"Mister Jolly, I need your help." Lirssa announced as she set her books on the table of the Teas 'n' Tomes and dropped herself into a chair. Her body was sideways, legs dangling over one arm of the chair while the opposite propped up her back. The usual time of her tutoring was near at hand, but she had come early just for this purpose. The tea shoppe was warm and cozy, just like studies she read about in fancy houses. Spices and the smell of tired leather sprinkled the air with an aristocratic aroma, and her tutor looked just like a character from a book — only he didn't wear glasses or smoke a pipe. The contradictions of those lacking elements brought a giggle that she dropped into a serious downturn of her mouth.

Jolyon had been reading through a book worn with age along its edges but the pristine white of the inside pages revealed it to be rarely used. When his pupil arrived, early instead of just on time, he was suspicious. Fortunately, unlike with so many others, this young lady did not hedge words or hide things. "What help is it you require, Lirssa" And please sit up in the chair properly."

"Not exactly for me," she started sitting up as requested. "It's for Mrs Sianna. Oh!" A recollection of the last night's conversation interrupted her train of thought. "Miss Juliane Smith says Hello. Did you know she's going to be married" I didn't. To some guy named Peredhil. He seems all right, I guess, but he's not got much spine."

"Lirssa," Jolyon gave a mild scold at the claim. "You do not even know the man, and yes I know Miss Smith and I know she is to be wed. I am heartily glad for the both of them, but you said this was to help Mrs Sianna Smith." While the Smith family and he had parted ways some months ago due to various requirements of time on both sides, he still had a mind to be of some help. The book was set aside and he focused on Lirssa.

It was not like she enjoyed being scolded, and with a sigh and roll of green eyes she nodded to accept the correction. "Right. Here's the thing, she's having babies, two of them at once. My mother did that, too, and I don't recommend it. Really made her tired. Anyway, her husband is gone — Mrs. Sianna's, not my mother's. He's off on some trip, I guess, because Miss Juliane said she talked herself hoarse at the spaceport trying to find things out. Never been to the spaceport myself, but sounds like she had a rough time. Also, seems that Mrs. Sianna's brother is missing at sea." It was hard not to say that Mr. Hudson Fraiser was dead, but she had made a promise not to say so.

The news took Jolyon in a way that young Lirssa probably had not predicted. "I did not know Hudson was lost as sea. Such grave news, and you are right to want to help Mrs. Sianna at this time." He thought of assisting as well, but he also thought of a friend, a close friend, who might not know the news — or who might, and it made his heart thump all the more in being apart from her.

"Gee, thanks, Mister Jolly, I'm glad you approve." Lirssa huffed and flopped back in the chair. She was sure her tutor was not being patronizing. No, he was wanting her to think more. He always gave those sort of non-comment comments when he wanted her to figure things out. "The thing is what to do' I mean, I don't want to add troubles to her, because me being a kid and all people seem to think they gotta look after me."

"I have learned otherwise."

"Yeah, well you're killer smart. Most folks don't. So, here's the thing, I'm thinking I can help her out and keep her company and stuff, but then I was thinking it would only take away what?s keeping her busy. Then all she'll have is time to sit there and stew about the misfortunes."

Jolyon was impressed by the girl's reasoning and smiled. Lirssa, he had come to learn, was a quick witted young lady. If she had been educated as he had from his early years, she might have been quite the intellect. As she was, there was still rough that he needed to polish away, and to do so forcefully was not the idea. She had to want it, and he had the time and patience to help her. "From my understanding, Mrs. Sianna is a musician and teaches music as well. Perhaps you could work a compromise with her."

If it was not one adult's troubles then it was another. This time, though, it was her own tutor. Lirssa had met Hamish only a few times, and she had liked him. He reminded her of Bubber, if a great deal more clean. He had a big barrel chest and thick arms that gave the best greeting hugs. Now he was gone, just like Bubber, and she knew Mister Jolly was going to be feeling poorly.

She also knew that he would keep his word. He was like that. In fact, she tried to keep friends with only those that kept their word. It was one thing Bubber had made sure was fact since first she could remember. One gives their word on something, they follow through. Mister Jolly would show up for their lesson. It was just who he was.

Unfortunately, other events that morning, particularly good performance in the Marketplace being one of those events, had her arriving just on time for their meeting instead of early like she had hoped. When she found him there, set up and ready as if nothing had changed for him except looking worn and weary, she felt all the anticipation of her plan plummet out of her.

"I'm sorry I'm late, Mister Jolly." She sat down, made sure to sit properly in fact, crossing her ankles. The bells of her outfit and in her hair made it impossible to sit quietly, but she was doing her best as she drew out books and tablets.

Jolyon felt how poorly he looked, but still managed a smile. "You are not late, Lirssa, and I see you are ready for the lesson."

"Well," Lirssa had to change her plan of attack, thinking quickly, she continued, "yes sir, I am, but I think maybe we should take a moment and talk about Mister Hamish, don't you? I know he was killer important to you. I mean, nobody forgets their first friend in a new place. Like my Bubber. I'll never forget him. Bet ya miss 'im. Mornings and late nights...the waking hour and the sleeping hour was always tough on me when he first went."

Struck completely mute by the girl's words and how true they rang. He gave a slow nod. After moments of letting her words draw up the feelings and wrapping them up tight to press down again, he spoke. "Yes, that is so. Hamish was my first friend here and my mentor. Those are hard to give up in our lives." His voice felt hollow, distant, as if he spoke without the thoughts to drive them, though the thoughts were obviously there.

The words sent a shiver down Lirssa's spine. "You aren't leaving are you, Mister Jolly?"

He had not realized what his words might sound like to her, and he blinked and reached to pat her arm. "No, no, Lirssa. I am sorry. You cannot be rid of me so easily."

A puff of breath, most unladylike, escaped her and she flopped back against the back of the chair. "Oh, good." Instantly corrected herself though, jingling the bells of her outfit, and sat up straight again. "Well, you know you can talk to me about it any time. I may not be really good at understanding everything, but I've been there lots."

Yes, he thought, she probably had seen more than her fair share of death. He wondered a moment if it had become so second nature to her that she could really embody the concept that death was a part of life. It was not time to ask or question, but of one thing he was certain, she knew.

"Come on then, it is time I teach you a few things. Let us explore the world of physics. Open your book, please."

"Are you sure, Mister Jolly' This can wait to another day if you want to talk more," she asked while she dutifully drew out the book he had requested and flipping it open.

He smiled as she did as he asked. "Thank you, Lirssa. Perhaps another time. Right now, I need to help you to the next lesson." And they began to work. He recognized her progress, watched her puzzle through concepts and turn a few concepts on their heads. It gave him a bit of his joy back.

The walk through the city and to Rumor's Mill gave Johnny plenty of time to mull over Lirssa's situation. Val had finally confessed to once again running into Lirssa in the Marketplace " he was almost defiant as he told Johnny about the encounter two days after the fact. Half of the defiance had been to fend off the clear hurt for Lirssa's rejection. When Val described her tattered condition, Johnny's concern had grown deeper; there was no more delaying the visit to Jolyon.

The villa and its grounds had been walked and tended as required in the brush of the cool morning. Alastair and his wife had traveled into town for some necessary shopping for groceries, leaving Jolyon to his studies, and no little brooding, in his study.

A comfortable study, by no means grand, but its walls were lined with bookshelves and full of all manner of item along with the treasure of books. Odd bits here and there used as bookends or just set along with papers upon those shelves. The furniture was warm in its tone of leather upholstered cushions in the singular high back chair, a worn couch, and the seat the professor currently occupied that sat behind the desk.

He was curled over one of the shards of pottery he brought back with him from the dig, reviewing the glyphs and pictographs barely holding their grasp upon the vessel.

Taking the broad steps to the front door, Johnny bypassed the knocker in favor of pounding with his fist. It was a mild release of frustration, just enough to put him in a presentable frame of mind. Silver-meshed hands drove into his pockets as he waited for an answer. The clean scent of the air away from the city and the well-tended vineyard were soothing, peaceful.

An amused snort of laughter interrupted his own train of thought, and he muttered to himself as he turned back to face the door. "Take th' boy off th' farm, righ". C"mon, Jolyon, where ya a?""

The pounding at the door only served to intensify Jolyon's brooding that released in a growl. "By the...Alastair!" he yelled for the steward to tend his duties.

It was not a moment later, however, that he recalled he was alone in the house. Even the dogs had gone a roaming along the vineyards. With a snarl he pushed back his chair sharply. Wood against tile of the study, carpet in that room reserved for the seating in front of the desk not behind it, sent a sharp rebuttal to his brutish action.

"Just a moment!" He wondered what poor wayward traveler had wandered to his doorstep this time, and thinking it the most likely person to be out this way, tried to get his manners in order before he opened the door. His greeting sent before the door was fully open. "Yes?"

"Nice ta see ya too, bro." Johnny's retort to the sharp inquiry was delivered with good humor. He'd caught the edges of Jolyon's shouting through the house, and his chin lifted in an up-nod of greeting. "Go' some time ta spare or are ya tied up" "S abou" Lirssa."

Johnny rocked back slightly on his heels as he studied the other man's slightly rumpled appearance " hair a little wild, as if the scholar had been running his hands through it; dark circles shadowing his eyes. A slight frown of concern crossed Johnny's face.

A twist to his belly, combination of guilt at answering the door so sharply and compounded by the man's reason for visiting. "Of course, do come in." He motioned with one hand as he pulled the door open further. "Have you seen her then?"

Jolyon spared a glance outside, and not seeing any sort of transportation, he queried further. "Walked the way did you? That does not bode well." He gave a nod towards the study, which from the foyer was down the hall just a little to the right and the open door on the left.

Jolyon nodded slow as he looked down to the floor at his feet. "I do not doubt it. I do not doubt that she would say just as much, but I also wonder if she may not be right on that count. She has lived her longest of us all, and I do wonder what has set her to such a state as this." He wondered indeed just what it could be. "Could it be she is right?" He looked upwards, his head barely moved. It was a shameful reality that he was ill prepared to rescue his young friend.

"And if she is right, what do we do' Leave her to it' It would not be on my list of choices. So, do you agree the first thing is to not see if we can track down young Lirssa and induce her to share these burdens against what she considers her better judgment?"

"Ain" leavin" her ta herself, tha's fer sure. We're trackin" on th' same course abou" findin" her and gettin" her ta share " no' sure how ta go abou" tha", though. Like I said, we were goin" ta try an' sen" her an' invite ta stop by our place fer dinner an' ta visit th' twins like she's been promisin" " bu' now" How d"ya sen" an invite when ya can't find her?" Another frustrated sigh escaped Johnny.

A chuckle born of sympathetic frustration maintained his smile. "Where would you think a young self proclaimed patron saint of the street children would be found" A visit to High Spires, the largest of her fosterling houses is in order. I will leave a message there. Any street urchin might be able to help us as well, and none too few are found around the Marketplace." A man of organizing plans, he had several ideas that he presented to his new found cohort in this endeavor. "As to what the note would say, one must always bargain with Lirssa, particularly adults. As you said before, it seems this Minstrel Man learned that lesson swiftly enough and used it against her. So shall we. What do we have that she would want other than our distance from this mire of difficulties she has found for herself?" He started to take stock of possible answers himself.

"There's a puzzle." One that Johnny took seriously. He pushed away from his lean against the bookcase to resume pacing around the room. "She doesn" really look fer things fer herself " more fer th' res"a th' kids aroun". Tha' line, I know I could take on a" leas" one more fer trainin", pro'lly Si could do th' same " been talkin" over signin" on as foster paren's anyway, tha' wouldn" be a leap."

Absently Johnny pulled a small lump of bronze from his back pocket and started turning it over and over between his fingers as he paced. The metal warped and shifted in his grip as easily as clay. "Bigger scale " if"n we can ge" t"gether th' fundin", maybe look inta another place like High Spires" Fixin" it up an all?" He was tossing out ideas as they occurred to him.

The offerings of Johnny took him quite aback. "By the....would that it were possible in such a short amount of time. I think you have your hands full as it is. I do recall Val from a time or two ago, and a missing piece of amber from a merchant if I recall the moment correctly." A pointed look on that count that was softened with a slow release of breath. "I fear that time is not on our side either. She sent two notes before, but I did not receive one today about her missing the lesson. Something smaller but with the same impact. Something or someone she must react or respond to. I would ask of Jess, one of her favorites, but from my understanding that child has suffered enough and need not add this to distress her. Lirssa certainly would not forgive me for that one."

He rubbed at his forehead. "What of one of us?"

Absently Johnny responded to Jolyon's comment about Val first. "Th' boy's been tryin" hard since he's been with us an' no' a bit"a trouble ta him." But he waved off that discussion for another time. "Tha's bad, tha' she din" send a note t'day. No' sure I'm followin" yer train"a though", though. Wha" abou" one of us?"

His brow furrowed in further consideration of the barely forming plan. "Lirssa is very protective of people, typically children, but she has her favorites among the adults as well. Instead of torturing some child, who no doubt has suffered enough, into playing along with a ruse to coax Lirssa out of hiding, what if an adult she was fond of became inexplicably ill or in trouble" If that were to get to her, she may come to call." It was a formative idea with several 'ifs' hampering it, but he cast it out for consideration, and looked to the fellow molding the bronze piece for his thoughts.

"Ah, shiny, I follow ya now. Sianna said she was good abou" visitin" when I was gone." Johnny nodded slowly, still pushing the little piece of bronze back and forth through his fingers. "An?" well, this don' feel hardly righ", bu' Si's still no' all th' way ta healthy, really. Takin" meds fer her blood pressure, an' she has ta be careful abou" some thin's. Easy enough ta say tha' Si pushed too hard "r somethin", tha' she's taken a bad turn."