A puppet among researchers

Tighnari 2

Tighnari knew that today was going to be interesting when collei woke him up!

He had thought that with the bonfire last night he could get an extra half hour of sleep. But no such luck.

Collei was pacing outside his door.

With his enhanced hearing, he had heard her muttering something. But he wasn't really paying attention due to the fact that he would hear whatever she had to say in a moment.

Tighnari got dressed, then went to the door.

As he was opening it he said. "This better be important, since it's not even 6 yet!"

""I'm so sorry to wake you master but it's important!"

"Is it soo important that it's before I had coffee?"

"Well I umm."

"It's fine, I'm just giving you a hard time. What's the problem?"

"How much do you know about hat guy?"

Tighnari thought about it for a moment then said. "Not much, only that he is a Vahumana researcher. Why?"

"Well as you know I was on patrol last night during the bonfire, as I was doing my rounds I saw him sitting on the hill near the camp. It wasn't that unusual intel a child walked up to him. I went up there to take her home but she just walked away. She sounded older than she looked. I don't know, something about her was off somehow. I don't know how to describe it. But I tried to talk to hat guy after the little girl left but he blew me off! I don't know if it's what he said or how he said it but he somehow reminded me of...." Collei's voice trailed off.

Tighnari didn't need her to finish. Collei is usually able to talk to him about everything. Except when it came to her time with the fatui.

"Ok here's what's gonna happen. You aren't going to be left alone with him until we get to know him better ok?" Tighnari said. Hoping that it would help her. It's not like he was going to leave collei in a situation where they would have to be alone but now he had a reason to.

"Ok master! But what about the little girl? I haven't seen her before last night, and I looked all over the village and there's no sign of her." Collei said.

"Well when you see her again, come get me immediately. I have a feeling that this will not be the last time she shows. But if you haven't forgotten what she looks like I'll have you draw her so that if I see her I can let you know."

~

After leaving collei to draw the strange child, Tighnari went to the tents where he left Kaveh and the strange guy who calls himself hat guy.

Kaveh must have just gotten up because there was a strong smell of coffee and eggs.

"Good morning Tighnari, I made breakfast. Even though SOME REFUSED TO EAT IT!" Kaveh said as he saw him.

Well at least he's not complaining about Alhaitham.

"Has he eaten anything?" Tighnari asked. Hat guy might be suspicious as a snake but Tighnari is still responsible for the people who enter these forests.

"Not that I'm aware of, but he's created a wind current around his tent so I don't think he's hungry." Kaveh said, gesturing to his fellow researcher's tent.

So that was the noise.

Tighnari walk over to the tent to inspect said wind current.

It had to be the work of a vision but...... hat guy must have very powerful ambitions.

Tighnari has seen nothing like it. This raw power. He hadn't studied visions. It never was something that interested him but..... he knew some visions were stronger than others! But hat guy hadn't seemed like someone who had one of those "higher power visions" (collei's term not his)

'guess I should pay more attention.' Tighnari thought

With that Tighnari jumped through the wind current and onto the bed that was set up. Luckily hat guy wasn't in it.

Hat guy stared at Tighnari from the desk, with a pen in hand.

"Are the people of grand arbor hill incapable of knocking?" Hat guy asked.

"It's Grandharva vile. And no, it's not like I could knock, with the wind current." Tighnari answered.

"Wind curr..? Oh sorry." With one swipe of his hand the wind current disappeared. "My roommate has a lot of visitors while I study so I guess it's just a habit."

All that talk of raw power.. AND IT WAS A HABIT!?!?!

Tighnari was internally cursing 'Calm down, he's not Collei! He's not a part of the village! You have no right to tell him off! Wait did he say...?'

"Studying?" Tighnari asked.

"Uhhh yeah! News flash! Students have to study to get decent grades!" Hat guy said. Completely talking like Tighnari wasn't his senior.

"Student? YOU'RE A STUDENT?!?!" Tighnari yelled.

There are soo many steps he didn't take! He did even inform his teachers that he was on a project with them. Unless Kaveh....

"What's going on?" Kaveh said as he walked into the tent.

"Again! Is Knocking a foreign concept?" Hat guy said.

Tighnari ignored him and turned his attention to Kaveh. "You brought a STUDENT into this project?"

"What? No! Of course not!" Kaveh said defensively.

Hat guy just burst out laughing.

"None of you knew?? HA! You're fools! I haven't even finished my first year!"

Tighnari and Kaveh looked at each other.

Tighnari was mad to say the least. Kaveh was supposed to do research on a person before bringing them on.

"Soo I'm out right?" Hat guy said. He sounded almost happy to get out of this project.

"I uhh Tighnari?" Kaveh said.

Tighnari just gave him a "this is your mess, you fix it!" Look.

"Welp that's a yes." And with that hat guy packed up the papers he was working on and walked out leaving Kaveh and Tighnari standing in the tent.