"How is she?"
I asked the moment Mary arrived.
"I think she's fine."
Mary pulled out a chair and sat down, settling into it with a small sigh.
"You think?" I pressed.
"Well, I'm not entirely sure." She paused, thinking back. "She seemed a little annoyed, but overall, she looked alright. We talked for a bit."
I handed her a cup of tea.
"Maybe I should have gone to see her too," I muttered.
I remembered the rather gruesome state we'd found her in before Mary had gone looking for her. Seeing someone like that tended to stick with you.
Mary seemed about to say something, but her attention dropped to the paper she was holding.
"Ah."
She looked at the letter again.
"I need to mail this letter and pick up some tea."
She paused, then looked at me.
"Want to come with?"
I looked up from my desk.
"Can I?"
My eyes shifted toward Nicholas.
He had been sitting nearby, going through different documents relating to the Age of Gods. At the moment, however, his nose was buried in a book, his attention apparently elsewhere.
"Yes, we can take Nicholas' car."
Mary was already getting up.
She glanced toward Nicholas.
"We are taking your car so we can run some errands. Where's the key?"
Nicholas didn't look up from his book.
"Over there."
He reached for the keys and handed them to her.
"Buy me some baozi, passion pineapple, and some bread."
"Okay."
Mary tucked the keys away.
"And rum punch for me. Also, Megumi is coming along."
That finally got my attention.
Mary and Nicholas both looked at me.
"Alright."
Nicholas returned to what he was doing as if nothing particularly important had happened.
"Come on, let's go."
Mary reached down and took my hand.
I let her pull me along.
"It's seems Sadako is still busy. You know what she'd like, so we'll get that. Nakamura would like some cashews and chocolate."
She continued talking as we made our way outside.
A short while later, we were in the car.
"First off, the restaurant," Mary announced as she closed her door.
I settled into the seat and looked through the window.
The streets moved past us as Mary drove. People filled the sidewalks, coming and going beneath the afternoon light. Carriages passed alongside the road, their wheels rattling against the street, while the occasional automobile slipped through the flow of traffic.
I watched them for a while.
There was something oddly relaxing about simply sitting there.
"Where did you learn how to drive?" I asked after a while.
"Hmm?"
Mary kept her eyes on the road.
"Back home."
I blinked.
Then I realized I didn't actually know where she was from.
"Oh?"
I shifted slightly in my seat.
"If you don't mind my asking, where are you from?"
"Hmm."
She considered the question.
"I'm from Mercato."
Then she laughed when she looked at me.
"It's a city in Argento."
I nodded.
Only then did I realize that my statement—I don't know where she's from—had apparently taken on another meaning.
Mary glanced at me.
"How about you?"
The car slowed and came to a stop.
"Sadako is from Twin Spirit Province. Mùlín, to be exact."
We stepped out of the car.
"I haven't heard of that city," Mary mused as we started toward the restaurant. "So you and Sadako are from there?"
The errands took a little while.
By the time we had finished buying everything else, Mary stopped at another counter.
"A box of spirit tea, turmeric and ginger blend, please."
The employee prepared the tea.
Then came the price.
"1,101 yen for a box of tea?"
I stared at the package.
The employee glanced at me.
Mary calmly reached into her purse.
I looked away.
Maybe I had reacted a little too loudly.
"The tea was almost the same price as everything else," I said once we were back in the car.
Mary placed the purchases beside her.
"Why is it so expensive, though?"
As she started the car, the smell of pastries drifted through the air from somewhere nearby.
"Well, Spirit tea, as you people would call it, is rather expensive."
She kept her eyes on the road.
"Are they different in some ways?"
She nodded.
"But I don't know how exactly."
That answer did little to satisfy my curiosity.
"Next, we have to mail this letter."
We took another road.
The buildings gradually changed as we moved farther from the restaurant.
"You could also find things like this at the fair," Mary explained.
We eventually stopped so she could mail the letter.
"The fair?"
I looked at her.
The idea caught me a little off guard.
I still didn't really know what Spirit tea was, and now apparently there was an entire fair where things like it could be found.
Mary finished what she needed to do and returned to the car.
"Alright, let's go."
She started the engine.
Then, as though remembering something she had meant to mention earlier, she added,
"Oh, about being a cultist. The correct term, I believe, is Eldritch-touched, not cultist."
I looked at her.
"Eldritch-touched."
The term sat strangely in my mind. "Better wording at this point did not seem to have that much of a change."
Mary continued driving.
I turned toward the window again.
The thought of learning how to drive crossed my mind.
I wonder if I could learn too.
When we arrived at the hospital the sun was looking less cheerful. We spent some time there and she did look much better when I saw her.
By the time we returned from the hospital, the sun was already beginning to set.
The breeze had picked up, making the evening air cooler against my skin.
I watched through the window as the street lamps began to come on one by one.
Their light stretched across the roads as the last of the daylight faded.
For a while, neither of us said anything.
The city simply carried on around us.
People walked home.
Carriages rolled past.
The lamps continued to brighten as evening settled in.
And somewhere beside me sat the thought of a box of tea that had somehow cost 1,101 yen.