The Seer and the Pilgrimage

by Cryptographic DeLurk

"I don't want to stay and listen to their words and pretend to agree." Felix isn't content to sit around New Vale. Sheba isn't content to let him leave alone. In his mind's eye, Sheba can see the ice houses and smell the ugly charred burst of burning antlers. "Would you quit that?" Felix asks, tapping her shoulder softly. "I wish you wouldn't read my mind." Felix/Sheba.

The Seer and the Pilgrimage

by Cryptographic DeLurk

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AN: Takes place almost directly after The Lost Age. Inspired by Felix's rumoured disappearance in Dark Dawn, but written without any real concern for the rest of Dark Dawn canon.

Thanks! And Read & Relax!

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She's already read it in his mind. She has seen the shadows in his eyes, and heard the thoughts whisper out to her.

It's how Sheba knows to find him, burrowing up from underground, into the sparse forest growth outside New Vale. He arrives only a few minutes after she suspects.

He only squints at her for a minute, trying to determine if her figure is only a mirage in the darkness, but eventually realisation spreads across his face. He stands up straight, abruptly.

"Wha- Why are you here?" Felix asks, brushing the dirt off his clothes and pulling his pack over his shoulders.

"You're leaving," Sheba says, explaining herself.

Felix only scowls. He brushes past her quickly, and doesn't look back to make sure she's following.

Sheba follows anyhow.

"How did you escape?" she asks. "There were barriers all around your house, weren't there?" They had been placed to keep Felix under house arrest, until he could be tried and judged for having allowed outsiders into Sol Sanctum, and then allowing Saturos and Menardi to steal the Elemental Stars.

It was a farce. Nobody seriously blamed Felix for what he had done.

Felix laughs. Even when he's laughing, even when he's angry, Felix's voice is always low and soft.

"Once I got serious about calling on Venus's power, the barriers split cleanly under my feet, and the earth opened up. The elders shouldn't have been the ones to set the wards. Isaac and Jenna are probably the only ones in Vale with Psynergy powerful enough to keep me from leaving."

"They still could, couldn't they?" Sheba asks, curiously, hurrying to keep up with Felix's stride. "They could still stop you… if they caught up."

Felix snorts, but he nods his head in agreement. "That's why I'm rushing. I don't want to give them a chance to notice I've left, before I'm already a dozen miles out."

Sheba clicks her tongue. More to tease him, than to convince him otherwise, she takes the role of the opposing side.

"You know they'll pardon you, if you just wait patiently for the trial tomorrow. You know it's only a formality. They'll exonerate you, so long as you stick around."

Felix stops in his tracks. He turns a complete hundred-and-eighty-degrees to face her. The full moon filters down through the trees, and it's the first time they've really seen one another, since the beginning of that night.

"They will. They'll pardon me. They'll forgive me. They understand why I did it or, no… They understand that what I did had to be done. But they don't understand why I did it. And I can't blame them for not wanting to. But I don't want to stay and listen to their words and pretend to agree."

Sheba sees the ice houses of Prox in Felix's mind's eye. She hears the whispers, and smells the ugly charred burst of burning antlers.

"Would you quit that?" Felix asks, tapping her shoulder softly. "I wish you wouldn't read my mind."

Sheba blushes and pulls her Psynergy back.

"Does anybody else know I'm here?" he asks her solemnly.

"Hmmm…" Sheba considers.

She had looked at the townspeople, speaking across the table in the newly erected feasting hall. The Mayor of Vale had been bitter about the changes in town, and the lack of luxuries. Felix's parents had been happy to be back home and out of the cold, and happy to be reunited with their son and their daughter, the latter of which had a handsome beau in Isaac. Garet had been seated between Sheba, herself, and Mia. Together, they had both ganged up to tease Garet, and had wound him up until he was red in the face. There had been others too, including all the residents of Vale. The people were at an impasse – continue to toil away rebuilding the destroyed town of Vale, or relocate to Vault or Kalay.

Sheba had watched Felix tense on the other side of the table. The guards seated next to him were not very interested in actually guarding him, compared to making conversation over dinner. It was all very informal. The men were only guards by assignment. They were his neighbours, really. Felix was held in place not by force, but by custom.

Felix had angrily hacked at the loaf in front of him with the bread knife, and had stayed quiet while those around him talk about the tragedy of Mt Aleph's eruption, and the continuing irregular weather patterns. Somebody apologised to Felix, for not being able to rescue him from those strange scaled Mars Adepts, before all this happened. They assured him the council would get things straightened out and release him from house arrest, just as soon as he was questioned at the trial tomorrow.

Felix had nodded, and Sheba had felt the self-loathing radiating out from him for doing so. That was when she saw the shadows swirl in his eyes and his thoughts had opened up to her, like so few pages in a book.

She had turned to Ivan, who was sitting on her other side, and he turned to meet her gaze, smiling. She turned into his purple eyes, mirrors of her own, and feels her mind open up to him.

Ivan is her elder by one year, but he had always seemed more childish to her, more full of that innocent disregard for tact.

Sheba blinks, and sees Felix's questioning face at the present time. He's standing right in front of her in the dark forest.

"Ivan might know you're here," she says, wrinkling her eyebrows. "If he read your mind, or mine, properly…"

Felix sighs and hikes his pack further up on his back.

"I've got to hurry," he says. "You should go back, Sheba."

He walks forward quickly, intent on putting distance between them.

Sheba keeps pace.

"Which Djinn did you bring?" she asks.

Felix keeps his lip pulled tight, and doesn't respond.

Not until he trips over a tree root. Sheba grabs his arm before he can fall.

Felix grunts, and answers her question instead of thanking her.

"All nine of my Venus Djinn," he responds, "and a couple of Mars ones… Char, Coal, and Fugue..."

He scratches the back of his head sheepishly.

"You took Mars Djinn with you?" she asks curiously.

"For some reason they're more attached to me than Jenna," Felix says. He only looks bothered for a moment, before he shrugs his shoulders. "Jenna'll get over it."

"She will," Sheba agrees, even though she's not talking about the Djinn. "I only brought five. Ether, Haze, Breath, Gasp, and Wheeze."

Sheba can see Felix frown in the darkness.

"I also brought my travelling cloak," she says, smiling as prettily as she can. "And I brought an extra one for you, too. I couldn't help but notice you'd forgotten yours."

She pulls the forest green bundle out from under her own cloak and holds it up to him.

Felix turns quickly to her. He looks at the cloak in her hands, before turning forward again.

"I didn't forget. It's just not a convenient thing to wear when you're tunnelling underground," he mutters. But he reaches over and accepts the cloak from her anyhow, when Sheba continues to hold it up for him.

"Thank you," he says, unfurling it and swinging it over his shoulders. "But you should go back, Sheba."

"I don't think I will," Sheba says.

It's a long time before Felix talks again. By that time, they're already coming up on Vault, turning prematurely to the southern plains to bypass the town.

"I'll take you as far as Lalivero," Felix relents. "You'll want to see your home. I'll take you just that far."

Then a couple bats swoop down in the trees for them, and Sheba casts them away with her wind Psynergy. For now, she decides to let the subject drop.

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They reach a fork in the road sooner than expected.

They only get as far as the Goma Mountain Range, before Sheba can feel Felix's hesitation muddling his thoughts like so much dirty bathwater thrown into the river.

The choice boils down to north or south.

"Can we go to Imil?" Sheba questions. "I'm curious. I've never been before," she says, like she's thought of the idea spontaneously. Like she's chosen the village for a reason that's her own.

Felix isn't fooled.

"Stop reading my mind," he says, easily. He crosses his arms and pulls his hood down further over his head. "There's no real purpose in going there… And it's bad sense to go right now."

Yes. Felix can't show his face so close to the Mercury Lighthouse, after his last visit with Menardi and Saturos. They'll have to barter for snow clothes sooner than expected. It's a dead end. There's no safe way to traverse the glaciers to Prox from there. And even if there was, Sheba is still with him, and Lalivero is to the south.

And the likelihood of discovering anything about Alex is low.

Sheba can hear all the reasons why not in Felix's head, but he's still hesitating, and Sheba is in no rush to be anyplace but where they are right now.

"We should go," Sheba says encouragingly. "We should visit now, while Mia is still in Vale."

She leaves, pulls her Psynergy away from his mind and walks away, before Felix can get in a word against her.

He's grumbling to himself behind her. She can't hear him, but it must be boring concerns about how their trip to Imil (already underway) is an ill-advised idea.

Sheba knows it doesn't matter because, sure enough, Felix only takes a couple seconds to himself before following. He quickens his stride, so as to catch up to her.

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Sheba already knew, during the advent of the Golden Sun, the two youngest members of the Mercury clan had evacuated the people from the area directly surrounding Mercury Lighthouse.

What she didn't know was – pretty much any of the rest of it.

Sheba remembers how Felix went out of his way to appear unassuming and meek as they travelled through the towns of Weyard. He had been hesitant to make open displays of force, even when it proved necessary, against the Lemurian Senate who tried to detain them within the city, and against the cold and arrogant chieftain of Shaman Village.

Sheba had thought Felix weak at the time, for how he let Jenna and Piers and herself step forward and do the dirty work.

It was still weak, but an understandable weakness, perhaps. To Felix, there is nothing more painful than another place where you aren't welcome. And the scene that Menardi and Saturos once started in the middle of Imil – bragging loudly of their skill, culminating in a thatched roof lit on fire – has effectively branded Felix an enemy of the town.

Felix draws a simple map based on what he remembers from his last trip to Imil. He tells her where she might go, and who she might question. Justin and Megan, Mia's niece and nephew, might or might not be able to sense her Mind Read Psynergy, but they would definitely be suspicious of too many leading questions. Better to question the people around them, the devotees and worshipers that often made their way in and out of Imil's sanctum.

The Imil Sanctum is full of stragglers, though. Drunks and vagabonds – residents of the former northern quarter of town, which had been destroyed in ice storms directly following the ascent of the Golden Sun.

They relay stories to Sheba eagerly. The destruction of their houses and the farms of the northern field. The icicles that burst up from the ground in pillars and spikes. The increasing strength and brutality of the beasts along the southern travel routes. The dangerous road up to the Mercury Lighthouse, which was traversed only by Justin, Megan, who would leave with dozens of empty jars to be filled with the Water of Hermes. And the town itself – once full of cooperative men of equal station – now filled with exploited Northerners and arrogant Southerners.

"If only dear Mia was still here. She was our angel – a sight to behold! She could cure any man of illness just as well as the Lighthouse's magic water, but with the soft touch of a woman included in the bargain! Things have been going downhill ever since she left. Or rather, ever since her cousin's betrayal. Gods curse even those who would speak his name!"

"So… have you seen him, recently?" Sheba asks.

The man gives her a suspicious look, and Sheba realises she's asked the wrong question. She should have asked for more general information, before inquiring on Alex's whereabouts. She doesn't want to give away that she knew this rebellious cousin of Mia's.

It doesn't matter in the end though. People open their minds and hearts to Sheba, whether they want to or not.

Alex had been one of the few exceptions to that rule.

Her Psynergy makes her steps light as she walks through town, and the snow doesn't crunch under her boots.

Alex has not returned here.

Felix is waiting for her outside the gates. It's dusk – the best time for this. Sheba has to smuggle him into the room she's gotten at the inn, and it's easiest while the sunlight is waning but before people have gotten around to lighting their lanterns. The inn's proprietors will hear Felix's footsteps, but Sheba explains that her friend is deathly ill, and quite possibly contagious, and couldn't take visitors.

"So you've come here for the healing waters," the innkeeper says, blandly. "About the only good thing about this place, these days." She sighs. "It seems there have been nothing but problems lately."

Within the privacy of their room at the inn, Sheba relays the information she's gathered. Felix frowns. He pulls the patchwork quilt on the bed up to his chin and shivers, grumbling angrily to himself.

"What was that?" Sheba says, cupping her ear, just to be petulant.

"I said, of course there have been nothing but problems. A healthy man has a hundred problems, but an ill man only has one," Felix quips.

He takes a breath to calm himself, before continuing.

"When I visited this town before, mortality rates for the previous winter were reaching twenty percent of the total population. Illness was rampant. Mia was working herself to the bone trying to keep everyone healthy… People were too weak to hunt, and too weak to relocate south to Bilibin…

"The monsters might be stronger, but the people here are stronger too. They have their health to rebuild – to prosper, even," Felix says. "Alex saved these people. The Mercury Beacon has saved these people. And if they call what Alex did betrayal… I would hate to see their idea of loyalty."

Felix huffs, and turns his eyes down to his quilt.

Sheba leans back against the wall of their room. She sends her Psyenergy out, belatedly, to double check that there isn't anybody listening in from outside the room.

"What do you care about that jerk Alex anyhow?" she says. "Lighting the Mercury Beacon might have helped these people, might have helped the whole world, but you know Alex wasn't doing it for anybody except himself."

"I don't care about him," Felix says, without looking up.

But his mind is telling a different story.

The last thing this world needs is another fool who doesn't have anyplace to go back to.

Sheba sees herself through Felix's eyes, and she's strangely touched that Felix counts her among those fools, along with Alex and himself.

"Stop reading my mind, Sheba," Felix says, firmly. He turns, so he's lying down facing away from her.

"I don't know why we even came here," he mutters darkly to himself. "Waste of time. We travelled all the way up here and didn't find anything except a bunch of people who don't know what they have."

Sheba frowns, puts her hands to her hips, and leans forward defiantly. If Felix thinks he can blame her for this he has another thing coming.

He doesn't though.

Felix sighs. He turns back towards her. "Thank you, Sheba, for coming up here with me… Thank you for not making me come here alone."

Sheba feels her stance soften. She just stands there a moment, before she remembers that Felix can't read her mind.

"You're welcome," she offers brusquely. She packs away her things for the journey south, before lying down for the night. Felix's equipment is still spread out across the inn's room, but Felix can gather his things together in the morning himself.

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The icy tundra turns to lush green to dry brown and then they finally arrive.

Lalivero isn't the same town that Sheba left, an age ago.

Even now, over a year later, the damage from the earthquake after the Venus Beacon was lit can be observed. And the seaport is a mess, with the high waves and violent tides that never used to plague the area.

Faran and her mother and brother accept Sheba back into their home welcomingly, but they don't seem to understand who she's become, and can't seem to bridge the differences in her character.

Sheba explains what she learned in Contigo and the Shaman Village in Hesperia. Which leads to explaining that Atteka and Hesperia are island continents located on the other side of the world. Which leads to explaining all sorts of other things, about her heritage, about her travels, about the way people lived in places that weren't Lalivero, about how Ivan fit into all of it, about who Ivan was again in the first place…

Sheba's distressed because the more she explains it, the less understanding there is between them. Her family's faces across the dinner table are increasingly bewildered as she tries to explain the airy architecture and colourful ruins of the Anemos Sanctum.

Felix, they allow into their home grudgingly. He sits with them at the table and serves himself seconds of the lentils and sour cherry rice. He is a perfectly polite, if very quiet, guest.

Sheba doesn't even try to explain his presence, because there's no good way to explain their situation. That he was never her captor, but he had once worked with her captors, but towards a goal Sheba herself ended up backing. That Sheba had stayed with him for her own reasons. Sheba can't make them see anything else, where they've seen a kidnapper in their minds for so long.

"Did Lord Babi… do anything to you, while you were staying in Tolbi?" her mother asks.

"He locked me up without anything better to do than pick at my toes," Sheba says, bitterly.

"No but did he… Were he or his guards ever inappropriate towards you?" Faran presses.

"I've told you once, and I'll tell you again! Babi was a selfish, and self-important, old fart, but he was still a hundred years too young to try pulling one over me!"

"Language," her mother chastises, but neither she nor Faran look at all relieved. Sheba doesn't know if it's because they (incorrectly) think she doesn't know what they're insinuating, or because they can't account for her current behaviour by blaming some past trauma or something.

"Are you back for good then?" her younger brother asks. When Sheba pauses, he pushes forward. "You should stay," he insists. "As my sister, it's my job to look after you and protect you."

"That's very kind of you," Sheba says, graciously. But it only reveals how far apart they are. He should know that she's perfectly capable of protecting herself. Her brother isn't even an Adept. Taking care of her would require fighting enemies he's never seen with weapons he's never held. He has no idea what he's really saying.

Once the midnight hour arrives, after the help has cleared away their dishes and prepared their beds, Sheba's mother leads her to her chambers for the night. Felix is escorted out to the inn at the entrance of town.

And it's all very polite and proper, but Sheba realises she has no appreciation for this, not when she and Felix haven't even had a chance to talk about their plans.

Sheba sneaks out of the house well after everyone's asleep, and meets with Felix in the inn's garden.

He's still awake, standing, waiting for her by the garden's lily pond.

"Couldn't sleep?" he asks her, as she slides up next to him and looks down at the water.

"Came to find you," she replies.

They just stand there for a moment, side by side, as they watch the water striders skip across the pond.

Sheba is surprised when Felix speaks first.

"I apologise," he says. "For not speaking up at dinner… Your family is kind of intimidating."

Sheba chuckles, because there's something amusing about one of the most powerful warriors and Adepts in the world calling her family intimidating.

Felix misunderstands her laughter, and bristles softly. "Don't laugh," he says. "I really am sorry. I meant to- I- Listening to you speak with them was uncomfortable," he decides.

Sheba swallows her giggles.

"How so?"

Felix shifts uncomfortably. "It reminded me of conversations with my own parents," he admits, "or, worse, conversations with Jenna. …I kept thinking of how I wanted somebody to step in and explain things on my behalf. But it wasn't as if Saturos or Menardi cared about what she thought enough to explain… and it wasn't as if Jenna would have listened."

Felix looks lost in thought, and Sheba decides to sneak a peek.

Once I told her our parents were being held in Prox pending the completion of our mission, she took that idea and ran with it… She warmed up to me again, so how could I tell her I was lighting the lighthouses to save Prox, just as much as I was to save our parents? And how could I explain it afterwards, once we learned it wasn't only Prox, but the whole world that was counting on us? How could I tell her I would have done it for Prox, and Prox alone?

"Would you stop, Sheba, please?" Felix asks. He looks tired, which Sheba thinks is understandable, given the late hour.

Sheba hums and returns to her own thoughts.

"It's fine," she says. "My parents are wonderful… but they have never stopped seeing me as that goddess, that fell to Weyard as a baby. It's hard for them to see me like this – with coarse hands and battle scars, and travelling alone with a full grown man."

"…full… grown?" Felix says, like he'd never considered it before. He looked curiously at his muddled and blurry reflection on the pond surface.

The rest he has no comment on, so Sheba continues.

"Practically everybody here treats me like a goddess, which isn't bad, but being around people who think or act like they're worth less than you... it's kind of lonely…"

"Is that how everyone treats you?" Felix snorts. "I've seen them be cruel to you."

"Well, everyone here." Sheba shrugs. "People are not always kind to their goddesses. There are jealous or perverse men and women, who will look at you and want to pull you down to how low they feel. But that's still because they think you're higher than them… even if you're not…"

They stand in silence for another moment.

"I don't think any of you treated me like that," Sheba says, "nor most of the people in Southern Gondowan, or in Osenia." She laughs. "But where Isaac and Garet and Mia are concerned, they knew Ivan first, so maybe somebody with my features didn't seem so exotic."

Felix snorts. "I doubt Ivan could prepare anyone for meeting somebody as pretty as you."

Her eyes widen and she turns to Felix.

Felix looks just as surprised as she is – that he actually managed to think of something that smooth, and that he actually managed to voice the thought aloud.

"Oh, so you thought I was pretty," Sheba teases.

"I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon," Felix interrupts, suddenly.

Sheba ponders that for a moment, and decides to let him change the subject.

"Are you staying?" Felix asks, in a carefully neutral voice.

"…I don't know," Sheba replies. And then, a moment later, "…You're planning on getting a boat, right?"

Felix scowls. "What, are you reading my mind again?" he asks.

"Nope," Sheba says cheerfully. "How about I come with you to find one? And then we'll sail back here to Lalivero and decide."

Felix is muttering to himself, but eventually he nods.

"A-alright. But you better be off then. You need to rest for the trip tomorrow. …and I wouldn't want your family to realise you're absence and think I behaved inappropriately towards you."

Sheba snorts. "They already think that, mister."

...

Her family does realise her absence, but they don't mention it to her. Sheba can only read it pouring from their minds and from their eyes the following morning.

She realises they're afraid to speak harsh words, for fear of scaring her off. And Sheba can't bring herself to tell them that it makes no difference either way.

She lets Felix play the villain. Faran and the rest of her family aren't pleased, when he appears just as the sun's starting to fall the next day to pick her up.

"Where are you going with this man?" Faran asks her. "And during the night time hours, as well!"

"The desert is easier to traverse after the sun has set," Felix says practically, trying to be helpful. Sheba nods in agreement.

"And so soon after you returned to us," Faran says, holding his hand up to his eyes.

"Do not worry, father," Sheba says, holding him close. "You'll see me again soon."

Faran returns the embrace, as do her mother and brother and the other residents of Lalivero that stop by to see her off. But Sheba is sad to find it's not enough to make her want to stay.

.

.

They cross the mountains over to Champa.

Boats are still in short supply along the south-eastern coast of Angara, and frightfully expensive. Sheba thinks their best bet is calling in a favour somewhere, and Felix is nervous about sticking around too long in most places, since Jenna and the other Adepts might be looking to bring him back to New Vale.

Felix's concerns turn out to be correct.

"Your sister was here a few days ago, with some other chap – dirty blond hair, bright yellow scarf, bit lanky looking, but with firm shoulders," Briggs tells them. "She was spitting venom. Said you had skipped town a wanted man, and thought that I might sympathise – criminal to criminal." Briggs frowned. "The boy was trying to talk her down though, saying nobody had done anythin' all that bad."

Felix groans and shakes his head.

"That's Jenna and Isaac for you," Sheba chirps, swaying from foot to foot.

Briggs smiles at her, before turning with a more firm expression to Felix.

"So is that what you thought?" Briggs says. "That I'd be sympathetic to your little run in with the law? That you could hide out here?"

Felix frowns and looks at his feet, torn between shaking his head and nodding. "Perhaps…" he says.

Briggs brightens. "Well, you thought right, then!" he says, slapping Felix on the shoulder. "What can I do you for?"

Felix explains their situation. That if Briggs can have his people, sea-faring men by trade, build a small sailing boat for them, they'll offer up the scant amount of gold they're carrying, and will offer their services to the village. The people of Champa have been working hard to terraform the rough, rocky cliffs into something that can support crops, ever since the sea stopped being a reliable source of food a couple of years prior. But crop yields are still painfully low and Briggs knows that Felix and Sheba can each do the work of a hundred men, and more, with a touch of their 'magic'.

It's not an unfair trade. In fact, it's a very good deal by most accounts, but Briggs is a shrewd barterer, and Felix has played his hand too quickly.

"So that friend of yours with the ship... He's not in the picture any longer."

Felix wrinkles his nose and shakes his head.

Piers had returned to Lumeria, to determine the details of his exile, and to visit his uncle. They had agreed to leave messages with Madra's Mayor, if they needed to contact him, but Jenna and the Vale Adepts knew about that already, so their lines of communication were compromised. Not to mention, it wasn't really fair to place Piers in the middle of their dispute. However small a dispute it should have been.

"So you're saying I'm your only hope. And that's all you're offering me?!" Briggs growls. "And when you expect me to pull together the supplies, and the labour, and all the rest for this boat project of yours?!"

Sheba rolls her eyes, but Felix looks abashed.

Briggs smiles at her again. "I'll tell you what. I really only need one of you to oversee the crops. What I really need, is one of you to look after Eoleo."

Felix looks pained.

"That's right! One of you will serve the village, and the other will do this personal favour for me," Briggs declares, before frowning seriously. "My son's magic has gotten out of control. The other night he set the bedside table on fire. Scared me half to dea- I mean- Chaucha was scared half to death… Me – I have nerves of steel!"

Briggs coughs suspiciously, and Sheba giggles, but Felix doesn't rise to the bait.

"Grandma's been trying to teach him, but his magic is different from hers, and there's only so much she can show him. Not to mention what a toll it is for her in her old age…" Briggs continues, looking troubled. "But you two are different. And I know you're tight lipped about the details, but I know you can teach him how to control these powers. And you will…if you want your boat."

Felix falters for a minute, so Sheba gives him a nudge in the right direction.

"He'll do it!" she says, stepping forward and clasping Felix on the shoulder.

And that's how they end up spending the vernal season in Champa.

"Why did you sign me up for this?" Felix says, bursting into their room in the Champa Fortress, a week later, with shiny burns over his face and arms, and collapsing face first on the mat on the opposite side of the room.

They had been given only one room, and only one bed, and Felix had spent a couple of grumpy days sleeping on the floor, before he managed to convince somebody to move an extra fixture into their room.

Sheba was standing on the opposite side of the room, pulling a pair of gaiters over her leggings, and setting a couple of Felix's Venus Djinn to her, so she'd be able to cast growth Psynergy.

"That kid's a total brat. He won't listen to me at all, and then acts like a saint as soon as Obaba enters the room… And he's a Mars Adept, so it's not like I know what to teach him. It's a task suited better for Jenna… or Garet," Felix complains. "Why did you agree to have me do this?" he asks again, groaning into his pillow.

"Because you wanted a boat and Briggs wasn't going to give you one otherwise," Sheba says practically, pulling on a pair of rough leather gloves.

It's just about dusk, and Sheba's getting ready to depart for the irrigation fields. Working at night is preferable to Sheba, when the people of Champa couldn't fully observe the extent of her Psynergy, as she toiled away.

"I still don't see why you get to be the one working in the fields, while I'm trying to keep my hair from being set on fire, each afternoon," Felix mutters. "You wouldn't even be able to do field work, if I hadn't brought my Venus Djinn."

"Hmm, but Flower and Salt and Petra like me," Sheba says, whistling to call the Venus Djinn out. They appear and dance around her happily.

"And besides," she adds. "It's good practice for when you have children of your own someday."

Felix sighs and turns on his side to face her.

"And what about you, when you have children?" he asks her.

"I don't think I will," Sheba replies, turning to smile at him. "And I'm from a race of moon people, remember. I'm not even sure I can have children with you earthlings."

She laughs lightly and grabs her staff and makes for the door.

"That just sounds like an excuse," Felix gripes.

"Nonsense, you're truly the only one who can look after Eoleo properly," she says seriously, as she departs. She chuckles to herself though, as she makes her way through the stone halls of the Fortress.

As if she's going to let Felix talk her out of the good job.

.

.

After a season in Champa, Eoleo has finally learned to respect that people do not want their belongings set aflame, the fields are more fertile than they've ever been and are pulling in a harvest the Gods would be jealous of, and Felix and Sheba set sail on the Great Eastern Sea.

They head to Izumo first, and arrive just as the leaves on the maples turn red and orange.

"It's a shame you came so late," Lady Uzume tells them. "The Obon Fesivals have just concluded, and we are busy in preparation for the dark winter months. All our village has to offer now is a bit of quiet hospitality."

"That's more than enough," Felix tells her. He shuffles on his feet for a minute, before bowing shortly to Lady Uzume.

Everybody in Izumo bows to one another, Sheba notices, even if they're only exchanging greetings. Felix can try to please the locals, if he likes, but Sheba isn't going to bother with stupid customs she can't understand. She stands next to him and holds her head up high.

Lady Uzume looks between them and chuckles to herself.

She sends them off with her handmaids, who lead Sheba and Felix into different rooms, to bathe and dress in clean garments. The maids coo over Sheba's blonde hair, tell her how pretty it is as they run their combs through the knots.

Sheba ignores them and lies in the bathwater that is quickly turning dark and dirty. It isn't enjoyable. It reminds her too much of Tolbi. Babi's servants had waited on her hand and foot, but kept her bored and isolated for the sake of Babi's control over Lalivero, and his wish for an eternity that wasn't his to have.

Sheba struggles as Uzume's handmaids attempt to dress her. She pulls the cloth out of their hands and slaps them away from her. The garment they provide is extravagant, dyed in orange and royal purple with embroidery of autumn leaves, but Sheba assumes the robe is otherwise like her regular white one.

It turns out she couldn't be more wrong. As she unfurls the gown, several sashes and fasteners drop onto the floor, and Sheba dismisses them, ignoring the nervous smiles and offers of help from the handmaids as she pulls on the gown. But as she progresses she finds herself swimming in loose fitting fabric that doesn't seem to want to stay in place. She pulls the fabric together and reaches for one of the fallen sashes, which she cannot fasten for the life of her.

She's removes and reapplies the robe a half dozen times. Its design is utterly inscrutable, and eventually she gives up.

Sheba folds the fabric into a long cord and begins twisting it around herself. She wraps it up around her shoulder, then down between her thighs, then folds it up over the other shoulder and under her arm. She winds it all around herself, eventually pulling the long sleeves tight around her chest and tying them there.

Sheba turns to the maids, who have given up shy smiles and are laughing in earnest, despite their efforts to hide it.

Sheba turns to the mirror. She doesn't look anything like the beautiful madams and maidens of Izumo. She looks like a fool, with the rich fabric coiled around her the way a lowly tramp might wear a tied together string of rags. She glares at herself and considers going out like that, if only to spite everyone else.

"Well!" she barks, turning to the handmaids. "Aren't you going to help me dress?!"

Her mood only worsens when the handmaids oblige her. They only giggle and step happily forward to untie the robe from her body.

When Sheba finally exits back into the main hall, the robe is pristine and neat, folded over her shoulders with the sash tied in a large bow.

Felix is waiting for her, standing in a set of more conservative grey and black robes. A couple of the Izumo handmaids hover around him, looking a bit too engrossed in whatever he's saying.

Sheba frowns. She considers that they must have helped him bathe and dress as well. She imagines a number of lewd scenarios, which only serve to frustrate her further.

Felix turns to her. The corner of his mouth twitches.

"You took your time," he says, in the same quiet way he says everything. "Did something happen?"

Sheba scowls and refuses to answer his question. "Where is Uzume?"

Lady Uzume has already departed, but has left instructions for the handmaids. They're to be escorted through the town, along the grove of maples, before being led to the to the guest chambers in Izumo's largest pavilion.

The grove is beautiful, and Felix is his usual compassionate sort of quiet, but Sheba can't seem to relax. She's unsure of what to say, and the omnipresence of the handmaids leaves her anxious for reasons she can't explain.

And then, on their walk, they run into Susa and Kushinada.

Kushinada is heavily pregnant, and she leans heavily against Susa as they both bow deeply to Felix, who returns the gesture.

Kushinada titters into her hand. She lets Susa lead the conversation for the most part, but she makes a point to thank Felix again for saving her from the Serpent at Mt Mikage.

Sheba frowns and crosses her arms. She feels like an outsider, as everyone talks easily around her. Neither Kushinada nor Susa even look at Sheba. There's no acknowledgement that Sheba fought against alongside Felix at Gaia Rock, that Felix had fought the Serpent with an entire team of Adepts.

Susa tells Felix of their wedding, and how Izumo has fared since their last meeting. He looks distinctly smug when he says he hopes his child with Kushinada will be a boy, who they plan to name Takeru.

Sheba remembers how Susa felt threatened by Felix's triumph at Gaia Rock. Despite his realisation that Kushinada's safety came first, he had worried that Felix had won over her favour with his heroism.

She hardly needs to slip into his mind to confirm it but, except for Felix who glances nervously to the side every so often, nobody is paying her any attention so…

Sheba directs the Psynergy forward, until she can hear Susa's thoughts ring clearly in her head.

Felix may have defeated the Serpent at Mt Mikage, but in matters of women, I am the clear victor. I'm the one who has made Kushinada heavy with child, in the end. And, even in her current state, Kushinada is a hundred times prettier than this girl Felix keeps around. The girl is rude and wilful, and her complexion is even darker than his. Gods know he can do better…

"Excuse me!" Sheba protests, her face flaring up with anger, to the bewilderment of all around her.

Felix is the first to realise it, and Sheba feels him reach out to the retreating traces of her Mind Read Psynergy.

"Sorry to cut this short," he apologises, bowing to Susa and Kushinada quickly, before pushing Sheba off in the other direction.

The handmaids follow quickly after, standing behind a short distance so Felix and Sheba may have their privacy, relatively speaking.

"You really need to stop doing that…" Felix says.

"I didn't see you stopping me whenever you needed a lead on something!" Sheba retorts.

Felix opens his mouth, to remind her that they were trying to save the world then. But Sheba can see his thoughts and he knows as well as she does. Felix has had her read far more minds than they can justify in the name of altruism.

"Why are we even here?!" Sheba snarls angrily.

"There's an errand I need to run," Felix says cryptically.

Sheba huffs and turns away from him. She could read his mind easily, but she won't give him the satisfaction after such a comment.

"Why are you so angry?" Felix asks.

Sheba doesn't even know what to say, but-

"We're always going to the places you want to go!" she snaps. Even Lalivero, she thinks, mostly Lalivero.

Felix looks at her, bewildered. "Well," he says evenly. "Where do you want to go?"

.

.

The Djinn, Coal, they leave in Izumo.

"Oh, I didn't expect you to return him. You shouldn't have," Uzume says.

Sheba expects it's just for show, since Uzume cradles Coal fondly in her arms.

My dear, I'm so glad you've returned, she thinks, and Sheba leaves her mind before Uzume can detect her presence.

The passage out of Izumo runs much more smoothly by Sheba's estimation, in spite of the tropical squalls that set upon their boat during the journey south.

Felix is complaining again. "Why am I the one rowing, when it's you that's decided we must travel against the sea currents?"

The rain and sea water are running down the side of his face and his wet hair is plastered against the back of his neck. He struggles against the oars.

Sheba's laying back against the deck. She stares up at the cloudy sky and exhales. Water droplets collect in her mouth and she swallows.

"Because I'm the one with the wind Psynergy – you know, what helps us steer the boat – and you're the one with the earth Psynergy – you know, what's absolutely useless out here."

"You're not casting right now," Felix says.

"I'm resting until I get my energy back," Sheba says.

The grey storm clouds swirl above her. The world feels right to Sheba.

Felix grumbles. He's about to say something about how he should get the chance to rest now too, but he thinks better of it and continues to strain against the oars.

"I miss Piers," he says, as the boat lurches forward.

I miss Piers and Piers's amazing Lumerian ship, is what he means.

"I don't," Sheba says. It's mostly for the sake of being contrary, but she does kind of like it when it's just the two of them.

.

.

"Ah! It's Felix and Sheba!" the man at the gate calls, motioning for the others to open it. "One could not hope for better visitors, especially during this phase of the moon!"

Felix?! they say. The one who isn't afraid of our powers?!

Sheba?! they cry. The only human we know with the power of Air's Rock?!

Sheba smiles and pulls down the hood of her travelling cloak. They are lucky enough to arrive in Garoh during the onset of the full moon, when the residents are all in high spirits.

The villagers most heavily afflicted with Jupiter's power have begun transforming during the nights already, so the village storerooms are already full of meat they have caught during the midnight hunts. They hastily decide to hold a huge feast around the fire that night, to welcome their guests. Sheba and Felix will join in the celebration. They'll sleep out on the open grasslands, under the stars, as the hunting camps trawl for prey and revel in their beast-like natures.

Master Maha is especially delighted by their presence. Too often does the arrival of visitors drive him into hiding but, with Felix and Sheba, there is a welcome opportunity to talk about the outside world.

"Are you sure you don't want to lead the others in the hunt?" Sheba asks Master Maha, as they sit down together around the bonfire.

Master Maha inhales deeply from his pipe. Sheba watches him, perplexed. She has no idea how he manages this, without opposable thumbs.

"Let the young ones have their fun." Master Maha smiles. "I don't often get the chance to relax and enjoy the company of outsiders."

Felix and Sheba are not restrained. They share information about their quest to light the Lighthouses, and its results.

"The Psynergetic powers of our people have strengthened greatly in the last year or so," Master Maha says contemplatively.

"It must be because Alchemy has returned to the world." Sheba says, as Felix nods in agreement. She explains what they had seen at the Jupiter Lighthouse, and Contigo, and in the murals of the Mars Lighthouse. She can easily relay the vivid contents of her memories but, when she attempts to provide further insight, or analyse the situation, she cannot manage. "If only Kraden were, here," she laments, groaning in frustration. "He would be much better able to explain the inner-workings of Alchemy."

"No, not at all Miss Sheba." Master Maha grins, and it looks feral in spite of his thoughtful nature. "You are a much better rhetorician, and much more insightful, than you give yourself credit for."

Felix snorts. "She's of high birth," he says, by way of explanation.

"Oh, quite literally," Sheba agrees, catching his double-meaning and the amused gleam in his eyes.

Some of the villagers, those who have not yet started to transform under the waxing moon, serve them large trays of roasted meat. The meat is tender. It melts in her mouth. Sheba lifts the roast Momonga in her hands, and pulls the meat off the bones with her teeth. Felix manages to be more restrained, but only by a little.

Master Maha watches them eat, pleased by the gusto with which they devour their food.

"You would fit right in here, among us Werecreatures," he teases.

But their conversation gives way to more serious concerns, as the night progresses. They have finished their meal, and the Werewolves are howling loudly. Master Maha inhales from his pipe and breathes out at the moon in the sky.

"The moon betrays the insecurity of these times," he says. "Alhafra is growing restless."

Sheba looks to Felix, but he won't meet her eyes. She knows they're both thinking of the fear the Alhafrans bore in their hearts towards the people of Garoh, and of their untenable Mayor.

"They say we are devils – monstrosities," Master Maha says. "And there has been great pressure from the church leaders on our healer, Freyr."

He waves a paw towards a man sitting to the right of them around the bonfire. Sheba recognises him from the Garoh Sanctum. He's one of the few non-Werewolves in the town, but he regards the affliction with interest and envy, rather than disgust.

"They want him to flee to Alhafra, and make public statements against us… But he is a good man and, so far, he has refused." Master Maha shows his teeth. "I would not be surprised if he gave up his priesthood, rather than betray us, but what an unfair decision to have to make."

Sheba does not know how to respond, but Master Maha fills the silence by beckoning for a wineskin and a couple of cups. He pours both Felix and Sheba a cup, but himself abstains.

"The problem remains," he says sadly. "One day, the Alhafrans will march against us, if not for morals, then for iron and gold."

Sheba gulps down her wine.

"But they can't do anything, can they?" Sheba says. "You're adepts… And the people of Mikasalla think highly of you! Can't they-"

"Mikasalla is only a small farming town." Master Maha shakes his head sadly. "Whereas Alhafra is highly populated, and at the centre of a highly travelled trade route… And it's one thing to think highly of Garoh, and another to be willing to risk your life in defence of it. I would not expect such fealty from the people of Mikasalla. They are a kind people, but they risk their own starvation, if they attempt turning their farmhands into soldiers."

"The two of us-! We can help!" Sheba says quickly, the wine emboldening her.

"How?" Felix asks quietly, as he swirls the wine in his own cup.

Sheba's tongue catches.

"W-we can- If you send for us-" She has no answers.

Maha grins pityingly.

"Will you flee?" Felix asks.

"It's a possibility," Maha admits. "The people of Mikasalla may be willing to help smuggle us through the south of the continent, if it should come to that."

"We have ties in Madra," Felix says, abruptly. "We were planning on heading there, before we move back to Gondowan. We have a crude message system moving in and out of there, and we can make arrangements with the Mayor. My-" Felix's voice catches in his throat, for just a second, before he continues. "My sister is a fair woman," he coughs, as if it costs him a great deal to say so. "It may be possible to arrange asylum for your people in Vale, or in-"

Prox is the word he doesn't say.

"If it should come to that," Felix adds belatedly, as he takes another gulp of his drink.

"Well, I thank you both for your concern," Maha says. "Although I realise you can make no promises. It's difficult to remember, but even us Adepts are only a one person apiece." He stands, and beckons for another wineskin for the two of them. "I'm getting old and tired, and wish return to my quarters, but I trust the sleeping mats and blankets will be enough for you youngsters tonight?" He pauses briefly as Felix and Sheba nod and thank him for his hospitalities. "Then I'll leave you to the bonfire and the open sky. Until the morning- know you are both welcome here in Garoh for as long as you like."

With that, Master Maha departs. But thoughts of Garoh and Alhafra and war continue to haunt Sheba, as she continues to imbibe in the wine.

"Why bother going to Madra with these problems?!" Sheba cries loudly, after the wine has made her tongue even looser. "Why not stay here in Garoh, to defend the town from the Alhafrans?"

Sheba leans close to Felix, as they walk together over to the sleeping mat that's been provided for her.

The pass a pair of grinning Werewolves on the way around the bonfire, and Sheba waves at them happily.

Felix leans away from her. He had quit his consumption of wine much sooner than her, and is far more sober.

"No, Master Maha is right," he tells her gently. "We are only two people, against a world of those who fear witchcraft."

"That's stupid, and you know it," Sheba complains, waving a dismissive hand at Felix. "We have fought off dozens of men before, as the need has arisen."

"Dozens is not hundreds or thousands," Felix replies curtly. "We will do what we can to assure the people of Garoh have a place to go – multiple places to go – but this is a problem of opinion and economics much larger than ourselves. The people of Garoh have their own problems and decisions to make – just as you do yours."

Sheba sighs as she plops herself down on her sleeping mat. She knows what Felix is going to say before he even says it.

"We have places to go anyhow. And you have a family awaiting your return to Lalivero-"

Sheba sighs. She stretches out on sleeping mat, and doesn't even bother to pull a blanket over herself. It's hot, so close to the bonfire, and she can feel the wine spilling through her and warming her blood.

"Do I haaave to?" Sheba whines, as she reaches up and tugs at the collar of her robes.

"Yes, Sheba," Felix says, standing over her. It's hard to see in the firelight, but even though he hasn't drunk more than a cup of wine, she thinks his face is just as red as hers.

"You promised your family you would return soon," he says. "We've been gone for almost eight moons already. We have found a boat, and I'm planning to head to Madra next, and then to Gondowan. So you had better be prepared at that point to greet them."

"Ughhh!" Sheba groans, and she's surprised at the strength of her own reaction. "Can't we just forget about them and leave?" She doesn't want to tell them she isn't returning to Lalivero to stay. She doesn't want to go back to Lalivero and get stuck there because she's too afraid to tell them otherwise.

Sheba writhes on her sleeping mat and pounds her fists against the ground.

"Brat." Felix steps forward. He squats down to speak to her more effectively. "Would you abandon your family like that?" he beseeches. "Would you leave them without a goodbye? Wondering if anything horrible happened to you and left you unable to return? Thinking I had kidnapped you for good?"

"Who are you to say something like that?" Sheba mutters. "You're allowed to leave your sister and parents behind, without so much as a word, but I have to go face the music."

Felix flinches. When he stands, his posture is stiff.

"You're not as heartless as I am," he says darkly.

Sheba doesn't think he's heartless, but he'll be waiting a long time if he expects Sheba to deny it for him. Instead she groans once again into her mat.

"What about Lalivero is so scary that you can't go back?" Felix asks, in a way that manages to sound more curious than judgemental.

And Sheba could ask him the same about Vale, but her mind takes a trip. What about Lalivero makes her want to stay? What about Felix makes her want to leave?

Sheba smiles, and rolls up so she's laying on her side, facing Felix. She stretches her legs out long and rests one arm down on her waist, across her stomach.

"What did you think of me, when first we met? Did you mistake me for a goddess too?"

They just look at one another for a moment. The embers of the bonfire illuminate their faces, and the howls of werewolves singing in the distance, and Sheba bats her eyelashes slowly.

Then Felix realises it's a trap, but too late. His face flushes and, by the time he thinks to focus on something else, Sheba's already in his mind.

She sees the barren landscape of the Suhalla Desert. She's lying on the ground with her limbs splayed, exhausted, dying of thirst.

The wind is blowing sand over her, where she's sprawled facedown. Her light hair blends seamlessly into the background, but her dark bronze skin is glowing with oil. She's breathing hard, and Felix is imagining other reasons for the heavy, pained inhalation of air.

She feels Felix remember the binding red lust that stirred him, and how he undressed her prone figure with his eyes.

She hears him remember how he told Menardi and Saturos not to bother with her, once they had taken her back to town. And not in the least because he was uncomfortable taking hostages.

"So not a goddess." Sheba laughs deeply, leaving Felix's mind. "To you, I was no goddess, but a succubus out to consume your soul?"

Sheba watches Felix waver angrily, ready to deny it, and simultaneously realising there's no point. Sheba has already seen the truth of the matter.

"Stop reading my mind," he says coolly. "And cut me a break. I was eighteen. With more hormones than I knew what to do with."

"Riiiight," Sheba says mockingly, "and I was only fourteen!"

Felix's face is bright red at this point.

"It was just a physical reaction, okay?" he snaps. "I didn't do anything, did I? I never touched you. I wasn't the one who forced you to stay with us when we went to the Venus Lighthouse. And I wasn't the one who insisted on sticking around after, by some miracle, we survived falling into the sea, and after battling Poseidon, and after the Mars Lighthouse was lit. And, even now, after everything, you're still here, stuck to me like a Bramble Seed."

Sheba feels like she should be insulted, like she should deny it. But the wine is still colouring her vision, and she's not so much bothered as much as struck by the fact that it's so funny. She can't help but laugh!

"I never touched you," Felix repeats, even more vehemently. "I never forced you to do anything. I never did anything crazy like that at all!"

"Oh, I don't know," Sheba says wiggling her hips and stubbornly refusing to stand. "You did jump off the top of the Venus Lighthouse for me. That sounds like the crazy actions of a lovesick fool to me," she giggles.

Felix looks murderous. "I thought you were going to die, Sheba," he says coldly.

"More importantly," Sheba says, ignoring him, "are you going to try anything else crazy? Now that I'm sixteen? And you're twenty?"

She's laid out on the sleeping mat in front of him, next to the bright bonfire, with nobody but werewolves around for miles. Werewolves, who are mostly busy hunting and – quite frankly – don't seem as concerned with proper modest behaviour as regular humans.

Felix scowls, and turns away. He walks fifteen metres around the camp site, to the other side of the bonfire where Sheba can barely see him.

He's so predictable, Sheba thinks, laughing to herself as she let herself drop off into sleep.

.

.

It breaks much of the remaining uneasiness between them, unexpectedly.

They decide companionably to leave a week later, after Sheba returns the Djinn Ether to Master Maha.

"How curious life is, that we should reunite like this," Maha tells Ether, as the Djinn dissolves into the air surrounding him.

Sheba quite staunchly blames the wine for her words that night in Garoh, even though Felix never asks and Sheba never volunteers this information.

But either way things run more smoothly between them. Felix doesn't hesitate in taking the extra step to walk closer beside her as they venture through the wilderness. He doesn't pause before wrapping his arm around her shoulder so they don't get separated in the crowded marketplace of Madra. Their conversations feel less measured, although Felix is still far from talkative. Nothing else about their relationship has changed, but it's easier now that the attraction between them has been made clear on both sides. They both know, and know that the other one knows, and Felix is probably happy, knowing that Sheba won't be disappointed or surprised by some sudden revelation. She's seen the worst of it in his head already.

They take a detour into Madra's residential neighbourhood.

"You're just putting things off," Sheba says, although she's more pleased than critical.

"No, I'm not," Felix protests softly.

The elderly couple is pleased to have their Djinn, Char, back.

"Oh," the wife says. "You don't know how much this means- When we handed him over to you, I thought we'd be happy to save on food costs. But the couple of extra coins each month was worth the companionship."

"Yeah," the old man says. "And, for some reason, the house has been freezing ever since this little guy moved out."

Felix coughs and the old woman elbows her husband. But Char seems happy with them, so they leave it at that.

"You two remind me of me and my husband when we were young," the woman says.

Felix coughs again, and they take it as a sign to leave.

"I don't want to be compared to a couple of old farts," Sheba quips, once they're back out on the street.

"Yeah, and we're not that nice," Felix agrees. "They obviously don't know us very well."

Madra's Mayor greets them warmly, although he's obviously disappointed Piers isn't with them. But Sheba explains their situation over tea.

"We've long heard rumours about the residents of Garoh," the Mayor says. "Do you mean to tell me that it's not just an old-wives tale?"

Sheba fumbles, thinking of how to explain. "The people of Garoh do have an unusual appearance… particularly during the period surrounding the full-moon. And they are a wild bunch, but not destructive or mean-spirited. We don't expect you to shelter them permanently, but we hope you can arrange for messengers up the continent to Kalay, and from there to New Vale, and across to Loho and Kalt Island, should the need arise."

"You mean to send to your friends for aid?" The Mayor smiles.

"To my sister," Felix corrects, putting down his quill and sealing a final envelope. It's addressed to Jenna. He tosses it in the pile, along with other messages to Piers, and his parents, and some less personal letters to Ivan and Garet explaining the political situation in Garoh.

"If you would hold the letters here for Piers," Felix says, "unless you hear anything startling in the meantime from Osenia."

The Mayor nods understandingly, and gathers the letters in a stack for safe-keeping. They need to discuss the logistics of this situation further, but…

Felix turns to Sheba.

"I apologised to Jenna, for not saying anything before I left," he says. "I told her we were still travelling and that I didn't know where we were going yet."

Sheba laughs under her breath. "Coward," she accuses lightly. "And it's not fair you're getting off with only a letter, when I have to go see them."

She smiles, and Felix leans over into her shoulder.

"I know," he admits, and Sheba reaches for his hand and squeezes it under the table.

.

.

The man at Lalivero's seaport tries to overcharge Felix for his docking fee, until Sheba steps out of the boat and pulls the hood off her cloak.

From there, it's the same old story, except different.

The man laughs and pats Sheba on the back. He can't charge Faran's daughter for storing her boat here. And he tells Sheba which way to go to get home, even though Sheba's lived here almost all her life.

The docks have been rebuilt, and the roads smoothed over and repaired. Lalivero has recovered admirably from the earthquake. Everything is still recognisable, but it seems to Sheba the entire town is covered in lacquer, and that she shouldn't touch anything, if she were even able to.

It emboldens Sheba. She walks faster, moving with increasing rapidity on her way home. People in the streets stop to greet Sheba, with their smiles and praise and thoughts. But even as Sheba takes the time to smile and wave back at Lalivero's residents, her pace grows ever quicker.

Even if she doesn't go home, she's been seen by so many people her parents will have heard by nightfall. There's no longer a point to prolonging the inevitable.

Felix, on the other hand, is slowing down. He's lagging behind her, at a greater and greater distance. They're no longer walking together, as much as Felix has taken to silently stalking behind her.

It worries the people of Lalivero.

Is that man bothering her?

He's following behind, threatening her!

She means to leave him, and he means to harass her until she gives in!

Serves her right, the spoiled princess!

Sheba forces herself out of their minds. Once they're alone, climbing up the vista point to the mayor's residence, Sheba swings back to face Felix.

"Would you hurry up!" Sheba hisses. Felix doesn't respond, but she knows he hears her, because his pace quickens momentarily.

Sheba grumbles and turns forward. She hates how this is her family, and yet Felix is the one acting anxious and fearful about their visit.

The maid drops her keys when she unlocks the front door and sees Sheba standing there.

"Hello, Nenet!" Sheba smiles. "I've returned, as promised. Are father and the others here?"

The maid sputters. "A- ah- Don't go anywhere!" she finally commands, before running off back into the house.

Sheba taps her foot impatiently. "She didn't invite me in… I guess I'm only a guest now," she says, more to convince herself, than because she really believes it.

She turns to Felix. He's standing a metre behind her. He offers no wisdom.

Her brother is the first to arrive at the door.

"Oh, thank the Gods, Sheba!" he cries, as he swings the door aside and pulls Sheba tightly into a hug. "It's been almost a year since your last visit! We thought you would never return!"

"Ah ha, I can tell it's been a year." Sheba laughs nervously. "You've shot up like a weed! And are you attempting to grow a moustache like Father?" She reaches up to brush the peach fuzz on her brother's upper lip.

"Hey!" he protests, pushing her away.

Sheba takes the opportunity to look back at Felix. He's standing further away now, at an uncomfortably far distance. His face is closed off.

And that's all Sheba can see, before her parents step in to welcome her home.

"Your father and I are so glad you're okay!" her mother says, smiling at her unsurely. "Where have you been, since you were last here?"

Sheba follows them into the sitting room and begins telling them about Champa. She's not sure if she should tell them she spent her time there working in the fields. She may have used her Psynergy, and not her hands, but it was farming all the same and she doesn't want her parents to think she's only been made to work, like a day labourer.

She gets lost in the conversation. She's been a lot of places in the last year, and even more places in the years before that, and her parents have her recount her journeys again, between talk of their own lives in Lalivero and her father's management of the continued aggressions with Tolbi.

She's sitting and talking for a long while, when Nenet finally calls them in for an early dinner.

Sheba stands, and abruptly realises the empty space.

Felix hadn't really been welcomed inside, but her family hadn't protested when Sheba waved him in. Sheba saw no need to complicate the issue by drawing attention to it. Felix had been sitting in that chair in the corner, keeping his mouth shut, and at some point Sheba might have seen him get up. Probably to use the washroom, she had thought.

But he should have been back by now.

"Where's Felix?" Sheba asks.

Her family is moving into the dining room, and they turn back to her, uncertainly.

The maid clears her throat.

"He told me that he was stepping out for a bit," Nenet says. "He didn't tell me where he was going, or when he'd be bac-"

She hadn't worried about this during their last trip to Lalivero. Except a year has passed since then.

I'm not Jenna, Sheba thinks. He wouldn't.

Except Sheba's breath catches, and she waits only a second, before bolting for the front entrance.

"Sheba!" her father protests.

"Just- I'll be right back!" Sheba shouts. "Don't go anywhere!"

She slams the front door open, and runs.

Sheba races back down from the mayor's house – down the cliff and through the streets, back the way they came. People turn to her in recognition, but Sheba races past them without consideration. If they notice the wind pushing unnaturally at her back, they don't get the chance to say.

Sheba bounds forward, frowning unhappily at every fork in the road. Perhaps Felix would make his way to the inn or the marketplace but, as much as Sheba would hate running the extra distance for nothing, she'd hate giving him the chance to sail out from the docks even more.

She's sees him, though. Down the hill from her. Felix is walking near the boats.

The sun has almost set. The dockmaster has gone home, and Felix is alone, scuffing his heels against the brand new wooden pier. Sheba can't tell if he's walking to the boat, or just walking in circles gazing into the water. But Felix being here is upsetting all on its own, and the act of running itself has sped Sheba's heartrate and made her frantic.

Sheba leaps from far too high up, and the wind pushes her over the gate down to the waterfront. She barrels forward, as quickly as she can manage, her feet pounding on the sand and dirt, and then against the Acacia wood of the docks.

Felix spots her. He regards her with something like confusion.

Sheba glares and speeds up, charging for him, and Felix blinks and pulls back instinctively.

Sheba's quicker though. She swipes forward and grabs him angrily by the wrist.

"Where are you going?!" Sheba snarls.

Felix strains back, half-heartedly, against the grip on his arm. Sheba won't let go, and Felix winces, although not from the physicality of the gesture.

"…I don't know," he says.

"Liar!" Sheba barks out. She laughs bitterly. "Everyone knows where you're going!"

Felix sighs. His arm goes slack in Sheba's grip.

"Why else would we tell Madra's mayor to forward missives to Kalt Island?!" Sheba retorts. She crushes her hand even harder against his wrist. "You know where you're going. I know what's been in your head the entire time! So don't think you can lie to me!"

"I'm not lying, Sheba," Felix says, a bit snippily this time. "I really don't know if I'll get there."

"Liar!" Sheba shouts. She grits her teeth, and digs her nails into Felix's arm, and forces her way into his mind.

The onslaught of images is overwhelming.

During the couple weeks she had spent traveling with Saturos and Menardi, everyone had been so tense – the air rife with unspoken disagreements and guarded feelings and aggressive gestures, no doubt fuelled by Alex, who seemed to purposefully drift in and out of camp whenever was least convenient.

At the time, Menardi and Saturos had seemed revolting and beastly to Sheba, with their crabby scaled skin, war-painted faces, and unpolished mannerisms. And, to tell the truth, even after they had died and Sheba learned that Menardi and Saturos had honourable intentions all along, she still believed those of the Mars Clan to be subhuman at best, and horrible grotesques at worst. It wasn't until they visited Prox and Sheba saw the children of the Mars Clan playing in the snow, that she began to doubt her convictions, and to entertain feelings besides joy at the idea of Saturos and Menardi's deaths.

But here in Felix's mind, there was a very different picture of her captors. Saturos – laughing at some joke at Felix's expense and ruffling his hair fondly. Menardi – smiling and leaning in to kiss Felix fondly on the cheek. Karst – scowling and upping the ante with a cool kiss to the lips. And then another one, lying next to Felix in bed. Sheba almost mistakes them for lovers, before she realises they're both fully clothed. A middle-aged Proxian woman is lying next to Felix, smothering his limp and exhausted body close to her chest. She scoots closer to the fire, and the bitter cold Felix had felt in his limbs slowly fades away.

Sheba kept sorting through the thoughts, the absurd juxtaposition of cold and warm and loving. Her curiosity and her anger overwhelm her, and she can't stop herself from watching. Not until Felix grasps her shoulder and shakes her violently.

"Stop looking into my head," Felix commands.

Sheba glares at him. She catches a half-hearted apology forming on her tongue, but Felix cuts her off.

"No, Sheba," he says firmly, angrily even, as he swipes his hands quickly off her shoulders. "I've told you time and time again to stop reading my mind, and you never listen. I've had enough of your placations on this matter. I have the right to my private thoughts and feelings, just as much as you have the right to yours. And I'm tired of you overstepping that line. This isn't going to work if you don't stop invading my space."

"This isn't going to work," Sheba retorts, frowning bitterly, "if you don't let me in!"

Sheba's ashamed to hear her voice crack, but the words keep coming.

"You never tell me anything!" she accuses. And Sheba knows it's not exactly true, but it's true enough regarding anything that matters, and she can't stop. "You never talk! I have no idea what you're thinking! I have no idea if you even want me around!" she cries. She thinks about how eager Felix was to get rid of her, back when Saturos and Menardi first took her into their camp.

You're always trying to get rid of me! Sheba thinks. And she's glad Felix can't hear her.

Sheba bites her lip, and successfully holds back her tears. She takes a breath.

"You never say anything! So how can you blame me for reading your mind, instead?" Sheba questions.

She's angry and upset, and she jumps a little in surprise when Felix reaches out to grasp her hand.

"Sheba," he says. "You can't justify things like that. You're acting like Ivan."

Sheba frowns deeply, and she almost whips her hand right out of his grasp.

But then Felix sighs, and Sheba doesn't, for some reason.

"The people of Prox have unusually low body temperatures," Felix explains, "so they don't mind the cold at the North Pole as much… So when Father and Mother and Uncle Kyle and I were all under the weather, after the disaster at Vale and the toll of the prolonged sea voyage to the Northern Reaches, they mistook us for feverish. And, well, we were feverish… but they mistook us for much more feverish then we were, and couldn't figure out why we weren't responding well to cold compresses."

Sheba shakes her hand in Felix's. She's not sure where he's going with this, but she still cares, so she lets him continue.

"A couple of days later, they finally consulted with Puelle, and he was able to identify their mistake. We could have told them much sooner, if we weren't so weak that we couldn't even speak. I kept falling in and out of consciousness…

"But I still remember," Felix smiles, "the feeling of everybody fussing over you. Anaa… her name is actually Uki- but we all called her Anaa, mother- She turned up all the furnaces, far past what she and the other people of Prox would consider comfortable. The amount of effort she put into nursing me back to health: collecting extra blankets, spoon feeding me, bathing me and turning me to prevent bedsores… just holding me so there would be a little more warmth in my world."

Felix's voice falters, and Sheba startles. It hadn't occurred to her, but maybe this is really difficult for Felix to say aloud.

"The people of Prox did the same for Mother and Father, and Kyle too. And I know we were important political prisoners but… you can't fake that kind of care. Anaa did that just because she wanted us to be safe and comfortable and content," he says confidently. "Others in the village may have considered the practical ramifications, but they sent me to Anaa, who had no concerns except our health…

"Maybe it's stupid of me," Felix says. "Maybe it's foolish. But I don't have any words for how much Prox, and all the people there, meant to me. It was the place I most wanted to be, and the place I most wanted to protect."

The ocean tides are rising, washing against the wooden posts. Felix is holding her hand, and Sheba feels her feet shift under her, as she turns instinctively to him.

"That's not stupid," she finds herself reassuring.

Felix sighs.

"And now… I've ruined it," he says. "How can I even show my face there, after what happened to Saturos and Menardi… and Karst and Agatio?"

Sheba remembers Puelle and the Elders and all the people of Prox. She remembers how Felix hadn't really heard the compliments they paid to him and Isaac on the way out of Prox. Sheba remembers how Felix had dawdled, and had left feeling ashamed.

"What took you so long? Mom and Dad are tired of waiting for you..." Jenna had called to Felix.

"That's not true, Felix," his mother had reassured. "You take as long as you need to say farewell to the people of Prox."

"Don't worry about us, Felix... Puelle and the others took good care of us," his father confirmed with a smile and a nod of his head.

"Don't tell him that! We'll be stuck here forever!" Jenna had cried, the dismay welling up into tears, cracking through her visage.

Even then, Jenna had understood.

Sheba grips Felix's hand.

"That's not true!" she says vehemently. "The people of Prox love you. They'll welcome you back gladly. You'll see! I'll-"

I'll come with you, Sheba thinks. I'll come with you, and blow away anybody who doesn't welcome you home with open arms!

But Sheba can't say it, just like that. Sheba needs more than Felix's thoughts. She needs his thoughts and his words, both.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Sheba asks.

Felix shuffles and refuses to meet her eyes.

"I- You can't Sheba," Felix says. "You have a life here. And a family that cares about you…"

Sheba snorts and decidedly ignores the hypocrisy.

"Do you want me to come with you?" she repeats.

"Sheba…" Felix groans. "You hate the cold weather," he tries.

"Felix!" Sheba commands, yanking on his arm in reprimand. "I am not reading your mind. I'm going to try and stop reading your mind," she informs him. "And instead, I'm going to ask you questions, and try and trust what you say. But you're going to actually have to answer me for this to work."

Felix swings his arm, the one holding her hand. Then he sighs, and nods slowly.

Sheba nods back at him. "Now… Do you want me to come with you to Prox?"

"…Yes," Felix replies.

Sheba relaxes. It's exactly the answer she wanted to hear.

"Okay then," she agrees.

"Sheba-" Felix protests. "This isn't- I don't mean to be selfish-"

"Iris help you, Felix," Sheba groans. "It doesn't have to be forever!" She stomps her foot in frustration. "Can you accept that this is my decision, and not feel guilty about it?" she asks.

Behind Felix, the sun is dancing low over the ocean, and the water shines as the light refracts against it.

"…Yes," Felix admits to himself, after a long moment.

Sheba nods. "Then we have to go see my parents."

His hand is grasped firmly in hers, and Sheba leads him back. He doesn't resist, as she pulls him back up the pier, and up through the streets of Lalivero. He keeps pace with her, and hovers just behind her right shoulder.

It creates a very different impression compared to how they walked through the streets earlier that day. People turn and regard Sheba with confusion and distrust.

They must be so disillusioned, Sheba feels. Oh, how the goddess has fallen! they must be thinking. Letting herself be tied down by a common vagabond, like any common slut. She's not even sure if she should bother reading their minds. They're always watching and waiting to judge her every success and failure.

Instead, Sheba turns back to look at Felix. She looks at his long, messy hair, and earthy brown clothes and tries to see him how others might. She recognises intellectually that he doesn't look very handsome or respectable, but she can't unsee everything else about Felix. Her heart already knows his character too well.

"Sheba!" Faran cries. He's waiting outside the house, and he runs forward to embrace her.

"Dad was just about to send out a search party," her brother says fondly. He's standing next to her mother, in the background.

Sheba doesn't respond. She raises one hand to hug her father back. The other hand is still holding Felix firmly in place.

Her father realises her hesitation, and pulls back. He eyes where Felix and Sheba's hands are connected. Everyone is looking, scrutinising.

Sheba steps forward past her family into the entry hall, dragging Felix with her. It's presumptive of her, deliberately impolite, and her family's reactions are dumbstruck, even though Sheba has never been much for niceties.

She waits patiently for the rest of her family to follow her inside. Sensing the mood, they take their places across from her, as the maid, Nenet, shuts the door behind them.

Sheba inhales deeply, trying to prepare herself.

And Felix, to her surprise, doesn't cower away. He actually steps forward. Not in front of her, as if to block or shield her, but he moves just a few centimetres past her, at her side. He squeezes her hand, in an offer of support.

Sheba exhales.

"This is Felix," she says, smiling. She introduces him, even though she's done it before.

Faran and the others blink at her.

There's a good chance they think this conversation is going someplace it isn't, and Sheba hurries to clarify.

"And I know he looks like this," Sheba says, meaning he's looks too tall and too intimidating and his shoulders are hunched too low, "but, in reality, he's a giant baby who's too scared to go home by himself."

Felix shoots her an irritated glance, but Sheba grasps his hand harder and otherwise ignores him.

"So, you see, when we left New Vale in Angara, he meant to escort me back home, but he actually had it all backwards. It's him that really needs an escort home… Okay, maybe not 'needs'," she admits. "But I want to take him home, just to make sure he gets there alright. I want to see him to a place we can both be happy."

Sheba listens to Felix breathe. It's calming.

"So we can stay here for a month or so…" Sheba allows. Because it's nice to visit, but- "But after that I'm going to leave," Sheba says. "With Felix."

Sheba looks straight her family. She tries not to hide.

"I hope you can understand that, Mom and Dad."

Faran spends the entire month trying to convince her to stay. Her brother takes it upon himself to loudly draw attention to Felix's every flaw.

Her mother only shakes her head. She thinks it's usual for girls to grow up and fall in love and move away, but it would make a lot more sense if Sheba was eloping or pregnant and not just running off without any promise for the future.

They don't understand. They don't understand at all.

But at least this time, it's not because Sheba hasn't even tried to explain.

.

.

Felix clings to Sheba's waist as the leaves and the sand swirl around them. Sheba focusses her Psynergy, and the wind turns out from her palm. The Cyclone cuts deeper into the ground below them, and Sheba can't feel them lurch and fall through the floor, down to the bottom of the Gabomba Catacombs.

She doesn't need to be afraid, and neither does Felix. The wind breaks their fall, and sets them gently on the ground.

Felix pulls away from her, and quickly nods his thanks to her.

Sheba walks ahead.

They climb down through the Catacombs.

"This is the last of what we've borrowed, right?" Felix asks, drawing the Tomegathericon from his bag, as they approach the statue. "The last of the things we have to return?"

His voice, as usual, is cold and low and soft.

Sheba snorts. "Probably not," she says easily. "But we'll have to travel the world another five dozen times if we worry about putting every single thing back in its place."

Felix frowns, and Sheba forces herself to wait patiently for him to speak.

"Akafubu… He needs this book," he says, with only the slightest touch of uncertainty.

"Which is why we've returned," Sheba agrees, as she climbs the ladder up to the statue of the Great Gabomba.

At first, the statue is cold. Sheba feels no Psynergy leaking from the pores on the painted stone.

Felix holds up the tome, trying to get the Great Gabomba's attention.

"Er… Hello…? Ga… bom… ba…?" he says uncertainly, waving the Tomegathericon side to side in front of the statue. "We've come to return your… book?"

Sheba kicks at the base of the statue.

Felix raises a critical eyebrow at her.

When nothing happens, Sheba kicks it again.

Abruptly, the room turns dark, and the statue of Gabomba glows menacingly.

I see you've returned to this place. For what purpose? a voice booms.

Felix holds up the Tomegathericon in both hands, as if as if the Gabomba statue's stone arms will come to life and take it.

"We want to return this," Felix says. "Your magic was most useful on our quest, but Akafubu and the Kibombo have the right to have it."

There is a pause, during which the Great Gabomba seems to consider this.

Eh~ Keep it, the voice says.

Sheba's eyes glaze over, as that sinks in.

"B-but we've come all this way," Felix protests. "How will Akafubu and his successors learn of the Tomegathericon's powers."

You have earned this power, the Great Gabomba protests. Your concern is misplaced. It is, in fact, better if the magic of this tome is saved in the records of your people as well. The Great Gabomba isn't so foolish as to store only a single copy of knowledge. Here! You will see.

The statue slides easily to the side, moved by an invisible force. Behind the statue is the entrance to another cavern.

Felix and Sheba peer inside.

There are lots of gears. They're churning, turning, around and around in circles. They're all attached to a big, automated machine.

"That's a printing press," Sheba says blankly. "I saw one during my stay in Tolbi."

Felix looks at the pile of books in the corner, all bound in dark, tarred parchment.

"Where is it even getting all the paper and hides from?" Sheba asks, bewildered.

Oh, ho! the Great Gabomba calls. The statue shakes and moving over to cover the entrance to the printing cave. So, as you see, even if an ill-fate should befall your copy, the Kibombo will prosper for generations under the aid of Gabomba, and his Tomegathericons.

The presence of the Great Gabomba fades away, and Sheba and Felix are left staring dumbly at the statue.

Felix pauses, before returning the Tomegathericon to his pack.

The water rushes quick and cold, as the two of them cross back through the underwater river. Sheba feels the heat draining from her limbs, and she quickens her pace.

"Well, that was a giant waste of time!" she finally snarls, as they return to the entrance of the Catacombs.

"I don't think there was any way we could have known…" Felix says, still looking shaken. He shrugs. "But I guess it's another riddle about the Great Gabomba solved."

"At the expense of another dozen riddles posed," she murmurs, before allowing the subject to drop. "So, what next?"

She reaches out for Felix's hand, and he takes it as Sheba calls the wind that will carry them back up to the surface.

Felix doesn't speak until they're safely on the upper level.

"What do you want to be next?" he asks, still holding onto her hand.

Sheba thinks that question can be taken in multiple ways, but she chooses the least charged interpretation.

"I'd like to return to Contigo," she says, looking up at the ceiling. "I want to find out more about the Anemos. And more about how they built the wings for our flying ship."

"You just want to pore over architecture and engineering," Felix says, almost teasingly.

Sheba pouts, only for the sake of it.

"And after that?" Felix prompts.

"After that…" Sheba says, "…we'll go home."

"Home?" Felix asks. "You mean to Prox? Or to the Moon?"

He jokes to hide his anxiety.

"To Prox," Sheba agrees. "And then maybe to the Moon. Or across the rift at the edge of the world."

She smiles at Felix. They pull each other along, out of the Gabomba Statue and into the open plaza in Kibombo, under the night sky.

"We'll go home," Sheba says. "Together, I'm sure we'll find it."