all started from a bet with a game of cards… of all the cheek! Needless to say, Rina decided that it was absolutely worth her precious time to pay a visit to the tavern where it had all gone down.
Perhaps a little sleuthing might reveal more than meets the eye.
She wanted answers. And now, here at the place where it all began, she was ready to get them.
Rina kicked at the dirt with her hooves, her cape billowing in the wind as she stood tall and firm. The only reason she hadn’t immediately set foot in the tavern was that it would seem unbecoming for someone as immaculate as her to be seen there.
Because of that, she ended up standing outside the tavern for quite some time, paralyzed by her own indecision. She flexed the digits of her paw against the window, tentatively peering in while she tried to seize the right opportunity to convince herself to simply just walk in.
While she stood there, contemplating how her life had come to such a point as she weighed the odds of just waltzing right in, the sounds of heavy footsteps crunching against the grass ended up making the decision for her.
“R-Rina?!”
She froze.
That voice… no. It couldn’t be! She’d previously ignored all the passers-by walking past her, but if this was who she thought it was…
Rina whipped her head back, a flash of green catching her eye as she swerved around.
Green. A bright green cape, draped on a lanky spirit's back.
Welp. It really was him.
Rina’s thoughts ran wild as she stared an awestruck Kili right in the face. She stumbled back, flinching in shock despite her attempts to hide said surprise. Rina wasn’t the only one to do so, as an astonished Kili mirrored her actions.
She wanted to flee, but she could not. Rina found herself rooted to the ground, unable to conjure any words to express herself. As a result, Kili ended up being the first to react verbally.
“Damn… it’s really you, Rina?!” An expression of pure shock had fallen over Kili’s features as recognition dawned on him, though it was swiftly masked by his usual countenance. “Oh ho ho. What brings your grand pompousness to a place like this? Has the folly of temptation ensnared the Champion of Eldia herself?”
A brief roll of her eyes was her response to Kili. She wasn’t going to dignify any of his hypothetical jabs with a verbal answer.
Unfortunately, her stoic silence only served to backfire, as Kili took her lack of an answer as his cue to double down so he could force a reaction. “It can’t be!” He placed his hands to his mouth, an expression of feigned horror etched on his features. “Could it be that the great Rina, the one who always preaches non-stop about doing the right thing, was… spying ?!”
Taunting sarcasm oozed from his words as he spoke. Kili was clearly enjoying himself, if the positively shit-eating grin he had on his face was any indicator. He raised a hand to the heavens, exhaling a blatantly fake and overexaggerated gasp. “The horror! Such hypocrisy! Whatever would the masses think ?!”
“You can quit it with the theatrics now,” Rina shut her eyes, sighing incredulously at her sibling’s antics. “I did not come here to spy.” Technically not a lie, but she made sure to take a few steps away from the tavern window for good measure. Seeing Kili’s grinning face, she quickly made a few addendums to shut down any of his more errand thoughts. “Nor, for that matter, am I here to drink, or party, or dance, or any of that.”
Kili chuckled, lowering his outstretched hand. “Bah, you’re no fun at all. Anyone ever told you to lighten up before?”
A frown was his nonverbal reply to that, her body language doing all the talking for her.
There was an awkward silence for a bit before Kili coughed. “So, why are you really here, then?” He narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing her as suspicion crossed his face. “You’re not following me after what happened yesterday, are you?”
Rina crossed her arms at the accusation. She knew what he was referring to, and also why he’d think that. It wouldn't be too farfetched for him to assume that she was trying to pry.
Well, she was. Just not in the way he was thinking.
Kili had stormed off after a brief and emotional scuffle with their mother in the aftermath of the Leafharrow affair. He had looked worse for wear then, although to be fair, she hadn’t fared much better herself. Compared to his disheveled appearance then, he almost seemed well-groomed now. Maybe he was trying to forget the whole affair himself, trying to settle things back into the previous status quo.
But there was no going back now. Not with that gift of Light now in his hands.
“This meeting was by happenstance. We know you went home, but none of us were going to bother you after what you’ve been through.” Rina paused, gauging his reaction before she continued. “I didn’t even know that you’d be here of all places! It would have never crossed my mind that you’d have the audacity to even come back here after you’d gone and scammed those compatriots of yours!”
Kili at least had the decency to look sheepish, if for the briefest of moments. “Well… just so ya know, I wasn’t going to enter the place. Even if I managed to get off the hook in the end, they did inform me that they got me on a lifetime ban after all of that.”
She gave him an inquiring glance. “You seem oddly proud of such a feat.”
“Ha! It's not my fault that they couldn’t handle my awesomeness!” Kili jabbed a thumb back at himself with a flamboyant wink. “They had to ban me to stop my winning streak. How’s that for making a splash?”
“Don’t flatter yourself.” Rina snorted. “You got lucky that you didn’t have to pay them back in full, you know?”
Now that the conversation between them had devolved into quips, Rina ironically found herself feeling conflicted, unsure of how she should really feel. Beneath her composed exterior lay a complicated maelstrom of emotions. The verbal sparring almost made it feel like things had returned to normalcy — Kili acting like a degenerate who didn’t care about anything beyond getting on everyone’s nerves, he and Kai riling their victims up as a duo, so on and so forth.
But no, that wasn’t really true, now was it? If it were, then she wouldn’t even be here. If anything, him acting the same as he always did only served to accentuate the juxtaposition between what used to be the status quo, and the new normal that lay before them now.
For what it’s worth, it didn’t seem like she was the only one. Although Kili seemed cordial, Rina could sense that he was on edge. It was subtle, but she could spot some hints now that she was really looking. His body language was skittish, and he looked like he could flee at a moment’s notice. Maybe that was why he defaulted to immediately lashing out and cracking a joke?
Perhaps that was why she decided to probe him a bit more directly. “But hey. I’m here on business. What’s your excuse?”
Kili swayed from side to side, gently shifting his weight between his two hooves as he appeared deep in thought. “Hmmm. I was feeling a little nostalgic tonight, so I decided to pay a visit back to where my little adventure began.”
Rina tapped her hooves against the ground. That was an answer at least, if a little unsatisfying. “Just visiting?” She side-eyed a pair of moki who wandered their way past them on the main dirt road. “Not causing trouble?”
Kili flashed a cheeky expression which befitted his short, gremlin-y stature. “Didn’t promise.”
If looks could kill, Kili would have been struck down where he stood. For her part, Rina quailed in anger, biting back a harsh remark. Knowing Kili, he'd only spin it right back onto her. He might be a small little gremlin, but what he lacked in size, he made up for with factious impudence.
Okay, maybe using the term ‘small’ was a misnomer. She was taller than most, but she felt like taking it out on Kili today with a plethora of size-related insults.
Said spirit in question was probably able to sense her simmering anger, for Kili was quick to hold his hands out placatively. “Hey, hey. It was just a joke, chill.” His head flicked over to the right, furtively glancing at the tavern entrance. “Besides, it’s not like I can cause any trouble even if I wanted to. Got myself kicked out of there, remember?”
That was true. She supposed it made sense… on a superficial level, that is.
Just like how she didn’t stop by the tavern for fun, she found it hard to believe the same for Kili. “So you knew they banned you from the tavern, and yet here you are, just casually strolling past along the road?” Rina towered over Kili, trying to intimidate the other spirit into cowardice. “Sounds a little fishy, if you ask me.”
Kili wasn’t one to be cowed by her show of force, however. “Well, I would have preferred to be inside there instead of out here in the cold, but we can't all have what we want sometimes. Can’t even enjoy a game with… anyone…”
A wry grin crossed his face as he trailed off. “…wait just a moment.”
“I’m stopping you right there, Kili. I don't like that look in your eyes.”
Her gut instinct for brewing trouble turned out right on the mark. Undeterred by normal social conventions such as ‘stopping when you’re told’, Kili gave Rina a mock bow. It was certainly an ostentatious display meant to calm her nerves, one well suited to Kili’s demeanor, and yet it did nothing to quell the uneasy feeling in her stomach before he resumed his train of thought.
“Say, Rina,” Kili began, casually locking eyes with her as though he wasn’t about to say something completely outrageous, “while you’re here, why not make it count?” He clapped his hands together, playful eyes brimming with enthusiasm as he concluded with valor.
“…how about the two of us play a game of cards?”