Hannah glanced at the letters in Silva's hand. She recognized most of the senders, one from the butchery- probably a bill for stocking the Lodestone with this week's smoked meats and jerky. The rest were from personal clients scattered around Valle, even one with Spirit Town labeled in swooping, thin writing. Hannah pointed it out, drawing her grandmother's attention to the mail herself.

"We don't get many customers from that neighborhood," Hannah said knowingly.

Silva looked at the envelope. It was a deep burgundy, the paper thick, covered in a fancy wax. It wasn't like the denizens of Spirit Town to send a letter through the mail. Their distaste for the striders meant that their usual mode of communication was directly in person.

"I'm not so sure about this being a job." Silva said dryly, leaning against one of the sturdy posts supporting the Lodestone's verandah. Hannah looked again, and after a moment, realization dawned.

"It's about Fela again, isn't it?"

Silva nodded, and Hannah noticed how the shift in conversation had already deepened the lines that framed the features of her mother's face.

"Are you still pushing for her to leave?" Hannah pressed further, but the resulting confirmation wasn't a verbal one. Silva simply looked away, the usual rebuke absent.

"You know it isn't like that. These people... I want her to live, learn from those who are more like Fela, and less like us. Just for a little bit, a way for her to connect to her roots. We can give her all the love and support in the world, but she needs to learn."

Hannah breathed in the scent of fresh bread, tried to bite back a response- and failed.

"It's never been an issue before, has it? She's my sister. You- and they-they'd be tearing our family apart! Doesn't that matter for anything?"

Silva glanced over, and gave a low chuckle. "Don't think for a second that I'm giving her up. I didn't raise that girl for years just to toss away my best mechanic. It would be a waste of an investment." She smiled, chuckling, but the lines never left her face.

Reluctantly, Hannah let the matter go, and the two of them stood in silence, watching the bustle of the morning. The shadows slowly lengthened, the sun moving lazily across the sky. Silva looked back down at the envelope, running her thumb across the surface. It was a decision made from careful observation, from the knowing gaze of parent to child. Fela needed answers, a perspective that was currently out of reach. And so, whether she knew it or not, Silva was going to give it to her.

Hannah startled awake, dozing on her feet. The dull thuds grew louder, and Silva closed the book she was flipping through to watch the strider turn the corner down the street. Even from afar, this model was clearly different than the earlier one, a sleeker, more streamlined shape. With nothing but a subtle hiss of hydraulics, the strider came to a stop outside the Lodestone. There was no mail courier this time; the cockpit and body was solid iron-black, the legs shaped by elegant curves and cleverly-hidden pneumatics. This cockpit was open-air as well, and small in size- the pilot and her passenger were squeezed in close. It was clearly meant for one person, but they somehow managed to make it work. Looking closer, the plating of the strider was marred by visible pocks and dents, and the entire front had streaks of what appeared to be mud. It was clear to Hannah, just by looking, that this luxury strider, built to carry the wealthy through smooth city streets, had just romped its way through the wilderness.

Not too bad a performance from it though, considering.

The side hatch slid down, but there was no ladder for this luxury machine. A neat set of stairs unfolded from a hidden compartment, and clicked into place.

Basil and Fela stared from the top, down at a suddenly furious Silva.

Basil stumbled down first, his long limbs clumsily scaling the steep stairs. Rather than looking Silva in the eyes, he hid himself behind a sheet of black hair that escaped in tufts from his helmet. Fela stepped down about halfway, then leapt down to the ground. When Silva turned her attention to her, she stared right back, giving the woman a blatant look of defiance. Unlike Basil, she wasn't wearing a helmet- the protrusion that emerged from her flame-red hair had a merry little fire that would have melted right through.

Silva looked at the human boy and the spirit girl in front of her, and decided that there wasn't nearly enough bashfulness going around. All fired up, she strode right up to the both of them, ready to unleash a storm of berating. Basil immediately began to flinch, squirming in place.

"Silva, I'm sorry! Really!" He held his hands out in a placating gesture.

"It's one thing to take our strider out without permission Basil, but potentially ruining a job is something else entirely. I can't believe you had the nerve to pull something like this off! We have a reputation to uphold at the Lodestone, you know."

Hannah chose not to cut in and mention that they were the only mechanical servicer in Valle- there really wasn't much of a choice.

Anyway, she really wanted to see them squirm a little after leaving her behind.

Basil opened his mouth, but Fela cut him off.

"It was my idea." The flame on her head sparked slightly, giving off a thin line of smoke.

Silva narrowed her eyes.

"Really, now? You know, I expect this from Basil, the damn airhead."

He looked absolutely miserable.

She continued, "but coming from you? Lately, you've been doing some pretty reckless things, hmm? Ignoring jobs, disappearing," she gestured to the strider. "Joyrides, too. There's something up with you."

Fela crossed her arms, staying silent. Hannah watched, however, as her eyes drifted down to Silva's hands- and the envelope still clutched in them.

The air seemed to go still, holding its breath.

Fela snatched it before Silva could react. She turned away, and the flame on her head crackled, leaping higher. Clutched in her hands, the little slip began to smolder, sending wisps of smoke out to join her own. Fela's scowl deepened, and as she focused her attention on the paper, true tongues of fire began to crawl out from between her fingers. There was little more than ash left in a matter of seconds.

Hannah stood there, rattled. That moment seemed unreal, unlike anything she had come to expect from her sister. The compulsive destruction, the look on Fela's face- not quite disgust, but a twisted snarl that spoke to anger instead... a look that a stray animal would give when backed into a corner. It was contrary to Fela's coolheaded persona in every way, a violation of her natural state.

If Silva shared the same shock, she chose not to show it. She stepped closer to Fela, leaving Hannah clutching the chair behind her like a life preserver.

"They're still asking you?" Fela's voice took on a dead, flat tone. "You didn't tell me."

"I didn't want you to overthink things. Get nervous" Silva watched the remnants of the ash settle onto the ground. "But it looks like you overreacted anyway."

"Of course I did! You don't think I don't think about these things every day? Even if I'm the only spirit in this family, did you think I would agree? Drop everything here and go live my life out with some strangers, a group of people who don't know me?"

Silva was quiet. "I wanted to let you choose yourself."

"But you never asked me! You've been acting like nothing was wrong for weeks now."

They both stood there in a precarious moment of silence. Hannah looked over at Basil who looked ready to bolt from the scene at any moment. Glancing back then back at the two of them, her mind raced to for a memory, something to compare the present to, but the tension between Silva and Fela had never felt this thick.

After all, Fela wasn't a human. And for that matter, Hannah wasn't the biological daughter of Silva either. They were both strays, adopted and taken in, taught how to work with machines, and given a family to cherish. But while Hannah's upbringing would be viewed as a sad story turned right, Fela's situation was unheard of, an exception in Valle. A human taking in and raising a spirit? There was a subtle apprehension that surrounded the idea. Their rhythms of life, their culture and values- humans and spirits lived together, but they lived together in patterns far removed from each other. But while culture can be transcended, there was very little human understanding of the unique and mysterious powers of the spirits.

Still, when humans and spirits saw Fela living above the Lodestone, it was a worry they felt, not a fear, or sense of anger. There were those in Spirit Town who simply felt that Fela was missing an integral part of her life: the cultural connections, sure, but more an understanding of her abilities, and how to nurture them. Silva's reasoning made sense, but the problem itself wasn't a rational one. It came from the irrational, emotional fear that's created when a family is pushed apart.