Chapter 2: Amends

August seventeen, year 5784. Cave twenty four.

Several days after the Young Mist Users Conference Jinka returned to work with a heavy heart. The past few days were hard to bear. Informing Troel about what happened and the other kids' parents, not being there when the kids under her care needed her, when her own daughter, Serah, was assaulted had made her feel guilty and shameful, unqualified as a mother or an adult.

None of the kids' parents, when learning of the incident and that the one addressing it is Miss Zetsa, had harbored resentment nor blamed Jinka of what happened. On the contrary, all of them were very sympathetic and tried to empathize. When Jinka kept lowering her head and apologizing some of them even attempted to pass it on by concentrating on the part of the glass that was half full, uttering stuff like... "He is fine" or "She came back safe and sound. Let's trust in Miss Zetsa".

Jinka heard it all and could do nothing but nod. Just like her daughter was the core in that group of little kids, she had similar relationship with their parents. What they all agreed about was taking their children for a physical inspection and monitoring them themselves for a few days to make sure that psychological damage has not been done before deciding if to take them to a child therapist or not.

Eventually, apart from one, neither of the children suffered any serious physical injury. Serah herself only had a broken tooth. Mentally was a little harder to determine, but with regard to their daughter, after two days Jinka and Troel safely validated that Serah was fine. Her concern for her friends and more than anyone else, Zax, made them rediscover their little girl's assertive personality.

Jinka stirred the soup of the evening's menu, unaware of the burning smell until it was scorching in her nose.

"Jinka!" Alinor, the chef of Fourchettes Et Couteaux, rebuked.

"Ah... ?!" Jinka was thrown off balance, her stirring hands was shaking and her eyes tearing up. "I'm sorry". Jinka said in a trembling voice.

"Concentrate on your servings!" Alinor barked at the kitchen's staff that diverted stupefied looks at their sous chef. Hastily, sound of cutting knifes, meat grinding, ovens opening up and closing, pans falling and rising from the stoves and so on ... brought back to initial livelihood of a hard working kitchen.

"Come with me to the back, Jinka. Dutseka, see if you can save the soup, otherwise tell the waiters to take it down from the menu". Alinor instructed, then turned and exited first through the door to the alley beyond the kitchen. "Spill it, Jinka, what happened to you today? Since morning you are moving around the kitchen as if you are being possessed. I assumed that it's related to the two days off that you've asked for ... I didn't ask in case it's a personal matter, but this is the evening rush! I can't let this go on, you know!"

"I'm very sorry, chef, I ... I..." Jinka could not hold the frustration inside her anymore. The pressure accumulated in the past few days broke out. She lost her footing, fell on her knees and sobbed and sobbed.

"No, no, no, what happened to you Jinka?!" Alinor grabbed and lifted Jinka to her embrace.

One lived in cave twenty four, the other in cave twenty five. They met each other only at work and rarely got together afterwards with the other kitchen's staff. Nevertheless, they knew each other for a long time, so even if there was not deep amity between them they still could not avert their emotions when the other was in a time of crisis.

After ten minutes Jinka raised her head, her eyes were red and her fists were clenching Alinor's chef coat. She opened her mouth and finally felt willing to let somebody in on the agony she had repressed and thought that she was accountable for.

"Oh, Jinka ... You should not torment yourself over it. The differences in classes are inequitable. There was nothing which you could have done. Blaming yourself will only make you pointlessly drown in sorrow. Jinka, will you listen to my proposal?"

Although she lived in cave twenty four, Alinor was from the upper middle class. Like the parents of Serah' friends, she, too, could empathize with Jinka. Furthermore, as the chef of a modest restaurant she was invited, sometimes as a guest, sometimes to cater, to numerous events and so met many of the high class's faces.

They, Alinor, Jinka, all the people who were close to them were simple people with simple ambitions, simple way of life. To them the saying "Those who do not march on the Martial path would forever be counted among the powerless" did not intend to undermine their confidence or be unfair, much like them it was the simple truth of this day and age and the powerless had to cope.

Anyone below the high class or with insufficient Martial achievements was considered "Powerless", which were more than seventy five percent of Kingdom Earth's population.

Alinor could not scheme a grandiose plan to alleviate Jinka's trauma which was created by the two men of the Martinez family, but she could help her in another way, toward those who truly mattered to Jinka and shared the difficulties of the incident she told her about.

August nineteen, year 5784. Cave twenty four.

Fourchettes Et Couteaux closed early for a private occasion. Per Alinor's instruction Jinka invited Zax, Dane, Anet and their parents to a compensatory evening in Fourchettes Et Couteaux in the pretense that the owner of the restaurant, Mitchello, want to express his deepest regrets for what happened in the Young Mist Users Conference, because he was the one who urged Jinka to take the tickets to the event and most definitely go.