Ness came to a stop outside of Akagi's workshop. Of course he was in there. Her brothers both loved to create objects, as did Ness herself, so she shouldn't expect anything otherwise. She wanted to give him the privacy to be working on something she shouldn't know about and to still not know about it after encountering him, so she knocked, counted to three, and then burst into his space.

"BRO!" She shouted, something like anger in her tone but her small frame and high pitched voice made it comical. Also, she was almost never sincerely mad. "Why are you tinkering around in here when your wife and my favorite person in this castle is gone?"

Ness charged towards him, looking around for something to slap him upside the head with, but as the drew nearer she saw the hurt and confusion on his face, heard it in his voice, and she softened.

"You didn't know?" So then, she ran away. Ness couldn't understand it. Akagi was one of the most patient, kind people that Ness knew. "The children are all here. Only she is..." she fell silent, eyes growing large with empathy. Her hand reached out to rest on his forearm if he allowed it.

"Maybe this isn't about right or wrong." Her voice was quiet and tender. "Maybe this is more personal and has nothing to do with you."

Ness was not experienced in the things of the world, but she'd read books. Thousands of books, actually. Something Akagi said made her eyes grow larger.

"Darkness of spirit." She said it as if it was the answer, the only possible explanation. "She just had a child. Sometimes in the aftermath of that sort of life-changing event women have been known to have a darkness of spirit that is otherwise unexplained."