Book 2 Chapter 63

The exhibition match was in two days and Willow was practicing in her room with Xandra under the watchful and ever curious eyes of Miss Mu.

Technically there was a parade and small festival going on outside to celebrate the arrival of the Li clan’s representatives, but Jimena was busy with work and neither mentor or apprentice wanted to brave the busy streets so the two of them were staying indoors.

She’d gotten better at dealing with crowds to an extent, but Willow still wasn’t a fan of them. She’d much rather stay home and practice, or play with her spirit friends or Jimena in a more subdued setting.

So for a day like today she was planning to stay safely hidden in her room and try not to stress herself out about the coming fight.

The duo were then quite surprised when there was a knock on the door.

The muffled voice of one of the attendants came through the door. “Master Mu, there’s a visitor asking for you and your apprentice.”

That was rare, most people only asked for Miss Mu. Which made the both of them worried it was someone from the Li clan coming around to harass them.

“Did they say who they were?” Mu asked, still through the door. It was probably for safety reasons, but Willow felt that it was rude to not even open the door for them.

“She looked to be a courier of some sort so I was expecting a delivery, not an introduction. I think she said her name was Maple?”

Willow darted from her spot, with Xandra following close behind. She barged past the confused attendant and charged downstairs before tackling the familiar figure in the lobby with a hug.

She gave her a greeting that she hadn’t said in far too long. “Hiya sissy!”

Maple chuckled after recovering from the shock of being hit by a child-sized missile. “Heya little gnome.”

Willow’s reflection spirit hovered around the reunited sisters, shifting to an image of the two hugging.

Their embrace lasted until Miss Mu came down the stairs to the main room at a much more sedate pace.

“Is this a social call, or did something happen to my property?” The wanderer woman asked with a tinge of humor.

The question made Willow disentangle from her sister because she was equally curious about the answer. She was definitely happy to see her, but why had she come so far from their new home?

Maple laughed. “It’s a social call. Got promoted to deal with inter-city deliveries since my skill set is well suited for it. Decided to take the opportunity to try and visit you two since I knew you were in Acerorazon.”

She glanced out the window that faced the currently bustling streets. “Honestly I was worried that you’d be out taking part in the festivities.”

Willow shook her head. “Too crowded out there. Besides, I need to practice more. Got an important fight coming up.”

Maple looked at her sister with concern. “Aren’t you still too young to be taking part in fights?”

Mu sighed, letting out a cloud of smoke. “We probably shouldn’t be talkin’ about this out here, come on up to my room. We can order some food if you haven’t eaten yet.”

Willow heard her sister’s stomach rumble at the mention of food.

“That… would be nice.”

After moving the conversation to their shared room and having food be brought in, the group continued their talk over lunch with Xandra shifting between the forms of the three of them.

“So what’s this about a fight? I thought she wouldn’t be involved in stuff like that until she was older?”

Mu snorted around a mouthful of bread. “It wasn’t my idea, the girly got into this mess all on her own. Well… technically she was dragged into it by her martial instructor, but I gave her an out.”

“I don’t want him getting in trouble because of me!” Willow puffed herself up, indignant.

“Mati shouldn’t make his family business your problem.”

Willow perked up at the confirmation of her suspicions, but decided not to pull at that particular thread of conversation. She wouldn’t want people digging into stuff about her own family.

Which actually reminded her of something her sister would likely be interested in.

“Oh, Maple! Miss Mu apparently met our Grandma a while ago!”

Her face lit up in equal parts hope and concern. “Grandma Lucy survived the attack? Is she all right?”

Willow winced, of course her sister would think about the grandmother that she’d actually met instead of the one on their mother’s side.

“Not that grandmother, unfortunately.” Miss Mu thankfully intervened. “I could put out feelers if you feel there’s a chance they survived? There might be some record with the Wanderers if some of your old neighbors called on us to investigate what happened to them.”

Maple was noticeably disappointed by that news, the light of hope dying as quickly as it had been kindled.

“Ah, I should’ve known better than to get my hopes up. If it wouldn’t be too much trouble I would like that confirmation, but from what I remember it’s less than likely either of them lived.”

“Sorry sissy, I didn’t think that would upset you so much…” Willow apologized, not realizing that bringing up what she thought of as happy or interesting news would bring down the mood of their reunion so quickly.

Her sister shook her head. “It’s fine Willow, no real harm was done. Just opened some old wounds. So how did you meet the matriarch of House Petros?”

Willow noted that Maple didn’t refer to her as their grandmother, which she supposed made sense if she viewed her as one of the main causes for their family’s woes.

“Well, first of all, she’s a matriarch no longer. After what happened to your mother and uncle she left her husband and went into hidin’. As I told your sister she was apparently quite furious at the measures taken to bring your mother back into the fold. Said somethin’ about the wrong brother being sent to talk to her, but I’ll be honest and say I wasn’t payin’ too close attention to the reasonin’ of why she was in her current situation.”

Maple frowned. “There’s a part of me that wishes I could confront her myself. Not that any of her excuses would help.”

Miss Mu drummed her fingers on the table, clearly debating something internally. Eventually she let out a great sigh.

“So I was gonna leave this as a surprise for your sister, but I was plannin’ on takin’ her over to where your Gran was stashed and potentially enlist her help in teachin’ Willow how to use Earth qi. If you want to tag along for such a trip then you’re welcome to. Though I’m unsure how she’d react to either of you.”

Maple grew still before letting out a sigh of her own.

“Can you give me some time to think about it?”

Mu shook her head. “We’ll be leavin’ directly after her fight since we’ll probably need to lay low for a time after it.”

Her sister’s brows scrunched together. “Why would you have to lay low after a fight? I assumed this was going to be some sort of official thing.”

Willow’s mentor chuckled. “Oh it’s an official bout all right. Your sister managed to get roped into an exhibition match with the young miss of the Li clan.”

From the look Maple was giving her, Willow knew that she was going to be in for a long day of worried scolding.

Still, she was happy to have family here with her. If this was the price she had to pay for it, then she gladly paid it.