This time, the wiki had marked her like it had marked Esta; the passive alert followed by the sighting itself meant that there were more known NPC connection proximity triggers than anomalies.

This time, I was sitting at the canal bench. The canal bench where the wiki told me to go after the game update — my own canal bench, with the morning cup from the Crown cooling down next to me since I was reading the Floor 7 field notes Mira had gathered. The alert caught my eye as I noticed movement at the side of my vision.

NEW CHARACTER DETECTED

Name: UNKNOWN

Role: UNCLASSIFIED

Origin: Game-native — confirmed

Corruption meter: 0/100

Relationship / Kai: 0

Active flags: NONE

Note: Proximity alert — known NPC connection / classification pending

No corruption. Similar start to Esta’s profile. Three weeks later.

I located her where the canal met the water’s edge, fifty feet north of where I sat. She stood gazing out at the canal, with an air about her of having recently completed some journey and taking a moment to determine her next move. Not lost — grounded, orientated to her surroundings. Just pausing.

The UI tag had begun generating.

Age range between mid- to late thirties. Dark hair, streaked with the first hint of silver at the temple, neatly pulled back without severity, practical yet not severe. Physique was strong and solid, the result of decades of hard work as opposed to exercise. Her hands were hands accustomed to their use.

She regarded the canal like a person considers something that allows contemplation.

The tag had generated to a distance of forty feet.

NEW CHARACTER — PARTIAL CLASSIFICATION

Name: CALENNE

Role: Civilian — visitor classification

Origin: Game-native

Corruption meter: 0/100

Relationship / Kai: 0

Relationship / Vorn: 971 — maternal bond, pre-existing

Active flags: NONE

Wiki status: GENERATING — 38%

Nine hundred and seventy-one.

I stared at the number for some time. Eight forty-seven was the number associated with Esta and her bond with Vorn, a relationship which I found remarkable at the time. Nine seventy-one was another matter altogether, representing the highest relationship meter that I had ever seen on someone other than Daren — who had earned his relationship rating of eight ninety-four through months of interaction.

Calenne had a nine seventy-one with Vorn before she did anything. Before she even said a single word to any living creature within Ashveil. That was just the default setting of the relationship value that the game gave between a mother and her child.

I pondered for some more time.

She continued staring at the canal while I studied her. She hadn’t picked up my presence yet — I was down below the line of sight and she was busy with thoughts. The canal flowed between us calmly and efficiently, carrying out its duty.

The wiki reached forty-four percent.

CALENNE — PARTIAL WIKI ENTRY

Game-native — city of origin: not Ashveil / transit record: recent arrival, first day

Background: non-adventurer civilian / no guild affiliation / no combat rank

Established role in canonical story: NONE — post-canon character, no script

Reason for arrival: Vorn — concern about his wellbeing, silence, Esta’s letter

Personality profile: GENERATING

Note: Corruption meter at zero — starting fresh / no previous exposure to corruption system

Esta’s letter.

And Esta had finally broken down and written a letter to their parents. After Vorn, after whatever happened there, she sent something home to them, and Calenne got it and decided a letter wasn’t enough and came herself.

I tried to put together what I would think Esta said in her letter. Esta doesn’t do emotion and isn’t prone to elaborating, so the message about meeting up with Vorn would be honest and to the point and maybe more upsetting to a mother than an edited version would be. It would be straight up truth and without the sugar coating.

And now Calenne had read the letter and hit the road.

She stepped away from the water. No particular reason — just that quick scan of someone who needs to readjust after standing still. And she clocked me sitting by the water the same way you clock anyone who was standing next to the canal. She took my presence into account and started walking again.

Something had been recognized by the UI. Not me personally, but rather the canal bench itself, which Vorn had apparently identified somewhere during his communications, since Calenne was staring at it in the way that someone would look when recognizing a landmark based solely on its description.

She looked at me. "Excuse me."

Her tone was even, not quiet exactly, but rather collected. The voice of someone who had been through enough situations to require that kind of composure to become second nature.

"I just wanted to say thank you for the bench," she said. "My son mentioned a canal bench. He didn’t specify which one."

There was more than one canal bench in Ashveil. The chance that she had picked the wrong bench was significant.

Not that there wasn’t also the matter of the UI sitting in the corner of my eye, creating a wiki entry for her while the relationship meter for Vorn registered nine seventy-one.

"It depends on the son," I told her.

There was something in her face — a shift, rapid and knowing. She was sizing me up like Esta had sized me up, only not in quite the same way. Esta had sized me up functionally — would-be utility. Calenne sized me up from experience, someone who had devoted their whole life to understanding context and how people fit into it.

"Vorn," she said.

"If that’s the case, then likely this one," I told her.

She considered the bench, then me, then the canal. Some form of processing happening there. "You know him."

"I’ve spoken with him before. Kai."

It wasn’t until now that she gave me her name — took note of it, set it aside. "Esta said there was someone. That there were complications."

"There were. Fewer now."

"She said he was —" She chose a word other than the one she had in mind. "Different."

I thought about the way Vorn stood at Sera’s stand and made himself small. About Vorn walking east to seek his sister. About Vorn sitting here, on this bench, and explaining all of it to me.

"He’s been through something," I said. "Something that’s shifted his direction. It might not seem like much, but it’s not insignificant. He’s trying to figure out how he’s going to deal with it."

Calenne studied me for a good minute or two. Not Esta’s quick calibration process, but a more reflective one — the examination of a person who had figured out the truth that the things which mattered most often took longer than what the initial facts suggested.

"You’re not what I expected," she said.

"What did you expect?"

"Somebody younger." No condemnation here; only observation. "Esta’s letter said you helped him. I wasn’t sure what that meant."

"It’s a difficult thing to explain."

"I have all the time you need." She glanced at the bench. "Can I?"

I cleared my forgotten cup off to the side. She settled herself on the other end of the bench, maintaining proper distance, but creating an interpersonal connection through the process of getting to know one another. She sat easily, with hands folded in her lap, neither stiff nor slouched.

Fifty-nine percent wiki completion reached.

CALENNE — UPDATED ENTRY

Personality profile: PARTIAL

— Composed. Steadiness as default register, not act — developed gradually.

— Patient. Assessment process takes longer than Esta’s — more information before forming conclusions.

— Experienced in reading people and circumstances — accuracy even with limited information. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

— Maternal base with Vorn — depth, not blindness — acknowledges that he has his rougher aspects, but is there all the same.

— Made the journey based on Esta’s report — Esta did not embellish the story / Calenne still came.

Note: Corruption meter at zero — first proximity contact registered / meter unchanged

Still zero. Just presence and bench and two sentences.

That made sense, since the nine seventy-one connection with her son placed her as a person of substantial influence in this tale. A score of zero indicated that she was completely untainted, no previous exposure, no predisposition put into her. Just another person who had read the letter from her daughter and begun traveling.

"Did he mention the bench specifically?" I asked.

"In a letter. Before they stopped." She delivered it like Esta had — neutral, giving information without acting out its cost. "There was a canal bench where everything got clearer."

I imagined Vorn, sitting right there, explaining the story of his past to me, Flag 4 resolving itself in real-time, the canal flowing behind both of us.

"Yeah," I replied. "That happened here."

Calenne watched the water surface. There was some sort of action going on with her expression, but it wasn’t exactly sorrowful — it felt more like processing, analyzing a situation that one doesn’t quite understand yet. A look one gives before making a judgment.

"Does he feel alright?" Calenne asked me. It wasn’t exactly a question, more like something she needed to voice out to see whether she could get a truthful answer from me.

I considered a truthful answer. Vorn after his trigger, now responsible for making his own decisions, discovering the truth of what he really wants from life that has been scripted for him by a game. Vorn making something for himself, something with Sera that is far beyond anything the game made him do.

"He feels better than before," I told her. "That’s the truthful answer."

Calenne nodded slowly, in comparison to Esta’s nod, which had been quick and efficient.

"I think that will do for now," she said.

There was no fanfare from the UI update.

CALENNE — STATUS

Relationship / Kai: 8

Corruption meter: 0/100 — steady

Mood: Processing / Steady

Wiki: 59% — GENERATING

Note: Initial contact achieved — bench encounter / direct method / meter unchanged / slow development confirmed

Zero.

I picked up my cold cup and gazed upon the canal while thinking about the number nine hundred and seventy-one and the difference between Esta’s arc and the one beside me, how the two were not the same and would never be so and would therefore require different treatment.

Sena would have thoughts on the matter.

I would learn once I got back to the Crown.