A/N: Writer's block sucks. To the max.

Disclaimer: Don't own, blah blah blah blah.

--

It just wasn't fair. Luke was only doing his job. And yet this guy, this criminal, this—Yuri Lowell—had to make it ten times harder than it already was! Sometimes he just wanted to sit down and cry himself hoarse. It wasn't easy to be an Imperial Knight, a Zaphias noble, and captain of the bloody Royal Guard at that. And because of his rank, Alexei had to drive him that much harder. He'd have gone insane years ago if he hadn't had his friend and servant Guy to talk to. That, and his diary, journal, log, whatever one wanted to call it. Writing helped Luke think. If he could think, he could handle whatever Yuri wanted to throw at him or shove down his throat the next day. It had been so simple before Yuri was involved.

Alexei had mobilized the Royal Guard when both heirs to the imperial throne had gone missing: Ioder and Estellise. Ioder had been found, and Estellise had been sighted but never returned to the hands of the Knights, to the cradle of Zaphias. Thus it had become Luke's mission as Royal Guard captain to track down the missing Princess and escort her back to the castle, where many felt she belonged. Luke wasn't so sure he agreed. Prior to his inclusion in the Imperial Knights, he had been locked up in his own manor in a similar fashion in the royal quarter of the capital city. He had broadened his horizons so much after he had joined the Knights, just as Estellise was doing now.

However, despite his personal feelings on the matter, Luke had a job to do, and that was getting the Princess to safety at least. That meant keeping her out of the wilds. Without a barrier, monsters gathered in great packs, with ferociousness tending to be greater with bigger numbers. Monsters were called monsters for a reason. Though Luke had most of the entire Guard with him on this mission, it had not required that much force to track down the princess. Tracking her down had been easy. It was reclaiming her that was the tough part.

They had caught her trail in Capua Nor, then Torim, where Luke had met with the lieutenant in the harbor, Flynn Scifo. After a stern talking to from Luke to Flynn (how could an Imperial Knight have let the princess go, in the hands of a common criminal no less!), the Royal Guard had left Torim Harbor in hot pursuit of the princess. Unfortunately, they lost her trail in the woods near Heliord, and Captain Cumore had been credited with the recapture of the Princess. Cumore and Schwann both, though the second had been a bit belated.

In Heliord, Alexei himself had insisted that Estellise return to the capital, to which she had agreed. At this Luke thought his job would be simply to escort the lady back to the castle. Not so. Never before had Luke's life been harder. No, the imperial mage Rita Mordio had been assigned to investigate the forest of Keiv Moc to look at something called an aer krene. The mage was to go on her own or with companions, whichever, but the princess insisted on accompanying her. Alexei then pulled Luke and a part of the Royal Guard to guard the mage and princess. Well, Luke thought then, a bit of a detour, but nothing he couldn't handle. Until Yuri Lowell entered the equation.

"I never asked for this. You're pushing this on me!" Yuri had said, but Luke couldn't hope but wonder if it had been premeditated. For some reason unknown to Luke (even when Alexei had said it had been because Yuri had once aspired to join the Imperial Knights), Yuri was allowed to tag along, to help guard the princess. Luke had not approved, since Yuri was a criminal, pardoned by royalty or not, but he did think that Yuri was an okay guy. Only Yuri seemed to think Luke was something sinister, and tormented him to no end.

Just like that day at dinner. It was raining. Dinner was cold. They were all huddled under whatever cover they had, which consisted not of trees, since they tended to act as natural lightning rods during a storm. Shivering under their blankets and cloaks, choking down cold cuts under the feeble light of a guttering lantern, Yuri had noticed something Luke was doing.

"Hey, Captain. Whatcha got there?"

Luke had tried to brush it off. "Nothing important."

Not bothered by the rain, Yuri had walked up to Luke, and with a nonchalant flick of his wrist repossessed what Luke had been holding—a book with blank pages, filled almost halfway with ink. Yuri's eyes danced with delight.

"Oh man, this is rich."

"Give it back! Jeez, really, why would you—"

Interest piqued, the others of the group inquired. First he heard Karol.

"What is it, Yuri? I wanna see!"

Rita scoffed, "So it's a diary. Men keep diaries too. Big whoop. I bet there's nothing interesting in there."

To which Luke's heart sank. True enough, there wasn't anything out of ordinary in his journal, just his thoughts and feelings as he went about being captain of the Royal Guard. There were bits about his worrying about finding the princess and whether or not she'd come back to the capital, but that was the bulk of it.

So praise be to whatever deity there was when Estellise came to his rescue.

"Yuri, give it back to him. Reading someone's diary is the greatest invasion of privacy anyone can commit! Luke's entitled to keep his thoughts private unless he wishes to voice them."

Luke could have sung with joy. He clapped his hands, a silly smile plastered on his face.

"Listen to the lady, for once."

But Yuri shook his head, granite eyes scanning the freshly inked pages with a great interest.

"Seems like Alexei wants an apatheia, too. Might help to figure out why if we knew what this apatheia was."

Alarmed, Luke snatched his journal out of Yuri's clutches. A slight blush was upon his face. Alexei had given him additional orders to procure apatheia if any were to be found, but Lady Estellise had always been top priority. The only leads on apatheia he had gotten so far was that it was supposedly a powerful blastia core, but investigations even with Alexei's Royal Guard authority turned up nothing. It was Imperial Knight business anyway!

"You mean that thing Raven said he was looking for at Ragou's palace?" Karol asked, his head tilted to one side. Yuri nodded.

"If the Knights want one and Raven's guild wants one, makes me wonder what it really is. Powerful blastia core is kinda vague."

"Leave it alone!" Luke said vehemently, brow knit together. "It's Imperial Knight business."

To this Yuri gave an amused smirk. "Fine. Speaking of Imperial Knight—you know Flynn?"

Luke absently wondered if Yuri was simply immune to the rain instead of just not bothered by it. He just stood there in the downpour without his blanket, getting thoroughly soaked, although even with layers of cloaks and blankets everyone else was soaked through too. He shrugged. "A bit. Why?"

"Oh, you just mentioned him in your diary, that's all."

"Yeah. He let the princess get away when as a Knight it's his duty to ensure her safety."

"Yep. He knew she'd be safe with me."

Granite grey eyes locked with bright emerald. Yuri really rubbed Luke the wrong way, in more ways than one. Yet what could he do about it? At the moment at least, they were stuck together as long as the princess insisted on journeying with this lot. Luke sighed, rubbing his temple. Someone probably ought to just do the kind thing and put him out of his misery when they had a chance. Preferably someone who wouldn't be smiling manically when they did so.

Yuri finally sat back down and threw his blanket over his head, as if there was a point after he was soaked from the heavy rain. Repede, being an outdoors dog, never minded the elements, unless it was particularly hot or cold, or even snowing. He was curled up beside his master, that ridiculous pipe clenched between his teeth like always.

"I'm sorry, Luke." Estellise broke the silence. "I'm sorry I'm making your job so difficult. It's just … I want to continue the journey. I'm learning so much I'm amazed at how little I knew before."

Luke shook his head. "It's fine, Princess. I was in your shoes a few years ago myself."

"Ah." Yuri said, his damnable interest piqued once again. Didn't he get enough out of picking on Luke for just one day? "That reminds me. Aren't you a bit young to be Captain of the Royal Guard? That's Alexei's personal unit, isn't it?"

Luke nodded, too devoid of energy to put much into arguing with Yuri. "If there's one thing Alexei's good at, it's delegating responsibility. I was trained by an expert swordsman from a young age, and Alexei's always been impressed with the accomplishments of my family. House Fabre has done great things over the time since the Empire was founded."

"How old are you? Seventeen?"

"Yeah, if that."

Yuri quirked a brow at the phrase "if that," but he didn't remark on it. What he did remark on, however … "So he just appointed you because you're a noble. Tch. I thought even Alexei was better than that. Guess the majority of the Knights are fools that see only blood."

Luke's brow twitched. Although he wasn't as zealous of bloodlines as other nobles, he still felt honorably bound to his house, and Yuri's comment was like an insult to House Fabre. His family did do great things! His father was a duke, his mother was a duchess of royal descent, why should his accomplishments be any different?

"Who did train you though, Luke?" Estellise asked, and Luke was rather surprised at her for the inquiry. "I've never seen that style used in the Imperial Knights."

"No, he wasn't an Imperial Knight. You guys have heard of that theocracy built on that chain of islands in the middle ocean? It used to be part of the empire, but almost two decades ago it broke off."

"I've never heard of that." Rita said, folding her arms under her blanket. She didn't look very wet or cold; Luke secretly thought she might be using magic to keep herself above the weather. Karol rolled his eyes at her.

"Well, duh, Rita, that was before we were even born!" To which the mage cast a quick Stone Blast in Karol's direction. Cries of pain were heard throughout the camp site. Nobody so much as batted an eyelash; it was simply how things were between the mage and the boy.

"I read about it." Estellise said, her eyes lighting up whenever she recalled something she had read in the castle library. "The theocracy of Daath was founded upon the Padamiya island chain and included many cities, like Daath, Yulia City, Grand Chokmah, and many others. Its religion is an absolute prophecy called the Score and was the Empire's religion as well. Until the war almost two decades ago, it broke off from the Empire and thus stopped reading the Score for it."

"Exactly." Luke nodded at her. "Daath's Order of Lorelei has its own military branch, the Oracle Knights. The man who trained me was their Commandant, Van Grants. That's why you don't see any other Imperial Knights using this style."

"Really?" Yuri's voice had a peculiar tone of disbelief. "Why would a Commandant make time just for you?" It reminded him of how Commandant Alexei had set time aside just for Raven back at the prison, a lowly guildsman. The guilds and knights loathed each other. This whole thing kept getting fishier and fishier.

Luke shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. But I'm glad for the training Master Van gave me. Without it, I wouldn't even be in the Imperial Knights today." He sighed, rubbing his temple. "And if that's all, I'll be trying to go to sleep. We still need to investigate that forest."

And for once since Luke had joined with the group, Yuri had no objection.

--

The forest of Keiv Moc had not turned out what they expected it to be, whatever they had expected it to be. They took the suspicious guildsman Raven into their fold, subdued the crazed packs of monsters that had attacked Dahngrest, and met that mysterious man, Duke. With a strange sword, he had cut through the aer, Rita had said, and calmed the krene, the spring from which aer had come. Too much aer was said to have a negative effect on living things, people, plants, and monsters alike. After they had seen the aer krene, evidence of the aer's effect was seen as the Don and his guilds chased the now docile beasts back to their dens.

To Luke it all meant next to nothing. Guild business was guild business, just like Imperial Knight business was Imperial Knight business. His job was to guard the princess, nothing more, nothing less. Until that Raven fellow pulled him aside when Yuri and the others went to go meet the Don in the Union Headquarters.

Dahngrest was a shady city, though it did have its own charms. Being in that same shade with the guildsman Raven made Luke just a little bit nervous. Though he fought and performed backflips and spoke with the flippancy of youth, his appearance up close was tired and haggard, as if he were ready to drop dead at any moment. Luke felt a chill run down his spine at the thought.

"So, Raven, was it? What do you want with me?"

The archer studied Luke up and down. He shrugged. "Oh, nothin' much. Just that … are you with them on the Commandant's orders?"

"What? Yeah, I'm here to protect the princess on Alexei's orders. What's it to you? Can't leave her alone with a criminal, pardoned or not."

Raven blinked, as if he were surprised. "Ah, Alexei's orders then? But still … doesn't it make you wonder? Why did he make you captain of his royal guard?"

The young noble narrowed his eyes, bright green turning poisonously dark. "Why does everyone keep asking me that … Look, I don't know, the best reasons I can come up with is that I'm good with a sword and from a noble family. It's as good an explanation as anything else."

Raven turned slightly, hands folded behind his head. The sunlight sifted through Dahngrest's barrier, making it appear like late afternoon although it was just after morning. The way the archer stood, he was half cast in light, half in shadow. Luke didn't know why, but he had a sudden thought the way the light fell on him was significant. Then Raven spoke.

"Really? No other reason? Maybe cuz of a certain … fonon?"

A chord of dread struck, rang through Luke's entire being. He took a half step back from Raven, spitting through grit teeth, "How do you know about that? I thought Daath kept knowledge about fonons to itself after it broke off from the Empire!"

Raven simply shrugged. "I'm an old man, old men don't forget easily. But still, Luke. If you knew that much about fonons, why did you accept Alexei's post? You do know how unstable the last fonon type is, after all."

All of the tutoring came back to Luke in an incomprehensible rush. Yes, he knew about fonons, the particles of sound that existed alongside aer and helped make up matter. Each fonon had a type, and each type had a characteristic and power. Mages used fonons in their magic extensively, but they had no idea they weren't using pure aer. The last type of fonon, the Seventh, was most powerful, and most unstable.

"Why not? I'm not a real Seventh Fonist. I'm just a knight. That's all."

Raven's eyes went wide, but only for a moment. He put a hand on Luke's shoulder and shook a few times, as if trying to break the Knight from a stupor. When Luke slapped his arm away, he gave up and sighed.

"I'm saying this fer yer own good, kid. Whatever Alexei has planned, it does not bode well for you. I was his pawn once, and it landed me in a place I'd never wish on hell's worst occupant. Just … snap outta it before it's too late."

With those last words, Raven disappeared in the city of Dahngrest.

--

A/N: There's a lot I can do with this. I just hope to keep it somewhat short, and to that end there will be much skipping around, with the assumption the reader has beaten at least Vesperia.