Love Will Find Out the Way

It’s been a long time since Azu has been to Cairo, let alone the Tahan house—not since she got back from Rome. She’s both excited and dreading it a little.

She relaxes a little when she realizes that the route from the dock where the Venge is tied up to the street where the Temple of Aphrodite sits hasn’t really changed since she first walked it almost ten years ago. Azu excitedly rambles to Cel about the streets, and some of her memories of them—fuzzy though they may be—but trails off when they draw near where the Temple is. Or rather, was. It looks mostly the same, but the sign on it declares it to be simply the Heart of Healing.

“Oh,” she says quietly.

“What’s wrong, Azu?” Kiko asks.

“Nothing,” Azu says uncertainly. She looks again, and, yes, it’s the same building. Probably it serves the same function. “They’ve changed the name, that’s all. I wasn’t expecting that. Come on, I remember how to get there from here.”

She’s sort of lying, actually, but she’s the only one who’s been there before and the others are happy to let her lead. Cel gets distracted by the infrastructure, and Azu listens to their rambling with half an ear while trying to remember the way to Hamid’s family home when the world isn’t covered with excessive amounts of sand.

Luckily, she’s able to find the way without too much trouble and leads the crew of the Venge, or at least those members who chose to accept the invitation, up to the gates. The older of the two guards on duty recognizes Azu immediately and greets her warmly. Azu remembers him as the guard who brought them to the house the first time she was here and reciprocates the greeting, although she’s careful not to reveal that she can’t for the life of her remember his name. He cheerfully escorts them up to the house and hands them over to a butler, whom Azu doesn’t recognize but who leads them both deeper into the house.

For the most part, it looks like Azu remembers from the first time she was here—she didn’t get much of a look around the second time—save that the floors are bare. She has vague memories of fancy patterned rugs of varying sizes softening the expanses of marble and wood, but now it’s bare. It’s also surprisingly a bit easier for her to move around without feeling like she’s going to bump into things on either side of her, although she still has to stoop a bit.

The room they’re led into, though, is a bit taller, with windows stretching floor to ceiling. There’s a long banquet table set up to one side, but lots of space for socializing and possibly dancing. A number of people, mostly Halflings, are mingling in the space, small clusters breaking and reforming, as servants circle the floor with trays full of glasses. Music is playing from somewhere nearby. A very small—at least to Azu—girl peers at them over a gilt-edged book, wide-eyed behind a pair of round spectacles. Azu offers her a smile, hoping it’s reassuring, before turning back to the room at large.

Hamid, who seems to be listening politely to someone, notices them and detaches himself from the conversation, then comes over to them, arms spread for a hug. Azu kneels down and hugs him tightly. “Hamid, it’s so good to see you!”

“Azu, I’ve missed you!” Hamid squeezes her, but it’s not the desperate clinging from their last meeting.

He pulls back for a minute and turns to greet the others. Azu studies her friend. He definitely looks better than before, which is a plus. The suit he’s wearing is much simpler and frankly suits him a lot better, but more than that, he looks relaxed and happy. He seems to have…not grown, exactly, but he’s holding himself differently than before—more assured, more confident, but without being overconfident. Whatever was bothering him before, he seems to have moved past it.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d get the invitation, but I’m glad you did,” Hamid says. “All of you. Please, come in and make yourselves at home.” He turns to Sassraa, who looks the most uncomfortable, and says something to her in Draconic; they relax and nod, smiling uncertainly, but still stick close to Cel.

The group begins filtering into the room; Hamid skillfully introduces them to people he thinks they’ll get along with. Azu accepts two glasses of wine from a servant and hands one to Kiko, then starts to turn to talk to Hamid when he suddenly smiles again and moves towards the door, where another butler is just ushering in Oscar and Zolf.

Oscar looks much the same as he did the last time Azu saw him—smiling and well, in a neat suit with a contrasting pocket square (a vibrant emerald green this time, with a plain royal blue sticking out of the pocket). Zolf looks…the only word for it is better, just like Hamid. His hair has been tamed somewhat, he seems less tired and worn out, and he’s dressed up a touch. He’s still not Hamid’s level of dressed up, which isn’t exactly news, but he’s wearing a button-down shirt and fairly nice trousers, which have been folded under the stumps of his legs. He’s also, Azu notices, acquired a pair of leather gloves with the fingers missing.

“It’s so good to see you both,” Hamid says warmly.

“Good to see you, too, Hamid.” Oscar bends down and lets Hamid hug him.

Hamid hugs him back tightly, then turns to Zolf with a broad smile. Zolf actually returns it, for a wonder. Rather than hug, they simply clasp hands. “Congratulations. Genuinely. Knew you could do it.”

“Thank you,” Hamid says. “That…that means a lot.”

Zolf releases Hamid’s hand, then turns and offers a nod to the little girl still observing everything from over the edge of her book. “All right there, Yara?”

“You remembered!” The little girl—Yara, Azu guesses—lowers her book, her entire face lighting up. She’s almost a dead ringer for Hamid; she must be a sister he’s forgotten to mention, or possibly a niece. Her hair is long and thick and glossy, held back with a simple white band. “Hello, Mr. Zolf.”

Zolf wheels over to where she’s sitting. “What’re you reading, then?”

Shyly, Yara holds up the book to face him. Azu can’t read the title from where she is, but Zolf visibly brightens at the sight of it. “Oh, yeah, that’s a good one. I just finished it myself. How far along are you?”

“I’ve already read it three times,” Yara says, slipping a silk ribbon into it to mark her place and closing it. “But this time, I’m up to the bit on the river, with the barrels.”

Oscar comes over to where Azu and Kiko stand, still smiling but shaking his head, as Zolf launches into discussion with the little girl about the book, presumably. “Azu, it’s good to see you.”

“Good to see you, too, Oscar.” Azu nods in Zolf’s direction. “What’s that all about?”

“The book? No idea. It came in the mail anonymously just before we left. Zolf spent most of the train ride reading it. It’s the first book I’ve ever seen him get that into that wasn’t written by Harrison Campbell, but I haven’t had a chance to read it myself yet.”

“No, the conversation. The…who is that?”

“Oh.” Oscar looks over at the conversation, then turns back to Azu. “I’m actually not sure, but they’re getting along, so I’m not going to question it.”

Kiko laughs. Azu smiles and shakes her head fondly. “How have you been? You came in together, so I’m assuming…”

“It’s been good. We’re good. He’s been staying with me, and…well, we’ve been figuring it out together.” Oscar gets quiet for a moment. “I won’t pretend it’s always perfect. You know better than that. But…it’s good.”

Azu’s about to ask more specifics about what they’ve been up to when a bright, surprisingly deep voice says, “Oh, hey, Azu! Glad you could make it. Hamid and I were both really hoping.”

Azu turns and blinks in surprise. “Ishaq?”

Ishaq winks. “Didn’t recognize me, did you?”

“You’ve grown another foot since the last time I saw you.”

“Nope, still just got two of them.” Ishaq wrinkles his nose in a cheeky grin at her as Azu groans and both Kiko and Oscar laugh. “It’s good to see you. Really.”

“It’s good to see you, too.” Azu studies him for a moment. He’s the same age now as Hamid was when she first met him, more or less—maybe a little younger—but she doesn’t have to see them standing next to each other to know that Ishaq has grown taller than his older brother, and a bit more solidly built. He looks good. “Congratulations on graduating. Not that there was any doubt.”

“Thanks. And there was a bit, but it worked out in the end.”

Oscar hums. “Academic doubt, or disciplinary doubt? Were you part of the Accessibility March?”

Ishaq pulls a face. “I still don’t know who started calling it that. It makes it sound like it was a one-time thing. But yeah, I took part.”

“The what?” Azu asks, confused.

Oscar turns to face her. “Oh…you might not have heard, as busy as you’ve been, but it made quite a splash in the papers. Students at the University of Paris were protesting the difficulties inherent in getting around the campus if one isn’t…completely able-bodied. If I’m recalling the reports correctly, you all made a point of using the most accessible routes even if you could have taken the shorter paths, is that right?”

“Yeah, basically. That was the idea, you know, students getting punished for being late to class when they couldn’t help it because it took them eight minutes to travel a distance someone with full use of their limbs could do in two, that’s not fair.” Ishaq shakes his head. “They had to choose between punishing all the students, or at least a lot of them, or doing something about it, and they decided to do something about it.”

“Well—good! That’s really good,” Azu says, and means it. “That’s one of the things we’ve been focusing on with the rebuilding, is making sure that the infrastructure isn’t just functional for certain people, it’s accessible to everyone. Private dwellings, of course, you can make those however you want, but any public-facing building…”

She doesn’t actually intend to launch into a lecture, but, well, she’s spent a lot of time with Cel and bits of them have rubbed off on one another, so she does tend to go into too much detail. And to their credit, both Ishaq and Oscar seem to be listening intently, although that might just be that both of them have been trained to do that.

When she finishes, Ishaq nods. “Yeah, that was kind of Hamid’s point too.”

Azu smiles, because of course Hamid got involved. “Oh, he was in on it too?”

Ishaq looks around, then leans in and drops his voice. The other three have to bend down slightly to hear him. “He’s the one who put it all together. He doesn’t want people knowing that—that was the thing he insisted on most when it started, that anyone who wanted to talk to the press or whatever could but that nobody say he was behind it—but yeah, it was Hamid who started it. Even before…” He glances over at where Zolf and Yara are having a discussion involving a lot of gesticulating, and something flickers across his face for a moment. “Even before we had a good reason, he was always the one to notice those kinds of things. And any time he was going to be spending time with someone, he’d always ask if there was anything he needed to be aware of. He’s trying really hard, but…you know, he doesn’t want people praising him for it. He says that’s just what you should be doing.”

Azu doesn’t know why this surprises her so much. Hamid’s always had a big heart, and he does try, but she’s still caught off-guard by what Ishaq is saying. Then she glances in Hamid’s direction, sees him glance away from the conversation he’s having towards Zolf and Yara and smile broadly before returning his attention to the person he’s actually talking to, and she thinks she gets it.

“Well, it’s made quite the impression,” Oscar says. “As I heard, all the other universities have been following suit in making sure there are no barriers—no physical barriers, anyway—to education. I suppose they want to prevent something like that from happening again.”

“What about you, Ishaq?” Azu asks, changing the subject slightly. “What are you going to do now that you have your degree?”

Ishaq glows. “I’m going to Damascus. There’s a company there that—they used to be a factory to make mechanical men, real high-end magictech stuff, but now they make prosthetic limbs, or they’re trying to anyway. My advisor sent them a copy of one of my papers where I tried to work out how you could make a fully-functional replacement limb out of metal and gears and whatnot, and they’ve invited me to join their Research and Development staff.”

Kiko grins. “Hey, that’s pretty cool. Have you talked to Cel about that? That sounds right up their alley.”

“I don’t think I’ve met Cel before.”

“Come on, I’ll introduce you.” Azu looks around for Cel and finds them obviously struggling in a discussion with someone. They look relieved when Azu neatly slices them off from their conversational partner and introduces them to Ishaq.

She leaves Ishaq, Cel, and—surprisingly enough—Sassraa talking shop, waves to Ed as she passes him holding court with a group of admirers, and finds herself face-to-face with Saira, smiling up at her, her arm linked through that of a Dwarf with a thick, dark braid and fierce eyebrows.

“Azu, hello, it’s been a while,” she says warmly. “Allow me to introduce my wife, Leila…Leila, this is Azu, she’s one of Hamid’s friends. She’s—are you still with Aphrodite?”

“Not formally.” Azu smiles. “It’s lovely to meet you, Leila. Please, let me introduce my girlfriend, Kiko…Kiko, this is Saira, Hamid’s older sister.”

“Hi.” Kiko offers her hand to shake. “You must be so proud of your brothers.”

Saira practically glows. “They’ve done so well, haven’t they? I always knew Hamid would make good, once he grew up a bit, but he’s gone so much beyond what I would have expected.”

“Ishaq and Oscar were telling us about…the protest at the University.”

“Yes…Mother wasn’t thrilled about that when she found out Ishaq was involved. She was even less thrilled when she asked why Hamid didn’t stop him and he very calmly told her he’d been part of it too.” Saira sighs. “It’s been…hard on her, I think. Things changed so very rapidly and…well.”

“Things have been difficult for your family these last few years,” Azu says sympathetically. Between Aziza being murdered, Saleh and Saleh, Jr., going to prison—she notices they still aren’t here—and Hamid and Ishaq being lost for a year and a half, not to mention the turmoil that must have ensued at the banks when magic vanished, it’s a lot to dump on a person. And while Hamid’s mother didn’t seem as rigid and unyielding as his father, it can’t have been easy on her.

“That’s one way to look at it,” Saira allows. “It could have been a lot worse, though. If it wasn’t for—”

There’s a slightly muffled thumping noise, and Azu jerks her head in the direction of the sound to see Yara and Zolf both looking slightly embarrassed, Yara’s book on the ground between them. Not many people look in their direction—it’s just that Azu, Kiko, Leila, and Saira are close enough to notice the noise—but Hamid’s mother does, and her lips tighten slightly with disapproval. Saira sighs and starts to move towards them, but Leila holds her back. “Better not. Remember, Fairhands said we’re supposed to wait until she asks.”

Azu is momentarily distracted by mention of Eren Fairhands, and then confused by what Leila means, and then she notices Yara gripping the arm of the chair with one hand while struggling to bend over far enough to reach her book with the other. It’s obvious she won’t reach it without leaving her seat, though, and Azu wonders why she doesn’t just get up until she sighs, her shoulders slumping with defeat, and sits up. She looks around and makes eye contact with Hamid, who—evidently—excuses himself from his conversation and comes over to her and Zolf. She says something to him that Azu can’t hear, but she can guess…and then reaches over the sides of the chair to back it up.

Zolf’s face goes slack with obvious shock, and Azu, too, can’t believe she didn’t notice the large wheels on either side. Yara seems to have both legs, so she can’t figure out why the little girl might need it. Hamid doesn’t bat an eyelash, though, merely stoops down in the space between the two wheelchairs and lifts the book, then presents it to Yara. She takes it with a grateful smile; he kisses her gently on the forehead, flashes a smile at Zolf, and disengages himself to return to his previous conversation.

Azu turns back to Saira, eyes wide. “I—how did I not notice—is she—what happened?”

Sadness crosses Saira’s face. “An accident, a couple of years ago. There was a runaway carriage…she didn’t get out of the way fast enough. For a while we thought…” She shakes her head. “She survived, but…well, they told us she’ll most likely never walk again.”

“Oh, no, the poor thing,” Azu murmurs. Something twists deeply and painfully inside her as it occurs to her that, if they hadn’t done what they did, if they hadn’t taken magic out of the world, Yara would be a perfectly normal, perfectly healthy little girl. Magic could have kept this from happening, or at least fixed it. Hamid must have been beside himself.

“It doesn’t seem to bother her unduly, most of the time,” Leila offers. “She gets frustrated more than anything when she can’t do something on her own, but for the most part, she’s still the same as she was before. At least in public.”

“That isn’t saying much,” Saira says under her breath. “We all…never mind. It was hard for her at first, while she was still adjusting to her new reality, but Hamid was there for her every—is it insensitive of me to say ‘every step of the way’?”

Azu lets out a surprised laugh before she can stop herself. “I don’t think so. How was he able to do that from Paris?”

“Oh, he took some time off. Essentially. I thought at first it was because he felt guilty—it happened because she ran out into the street without looking to give him a hug when she saw him step out of the train station—but no, they’ve just always been close and she wanted him there. Needed him, really. He wrote to the University and explained the situation and said he’d be taking at least a semester off. They were kind enough to send him his work.”

Leila snorts. “It was right after the protests happened. They were probably glad to be rid of him for a little while, but they also didn’t want to draw out having him there more than they needed to.”

Kiko turns her own laugh into a cough. Saira smiles again. “Like I said earlier, things would have been much worse these last couple of years if it hadn’t been for Hamid. And he worked hard to make sure he would still graduate on time while still being there for Yara. With honors, no less.”

“Do you know what he’s planning to do?” Azu asks. “Now that he’s graduated, I mean. Ishaq told me about the job in Damascus, but…well, I haven’t had a chance to talk to Hamid yet.” She pauses, then adds, “I invited him to join us on the Venge the last time we saw him. I suppose he wanted to go to university first, but…”

Saira frowns slightly. “Actually, I don’t quite know what his plans are. He’s been pretty vague about them for the most part.”

“I get the impression he’s thinking about becoming a teacher,” Leila pipes up. “You know he’d be good at it. He’s done wonders with Yara. And goodness knows there’s a demand for them.”

Azu can see that, actually. She also kind of hopes he goes for that plan. If he does, she can maybe convince him to join the crew of the Venge; they’re still setting up the university Cel’s been talking about for the last few years, and Hamid has plenty to contribute. She also misses him. She still considers him her best friend, despite the fact that they’ve hardly seen one another in the last eight years. And he needs a purpose, something to keep him going. He’s like Zolf in that he does much better with a project and a clear goal. Left to his own devices, he flounders.

Before she can say anything, though, one of the butlers slips in and addresses Saira softly in Arabic. “Excuse me…there’s someone here to see you, ma’am.”

An odd half-smile flits across Saira’s face for a moment. “Ah. Would you excuse me, please?” She slips her arm from Leila’s and follows the butler out of the room.

Azu glances at Leila, who lowers her voice; Azu and Kiko both bend over slightly to hear her better. “Saira’s been talking to officials about the possibility of getting Saleh a day pass for the evening. He’s just as proud of Hamid as she is—and Ishaq too, of course, but, well, nobody ever had any doubts about the twins. Hamid’s…I think they both worried about him, in different ways. She wanted to surprise him.”

“That’s so wonderful!” Azu says. She’s not sure if she means it this time, though. On the one hand, she knows Hamid loves his family, all his family, and he’ll probably be delighted to see his older brother again. On the other hand, she doesn’t know what Saleh’s like after all this time, and she didn’t have a particularly high opinion of him to begin with.

Then again, she didn’t have a particularly high opinion of Carter, either, and he’s become one of her dearest companions.

The butler comes back in, looks around the room, and goes over to Hamid, who nods, excuses himself again, and follows the butler out of the room. Azu assumes Saleh was able to come after all and just doesn’t want to make a fuss, or else isn’t allowed to be in a large space—anything is possible—so Hamid will have to go to him.

Kiko and Leila begin a conversation about Captain Earhart, who’s apparently something of a hero of Leila’s, and Azu listens while keeping an eye out for Hamid. Instead, she notices the butler come back in and speak to Hamid’s mother, who looks slightly confused but follows him. Azu guesses Saira didn’t tell her she was trying to get Saleh to visit, either, and of course his mother would want to see him. She turns back to Kiko and Lelia as Kiko launches into a story Azu’s heard a thousand times and loved every single time.

Just as Kiko’s getting to the good part, though, a scream echoes through the room, silencing all conversation instantly.

Instinctively, Azu shifts into a defensive position, reaching for her axe out of habit. She’s not the only one; all of the Venge crew brace for trouble, and she notices Zolf sharply wheel himself about so that he’s facing the door but keeping himself between it and Yara, whose eyes behind her glasses seem to take up her entire face. Most of the other guests look alarmed or concerned.

After a moment, Azu becomes aware of another sound, muffled at first, then louder briefly before being muffled again—wailing, heartbroken sobs. Her stomach lurches. Oh, no…

Hamid appears in the doorway. Insofar as he can, he looks quite pale, but otherwise wears the same calm face he wore when addressing Geoffrey Chaucer all those years ago. He spreads out his hands, palms outward, and speaks to the room at large. Unfortunately, he speaks in French, which Azu hasn’t really made much progress in picking up. Whatever he’s saying, a murmur starts among the crowd. Oscar looks…concerned is the best word for it; he catches Hamid’s eye and makes a slight gesture towards Zolf, but Hamid shakes his head very quickly, and Oscar remains where he is.

Azu decides to do the same, but does ask Leila in a low voice, “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know.” Leila looks uncomfortable. “Hamid just said his mother is…indisposed and asked everyone to leave. I don’t…”

The twins both descend on Hamid from two separate directions, Ismail looking annoyed and Ishaq looking confused. They both tower over him, but Hamid doesn’t flinch. He says something to them, and instantly they shift to identical expressions of upset and hurry out of the room. Leila shakes her head. “Excuse me, I need to go find my wife.”

Azu steps back to allow her to leave, then starts, hesitantly, to follow the crowd to the door. After a second, she changes her mind and tacks towards Hamid to at least tell him goodbye. Logically, if he wanted her to go, he’d have spoken in English, he knows she doesn’t speak French, but still.

She gets close enough to him to hear him stop and speak to Sassraa in rapid Draconic; Sassraa nods. Cel says something in Draconic as well, evidently a question, but Hamid shakes his head and answers. Whatever he says, Cel nods and stays put as Sassraa starts to walk away. She pauses, catches Kiko’s eye, and beckons her forward, pointing at Carter as she does so.

Azu is completely lost, but Kiko seems to understand. She squeezes Azu’s arm. “I’ll meet you back at the Venge,” she promises, kissing Azu on the cheek before following Sassraa.

Totally bewildered, Azu joins Hamid and Cel. “What…?”

“The door’s shut, but…I don’t want Mother to see Howard,” Hamid says softly. “That wouldn’t…neither of them need that right now.”

The room clears out, leaving only the core five and Yara, who looks absolutely terrified. Hamid closes the door behind the last person and slumps slightly, all his energy seeming to drain out of him. He looks…tired. In a lot of ways, he looks exactly the way he did when Azu first met him, just with less sand in his hair, and that’s not exactly comforting.

“What’s wrong?” she asks, unable to keep the worry from her voice.

“Uncle Hamid?” Yara’s voice is small and frail.

Hamid’s expression softens. He crosses over and kneels down in front of the little girl, taking both her hands in his. “A man came from the prison,” he says, as gently as possible. “He wanted to tell us in person. There was…something happened today. A, a fight, or a riot or…he didn’t really explain. But Saleh—y-your father, he…he got very badly hurt. He didn’t…make it, I’m afraid.”

Azu sucks in a breath. Yara’s eyes fill with water, and she bites her lower lip. Hamid doesn’t let go of her hands or break eye contact with her. “I know you didn’t…I know you only met him once, but he loved you very much, Yara. And he—he wanted to be sure you would be safe. Taken care of if…if anything happened. When you—after the accident, he made me promise I would look after you if anything happened to him. If he couldn’t. He asked me to be your guardian. I—would that be all right with you?”

Yara stares at Hamid, her lower lip trembling. Suddenly, she yanks her hands free of his and lunges forward, throwing her arms around his neck, burying her face in his shoulder, and bursting into tears.

Hamid gathers her close, tears in his own eyes as well, and strokes her hair, murmuring to her in low, soothing tones. Not sure what else to do, Azu comes over and rests a hand on Hamid’s back to comfort him. To her surprise, Zolf reaches out hesitantly and places a gentle hand on Yara’s shoulder, too.

He makes eye contact with Azu, and she gets it. They’re both healers, in their own way; she hasn’t forgotten their tours around Hiroshima helping people while Cel and Hamid worked on the ship. Zolf’s always been a bit grumpy, that’s all, and he seems to have mellowed out some. And while they don’t have magic anymore, they still have training. And here in front of them are two people who need comfort, at the very least, one of whom Azu cares about very much and one of whom seems to have bonded with Zolf. It’s the least they can do.

Magic or no magic, maybe it’s enough. At least for now.

At least it’s a start.