The two twins stood entirely frozen, staring at each other for several long, agonizing seconds as the bustling city street moved on obliviously around them. It was as if time itself had suspended. Finally, Mae broke the suffocating silence.
"What are you doing here? Why are you here?" she demanded, her eyes narrowing sharply at her younger identical twin. Her tone was a complicated, jagged mix of harshness, intense annoyance, and deep-seated confusion—an emotion too tangled to easily put into words.
The sharp edge of her voice snapped Zee out of her paralyzed state. She shook her head slightly, letting out a small, uncertain breath. "I... no. I already knew you were here. I knew there was a chance I would run into you, but... I was really hoping not to," she muttered, though Mae's sensitive ears easily picked up every word.
"Let me guess? You three passed through the exact same border checkpoint as us?" Mae asked, though she quickly waved a dismissive hand before her sister could even answer. "Whatever. I don't care about that. I asked you a question." Her critical gaze swept over the group, shifting from Zee, to Larkin, then to Ercale, before snapping sharply back to her twin. "Where's Nori? Don't tell me you abandoned him just to come looking for Xain, as if he would ever accept that," she sneered, actively trying to lace her words with harsh venom.
Before Zee could formulate a reply, Larkin stepped up, his tone defensive. "We brought him with us. He's safe back at the steamstrider."
Mae clicked her tongue in obvious irritation. "So you turned that hunk of junk into a wandering medical bay, huh? Stupid machine. I should have taken out one of its wheels when we passed it," she remarked bitterly.
Zee took a desperate, pleading step forward, her hands raising slightly. "What do you know? What have you found out about him?" she asked, her voice cracking with a desperate hope.
That raw desperation made a brief, painful wave of weakness wash over Mae's chest, but she ruthlessly crushed the feeling instantly, hardening her expression.
"Find out for yourself. I'm not helping you," Mae said coldly. "I said what I said a month ago, and I still believe that wholeheartedly."
Without waiting for a response, she shoved her way past them, aggressively resuming her fast-paced walk down the street.
"Hey, wait a second!" Li called out in distress, forced to break into a jog yet again as he hurried to catch up with the furious elf, slipping awkwardly past Zee and the others.
"You're... really going to do this?" Zee called out to Mae's retreating back. Her voice was incredibly quiet, choked with a raw, agonizing sorrow.
The devastated sound of it made Mae stop dead in her tracks. For a terrible, breathless second, her vision grew blurry with unshed tears, and her hands began to tremble violently at her sides. But she aggressively swallowed the heavy lump in her throat, quickly wiping her eyes before anyone could notice. She forced her legs to carry her forward, moving as fast as she could, knowing deep down that if she stayed around for even a second longer—if she heard her younger twin's voice speak even one more word—she would completely and utterly break down.
Zee stood frozen, helplessly watching her sister's retreating form as she disappeared down the bustling street, with poor Li still desperately struggling to keep up. A choked, painful gasp escaped Zee's lips. She raised a trembling hand, quickly wiping away a stray tear that managed to fall.
Larkin stepped closer, gently resting a heavy, comforting hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry about it, Zee. I'm sure she's strugglin' just as much as we are with all of this," he tried to assure her.
His quiet comfort seemed to work, at least a little. Zee gave a small, fragile nod, though she didn't trust herself to actually say anything in response.
Ercale, meanwhile, had completely tuned out the emotional family drama. He stood perfectly still nearby, his eyes squeezed shut in deep concentration as he reached out with his senses, trying to lock onto a familiar presence in the crowded city. After a tense moment, his eyes snapped open and he let out a heavy, frustrated sigh.
"Damn it. He's not here. He must have already left," he grumbled.
Zee and Larkin finally turned their attention away from the street to look at him.
"We have to find out exactly where he's headed. Come on, let's get to the stables that merchant said he watched him walk towards," Ercale added, wasting no time as he immediately pivoted and began marching down the road.
Taking a deep, shuddering breath in and slowly letting it out, Zee steadied her frayed nerves and hurried to follow him. Larkin lingered for just a second longer, casting one last, solemn look in the exact direction Mae had vanished. He slowly shook his head in quiet dismay before falling into step behind the others, the reunion between the two twins amounting to nothing more than a profoundly saddening encounter.