"Right! You can explain your abilities to the hegins, I need to make some sketches!" Marianne's eyes sparkled like emeralds as she simply sat down on the ground and pulled a sketchbook from her small side bag.
"I still don't understand how anything stays on those pages down here." Benkó said, shaking his head with a heavy sigh, but his question only prompted the world's most famous tailor to turn toward him with a broad grin.
"Undersea-walker magic." She chuckled, then turned back to her sketchbook and began to draw. Citar sat down curiously beside her, watching in amazement as she worked.
"How can you draw it so precisely? I can barely see it myself!" The Bolacsuk boy squinted, trying to spot the spiral shell the tailor was currently sketching.
"Lots of practice." The woman shrugged. "And it doesn't hurt that my eyesight is better than most people's." She gave a casual wave with the hand holding her drawing tool.
"Oh, I see." Citar nodded, then continued to watch her in silence.
"So, the undersea-walker abilities..." Matthias began. True to form, he was staring off into the distance with his arms crossed, as if seeing something beyond the colorful outlines.
"Yes! What kind of abilities do you have?" Asked Benkó enthusiastically. Although he had previously joked about underwater breathing being the undersea-walkers ability, he was secretly very curious about their true powers.
"This is a rather complicated question. We each have a different abilities." The world-famous blacksmith sighed. "Some people never discover what theirs is. Others find out as small children, while some only realize it in adulthood." He shrugged. "And before you ask, these abilities aren't a special form of soul magic like yours." he said, glancing at the hegins.
"But if it isn't kí, then what could it be?" Achilleus asked, scratching his head with a grimace.
"For me, it's forging. For Mukei, it's tracking. Some have superior sight or hearing, others can carve stone, paint, or weave with uncanny ease." The man, who looked like a young boy, explained. "These abilities are hard to spot because, if someone puts enough time into an activity, they can reach that same level on their own. The only difference between a true ability and simply being talented is that, with an ability, it's as if you have years of experience behind you the very first time you try it."
"So, you just start out with an advantage in something?" Benkó grimaces, though he doesn't say it aloud, his face clearly betrays his disappointment. He had expected something a bit more mystical, not something so simple.
"You could put it that way." Matthias remarks indifferently.
"But if that's all the ability amounts to, why did it have to be hidden?" Suk blinks in bewilderment, one hand resting on his hip while the other scratches his head. To his great surprise, however, his question is met at first only with a chuckle.
"Back in my youth, life in the undersea-walkers followed a very rigid structure. If your parents were bakers, you became a baker, and so did your children. If they were tailors, you became a tailor. Trades were passed down within families. So, it's no wonder someone might hide it if, say, they were a baker but could also carve stone." The man explains, his face revealing nothing. He speaks as casually as if describing the sun's daily journey across the sky.
"So, was your family a line of blacksmiths, Matthias?" Kamu asks, prompting the man to look up at him suspiciously.
"I thought you'd looked into my background after I settled in Floating Barracks." The blacksmith remarks, then heaves a deep sigh. "No, they weren't blacksmiths. Everyone in my family was a merchant. We traveled the ocean depths extensively and sometimes even the surface. It was during my first journey to the surface that I saw a blacksmith for the first time, and my life changed from that moment on." The man said with a smile.
"If everyone's role was so strictly defined, how did you become a blacksmith?" Achilleus asked.
"I'd guess he ran away from home." Rahul suggested with a shrug.
"Close enough." The Floating Barracks' blacksmith agreed.
"Close enough?" Razvan asked, tilting his head to the side.
"Exactly." Matthias nodded. "At first, I did run away from home so I could learn the trade." He recounted. "Then my father caught me." A shadow fell across the young-looking man's face. "He disowned me. I had to leave home." He paused for a moment, then closed his eyes. "And I vowed never to return here again." He said calmly, though his features suddenly softened. With a gentle smile, he turned toward the tailor, who was still sketching. "But I can't say no to Annie." At the sound of her name, the tailor looked up and turned toward her husband, blinking in surprise.
"Did you say something, darling?" The woman asked, but the blacksmith simply shook his head.
"Nothing, Annie dear. Just keep sketching! I'd hate for you to lose your inspiration." He stepped over to her side and planted a quick kiss on the top of the tailor's head.
"I love you." She whispered, her gaze filled with happiness and affection.
"I love you, too. More than anything in the world." Matthias replied. Then, stepping away from his wife and shaking off the moment, he turned back to the group. "So, really, that's all there is to know about the abilities. There's nothing strange about them." He said with a shrug, steering the conversation back to the original topic. "Does anyone else have questions?" The young-looking man asked.
"I do!" Wandi raised his hand.
"Go ahead." The blacksmith nodded, but the danovus merely took a deep breath.
"Actually, this question is for all of you." He said slowly. "If I understood correctly, you are a predator." He said, looking seriously at Mittar, who nodded once. "And you are an undersea-walker, right?" He asked, turning to the younger Mullen boy.
"That's right." Mukei shrugged, using the exact same gesture Marianne made whenever the young ones got on her nerves.
"In your family, undersea-walkers don't like the sea, but predators do, is that it?" Wandi continued.
"That's about it, right." Matthias agreed.
"All right. Then I have two more questions." The danovus began. "If you aren't an undersea-walker, why do undersea-walkers listen to you?" He asked, gesturing toward Mittar. "And if you avoid the seas, then what is it you actually do?" The two Mullen boys exchanged glances, then burst out laughing.
"Don't make that face, Wandi. I don't think any of us understands what's so funny about it." Said Citar, shrugging with his arms spread wide. He had immediately turned his attention to the conversation, away from Marianne, the moment the danovus spoke.
"It's just that we always get asked that question whenever someone finds out what we are." Mittar said, wiping his eyes, he had laughed so hard he'd started to tear up.
"Far more often than necessary." The youngest Mullen said, rolling his eyes.