"I do not own Tales of Symphonia!" – I.K.A. Valian


The day was chill. An odd occurrence during the summer months. Nonetheless the winds were as cold as the latter half of November. The chain wearing sentries at the gates to the village could see their breath as they muttered to each other about bad food, wenches, and of course the weather. The tanned leather jerkins covered their chain mail was wrinkled and stained at random intervals, denoting a history of drinking and merriment the night previous.

"I loath these lands," said the first sentry, "Twas supposed to be bathed in warmth and sunlight, yet only grey skies and cold zephyrs greet us."

"I agree," the second sentry said while rubbing his arms and shivering. "Lord Philippe could grant us warm coats. Lest we freeze to death. No chance of that happening, eh?" His companion nodded and started rubbing his own arms. "What you think's happening to this place?"

"I don't quite know, even if tis not how twas to be. Right, I'm off to check the perimeter," said the sentry, "I shall return shortly." The other nodded and watched shivering as his fellow sentry picked up his polearm and walked off into the morning mist.

The gate of the village was really an over glorified stone arch built into the side of the three foot thick wall. The barbarians from the north had been ravaging the lands for quite a while now and the only way to stop their raids upon innocent farmers and merchants was to pull together behind walls of stone. It was these stone walls that had frustrated Genis' and Gaar's attempts to escape all night.

The two in question rounded a corner inside of the walled off village just as the sentry turned and faced forward. They skidded to a halt and then leaped to hide behind a wooden barrel fifteen feet away from the sentry , who had decided to sit down on another barrel was also holding the large, heavy, thick wooden gate open.

"Now what?" asked Genis. "How are we going to get past that guard?"

Gaar looked around, taking in his surroundings before he shrugged. "I guess we'll just have to make a run for it. I really don't want to wait around here for another chance to get out. This place is almost as bad as the Iselia Ranch."

Genis looked behind him at the messy morning village scene. There were dieing fires lying about, dirty clothes strew across the ground, horse droppings mixing with the drinking water. "I would disagree with you Gaar, but I think we should get out of here first. This place really is a pig sty."

The two boys took a deep breath and bolted. They ran, feet squelching in the mud, toward the gate. The sentry who was sitting on the barrel turned to see what was making such a noise this early in the morning. At first he didn't do anything, because there were always children running about the village. Then he realized, because of Genis' hair and ears mostly, that these were the barbarians who'd infiltrated the village the night before.

The sentry immediately stood up and grabbed the hilt of his sword. "Stop! Stop I say!" When Genis and Gaar didn't stop, but instead ran right past him, he unsheathed his sword and chased after them into the fog. "I tell you to cease running. You shan't get away."

After running for several hundred yards down the well beaten dirt road, the sentry saw the forms of the two boys materialize out of the fog. He came to a sudden stop behind them when he burst from the fog like a flying fish from water. The skies were as clear as any sky had ever been, not a cloud was in sight, not a single meteorological disturbance could be seen for miles, except for the chilled fog surrounding the village.

However, what had stopped them wasn't the change in scenery but the army of wild men, monster, creature, demons, and armored behemoths grouped together in front of them. The army was milling about as they broke down their camp. Some were preparing their weapons, others were suiting up in armor, still others were running about, and yet more were now running toward the three newcomers with weapons or fists bared and ready to pounce.

"W-w-w-what is this?" stammered the sentry. He was shaking and started backing up. "I-I-I-I must r-r-r-report this immediately." The sentry turned and ran back to the walled in village faster than he'd chased after the two boys. He lost his sword as he ran when he flung his arm too far away from his body and the torque pulled the weapon from his hand. Too spooked to go back for it, he continued back to the village.

"Oh no, what should we do!" Genis started backing up and was about to turn and run when Gaar put a hand on his shoulder. Genis stopped and gave Gaar a look that asked, 'are you crazy, let's get out of here!'

"Genis, these people are here to destroy that village."

"Yeah. That's terrible and all, but what can we do about it?"

"We can stop them." Genis gawked at Gaar as he looked about real quick and then ran to pick up the dropped sentry's sword. "We have to help them Genis."

"But Gaar, we don't even know those people. And it wasn't as if they were very hospitable to us. I think we should let them be destroyed."

"Genis!" Gaar shot Genis a look before he turned and watched the incoming barbarians.

"Gaar, I'm serious, the people in that village wanted to kill us. Why should we help them?" Genis sighed, pulled out his kendama, and whacked a tall, bald, axe wielding man upside the head, knocking him out cold. He flew several feet backwards through the air and came down in a big puddle of mud. Genis stared incredulously for a few seconds before he smirked and thumbed his nose at the downed barbarian. "Not that it would be that hard to beat these guys, they're pushovers."

"Genis, they only tried to kill us because they were scared of us. Don't you remember through all their babbling that we couldn't understand they called us 'barbarians' the most? They must have thought we were part of this army or something."

Genis, though he didn't like this situation any better, considered that possibility as he went about whacking another barbarian in the head with his kendama. Then he let loose a cry of "Fireball," and sent a volley of infernous balls toward a barbarian that had knocked Gaar down and was about to smash his head with a morning star.

"And besides," Gaar said, standing up, "it doesn't feel right letting all those people face this kind of threat alone when we could have done something to help. That," Gaar stopped and looked around in a great circle, "and I just noticed that this place is completely surrounded."

Genis stopped pounding the stuffing out of the last barbarian, who was already unconscious, and looked around. The barbarian he'd stopped hounding on slumped to the ground with a dull thud. Genis noted with some distaste how the entire village was indeed surrounded.

"Fine," he resigned in defeat. "I'll help fight this army, but you have to help me by keeping them at bay while I cast, alright. I can't cast if I can't concentrate." Gaar grinned happily and gave Genis a thumb up.

"Thanks Genis. You won't regret it."

Genis snorted and rolled his eyes. "Yeah right. Let's go, I want to get this over with." Gaar nodded and followed Genis as he walked toward the barbarian encampment.

The barbarian army was the strongest army the land had seen in hundreds of years. That very morning, they were 40,000 strong. The village they surrounded didn't even have any mounted knights. They had everything from siege engines, lesser demons, hell hounds, all the way up to the barbarian's most fierce warriors, the Berserkers. All of them were battle hardened warriors from the frigid northern lands, proud and strong. And then the strange boy in blue and his companion appeared out of the fog.

What followed was the most massive ownage in the armies five year history of pillaging. Every time a group of warriors attempted to rush the small boy, his companion held them off long enough for the other to unleash massive and powerful spells upon them, taking scores of men out at a time. It took nearly all day but finally, the barbarian army was down to roughly 200 men.

All of the siege engines were destroyed, some by fire, some by ice, and some by the very air itself. Genis and Gaar stood on a hill waiting for the last 200 to make their move. Gaar was out of breath, as was Genis. Gaar had in that day become very adept at blocking attacks and slowing the oncoming warriors down, while Genis had learned a few new spells after using the same one's over and over again.

Finally, the barbarians charged, all 200 of them at once. Gaar moved forward and prepared to block the first attackers when he fell down. Breathing hard, he looked up at Genis and shook his head.

"I can't do it," he said between breaths, "I'm too tired."

"That's alright Gaar, I've got this one, been saving it for last." Genis closed his eyes and focused. He started mumbling to himself and instead of a ring of runes appearing at his feet, an enormous rune appeared beneath the battle field. All the barbarians had seen his magic before and didn't stop. Had they known what was coming, they would have been running the other way. Genis opened his eyes and shouted, "Check this out, Fire Bomb!"

The ground immediately started to shake and all of the barbarians fell to the ground. Then, as if the Earth itself was disgusted, the ground exploded upwards in a fiery maelstrom of destruction and death. The fire formed a rotating plume that reached into the sky for miles. After several minutes, the fire spun itself out and the spell ended.

"Wow, I meant to cast Explosion. But that was better!" Genis fell to the ground next to Gaar, both boys completely exhausted. The villagers, who watched the entire thing from behind the relative safety of their walls, erupted in cheering. From about midday, the fog had lifted, giving the residents of the village an uninterrupted view of the surrounding country side, the enormous army, and the twelve year old duo tearing a 40,000 strong army a new one. The shouts of joy and happiness were so intense that Gaar and Genis had to cover their ears to protect them from the sheer volume of the elation. "Gaar…"

"Yes Genis?"

"I don't think I'm ever going to do that again."

"Yeah… me either." Both boys rested their weary bodies where they fell. The village gates opened and soldiers armed to the teeth ran out. They checked the barbarian army and made sure it was indeed defeated. Then as an afterthought and under Lord Philippe's orders, they picked up Genis and Gaar and brought them to the castle.

Genis was the first one to wake up the next morning. He was surprised to find that he wasn't wearing his old blue clothes. Over the night, the maids of the Lord's Manner had painstakingly washed, cleaned, and dressed up the two boys in clean and very confining clothing.

"What the heck am I wearing?" Genis walked to the mirror and was looking over his new outfit when Gaar fell out of the bed. Genis ran his hands over the light blue vest and the frilly white undershirt. Then he played with the tassels that were sewn onto the shoulders. He watched Gaar rubbing his head with a smirk on his face as he unconsciously readjusted the tight white pants.

"Oww. Hey, what happened to my clothes?" Gaar stood up and started looking himself over. He was wearing a white vest over a white dress shirt tucked into white long pants. He looked over at Genis and had to hold back his laughter. "Okay, I'm bad, but you're worse."

"Yeah," Genis agreed, "but at least I still don't look as bad as Lloyd." Gaar looked thoughtful for a moment before he nodded in agreement. Genis reached behind him and grabbed his silver ponytail. "I've never thought of doing that before. It doesn't look that bad."

Both boys turned to the door when it suddenly opened. In walked several older women dressed in black gowns. They moved through the room silently picking up disheveled bed sheets and pillows then putting them back into their proper place. Then a man wearing a gray robe entered the room and bowed.

"Good day to you. My name is Siegfried, my Lord Philippe's servant. The Lord Philippe has requested your presence in the throne room and I have been instructed to take you there. Please, follow me." The man was old, at least he looked old with his grayed out hair. And his long mustache didn't help his look either. All together, he looked like a tired old man on the last leg of his life.

Genis and Gaar looked at each other and shrugged. They followed Siegfried out the door, an expensive oak door, leaving the servants behind to clean up the room. The hallway they traveled down was floored by a beautiful, expensive red carpet. The walls were covered from floor to ceiling with expensive portraits of different people. Every so many feet at set intervals, there was a stand with a potted plant or some other expensive ornament sitting on top of it. The walls behind all of that were lined with what looked like gold paint. It was, however, actual strips of gold attached to the wall.

Genis couldn't find one thing to stare at. The opulence was just so evenly spread that he couldn't decide what to gawk at first. Gaar however wasn't looking at his surroundings at all. He was staring seriously at the lush red carpet.

Siegfried led them to the end of the hall, where he opened a door, also framed in gold, and led the boys into another long, opulently dressed hallway. At the end of that hallway the walls opened up into a grand staircase that went down for two stories. At the bottom, Siegfried turned and led the boys up the central hallway to two massive doors. They were closed. With a nod from Siegfried however, the two guards on either side of the door, tapped their polearms on the floor and opened the humungous doors.

The large doors opened into a large room. The room was for all intents and purposes, a throne room. It held the regal air about it. The thrones themselves were made of bronze and gold with cloth hung about them. The walls were covered with banners bearing the symbol of the Lord of the castle. The floor was covered in a vast carpet. Hanging behind the two thrones was a large tapestry with the image of a country side embroidered upon it.

The man sitting in the throne was very fat. His robes were stretched almost to the limit. His wife next to him didn't look much better. They both looked squeezed into their thrones and it was apparent that they had to be helped out. Aside from the apparent royalty, they were alone in the spacious throne room. Gaar and Genis both stared at the two monarchs for several seconds before they were forced to bow by the two guards that had followed them.

Gaar leaned over to Genis and whispered, "Next time I try to stop you from leaving someplace to certain doom, hurt me… bad."

Genis nodded slowly, stood up, and whispered back, "I'll kick you where the sun don't shine or something." The guards then bowed down to the floor on either side of Genis and Gaar. Siegfried had slipped out of the room quietly when the two boys were knocked to the floor.

"Hail Saviors! You have saved our Kingdom of Lorraine. Name your prize and if it is within my power, you shall have it." Genis and Gaar looked at each other, contemplating what they could ask for. Then they shrugged and looked back at the fattened monarchs.

"I would like to know where we are," Genis said. "We aren't from around here and we would like to get back to where we came from. If at all possible, I'd like to have a look at any maps you might have so that we could get a bearing of our location and perhaps find our way home."

"Indeed," said the King. "Such mighty warriors. Twould be a crime if your own kingdom did not warrant your return. Tell me, fierce warriors, which kingdom do ye hail from?"

Again, Genis and Gaar turned to look at each other. This time Gaar responded to the King.

"We… ah, err, hail from the Kingdom of Sylvarant."

"Verily. I've yet to hear of such a Kingdom. Twould be a distant Kingdom to be sure. How would it be that two of her finest warriors would find themselves such a distance from fair Sylvarant?"

"We were in the middle of a fierce battle," said Genis, "with ah… criminal called Kvar. He murdered many of our people and had holed himself up in a castle."

"Castle, good one," Gaar said under his breath so that only Genis could hear. Genis snorted before he went on.

"During the battle, a spell was cast and we were sent from the castle and ended up here. As our, err… kingdom is in great need of her warriors, we would appreciate a, ah… speedy send off." Genis sighed as he finished speaking. It seemed to take a lot out of him to overlay his normal speech with the awkward nuances of this kingdom's language.

"Very well. When you leave here, you shall be escorted to our map room, where scholars from around the lands have gathered to create a map of as many lands as man has traveled. Is that all you wish to request? Surely you wish something more than thus." Genis was shaking his head no when Gaar held a hand out toward Genis and stopped him.

"Actually your majesty, there is something." Genis looked at Gaar strangely, but he ignored the look and went on anyway. "I noticed that you live in a very nice house. This place has all the amenities that any person could want. So I ask why your people live in such dreary conditions. Surly it is not the work of the barbarians alone. Could you not do something to alleviate your people's troubles?"

The look Gaar was getting from the King had gone from curious to darkly brooding. "Young man," he rumbled, "I'll not have another kingdom's peasants telling me how to run my kingdom. Guards!" The two guards snapped to attention next to Gaar and Genis. "Escort these two to the map room and forthwith to the city gate. Be sure to see them out of the city and allow them nary a chance of reentry."

"Yes Milord." The guards both snapped simultaneously. They grabbed Genis and Gaar by the arms and moved them out of the throne room. Gaar was scowling as he wrenched his arm from the guards grasp and continued walking. The group turned right at the stairs and entered another hallway, this one made of cold, gray limestone.

"Nice one Gaar. Now he thinks we're a couple of peasants, whatever those are." Gaar was about to respond when the soldier next to Genis whacked him upside the head, much like Raine might have done. The guard however wasn't equipped with an Exsphere and hurt his hand on Genis' head. However Genis got the message and scowled anyway, glaring up at the soldier.

"I'll not have you speaking Ill of Lord Philippe. Come now, the Map Room is just through this door." The two soldiers opened a door the lead into a large room. On one wall, covering the entire thing from floor to ceiling and corner to corner was a humongous map. On the map was a detailed drawing of the lands surrounding the kingdom of Lorraine, all of which formed a large continent. After staring at the map for several minutes with their jaws hanging open the two soldiers grabbed Gaar and Genis and lifted them up.

The soldiers carried the two boys to the gate and then tossed them onto the ground. They left instructions with the guards at the gate to not let them back into the village before they turned and marched back to the castle. Genis and Gaar stood up slowly, dusting themselves off.

"Gaar, I have some good news and some bad news." Gaar turned to Genis curiously. "First, we got out of there alive and they only took my kendama."

Gaar cocked an eyebrow in confusion. "They took your kendama and that's good news?"

"Yes, because the bad news is that we are not on Sylvarant anymore. In fact, I've never seen that map before in my entire life. None of it made any sense or was familiar in the least."

Gaar thought on this for a few seconds before the reality of what that meant sunk in. "You mean we're not in our own world anymore?" Genis nodded and then started walking with his hands behind his head, playing with his new pony tail. Gaar trailed after him slowly. "But then how do we get back. There has to be a way."

"I don't know Gaar. I wish Raine were here, she was always better at figuring out things like this than I ever was." Gaar looked at Genis before he shook his head and laughed. "What's so funny?"

"If Raine were here, she'd be trying to figure out who you are and what you did to the real Genis. You look ridiculous."

"Ha, like you look much better Gaar. Come on, I saw a few places on that map that I wanted to check out." Gaar nodded. "Hey, did you notice how they called that a kingdom, a city even. There couldn't have been more people living there than in Triet."

Gaar shrugged in response as the two boys walked off into the distance, leaving behind the castle of Lorraine. Unfortunately, they didn't seem notice the man wearing a dark cape slinking after them, following from a distance in the shadows of the tree line.

At about mid day, they stopped to eat wild berries from a bush that was growing along the side of the road. Again, they didn't seem notice the cloaked man following them. After about an hour of eating berries the boys stopped. The berries had made them sick to their stomach. That reminded Genis of his sisters' cooking and a batch of cookies she once made. Somehow though, they kept their lunch down and continued on their way down the road into the night.

The boys were curled up around a camp fire Genis had created with the help of a little fire magic. As they slept, the cloaked man crept onto the scene. He was moving toward Genis when he stepped on a dry twig. The ensuing chaos was enough to wake up the dead as Genis jumped up and shouted, "Lightning!"

A bolt of white hot lighting exploded on the scene, striking right next to the man who'd crept into their camp. The man leaped nearly five feet into the air and when he came back down he immediately prostrated himself on the ground. Gaar snored obnoxiously loud and rolled over causing Genis to stare at him which immediately conjured an image of Lloyd. Shaking his head, Genis turned back to the matter at hand, grinning triumphantly at the man on the ground.

"Hehe, I knew someone was following us. So who are you and why are you following us?" Upon hearing someone striking up a conversation, Gaar suddenly sat up and gasped groggily.

"Wha- What's going on!" Genis just waved him off and waited patiently for the quivering man on the ground to speak.

Finally, the man did speak, though it wasn't exactly what either of the boys expected to hear. "I have come to report, my lord Thor. I have slit the throat of the spy sent to follow you back to Asgard. Please, Lord Thor, have mercy on your loyal subject. I have done nothing but honorable deeds my life. Please grant me passage to Valhalla so that I might serve with you in Ragnarok." Genis looked at Gaar. Gaar looked at Genis. Then both broke into laughter and couldn't stop until the man started crying because he thought that they'd looked unfavorably upon him. Though they couldn't help chuckling every now and again after that.


"Professor Raine!"

The lights playing on the back of her eyelids slowly receded when she heard her name called out. She'd really wanted to get away from that group. As providence or circumstance would have it though, she'd been forced back in, like an unruly puzzle piece that was made to fit into the bigger picture.

"Professor Raine, please get up. We're going to Lake Umacy today. There is supposed be a unicorn there. A real live unicorn professor!"

Raine sighed exasperatedly. Colette always was very chipper in the morning. Calking it up to divine intervention, Raine sat up and stretched. After being found in the House of Salvation by the group, they'd refused to let her travel on her own. And she'd found it too difficult to escape with Kratos watching after her. His excuse was that he was carrying out the will of the Chosen.

"Professor, is it true that Unicorn horns have really strong healing powers?"

Raine looked up at Lloyd, who'd just dumped a bowl of sand on the camp fire, snuffing its remaining embers out. Where had he learned that? Most certainly not her, as he never paid attention to her lessons. The boy had a knack for slacking off at learning. And yet, he excelled ahead of the others in a select few subjects. Subjects that were not often of the class room, but of life in general. But she knew where he'd learned this particular bit of information.

"I suppose Kratos also told you that it might be able to recover my waning healing magic. Don't get your hopes up. I suspect nothing will be able to help in that matter." Raine stood up and stretched again. "Sorry to say it Lloyd, but I don't plan on retrieving powers that don't want to be used. If they want to be lost, so be it." Colette looked particularly perturbed by Raine's response, stopping in the middle of rolling up her sleeping sheets.

"Professor, how can you say that? Your healing powers are very important. I think you should find a way to get them back. I don't think anything would not want to be found because it would be very lonely by itself." Raine sighed. Arguing with Colette when she was like this was like yelling into the wind, in which case everything you could say would be thrown back at you as a reason for rather than against.

Raine picked up her now almost useless staff and fit it into its holster across her back. It really didn't have any purpose other than walking stick now that she'd lost her ability to heal. Though, she'd found that she could beat things to death pretty effectively with it. She found particular joy in punting hapless small creature into the distance as well.

It was about noon when they arrived at the Lake's shores. The sun was shining brightly overhead with a few clouds dispersed across the wide blue sky. Coming to a stop on the shore of the lake, the group looked into its crystal clear depths and much to their amazement found the remains of a Unicorn trapped under the water. It appeared to be dead or at the very least in some form of suspended animation.

"Suspended animation Professor?"

"Suspended animation is where some form of living being is put into a type of deep sleep that preserves their age and health from the exact moment they went into the sleep. Similar to hibernation."

"Oh." Lloyd was actually interested in learning for once. That simple thought bewildered Raine to no end, and eventually she put it from her mind. "I wish Genis were here, then maybe he could do something with his magic and we'd be able to meet him."

"That would be impossible for you and me, Lloyd. I would assume only Colette would be able to make the journey." Lloyd turned to Kratos with a heated expression on his face, but Kratos headed him off and said, "Don't you remember. Only pure maidens are able to even approach a unicorn."

"Oh yeah… but what about the Professor?" Lloyd turned to Raine, but she held up her hand.

"Sorry, but no."

"That leaves it up to me then," Colette said bravely, stepping forward.

"H-hey, what about me?" Everyone turned to Sheena. "Are you saying I'm not qualified?"

Lloyd and Colette looked at each other curiously before turning back to Sheena and saying at the same time, "Qualified?"

Sheena winced and said, "You both don't have to say it once."

"Okay then. Sheena and I will go-"

"Hold it." Colette turned to Raine. "You're forgetting one very important thing. We have no way of getting you two out to the unicorn, so even if we decide who goes, it'll be pointless unless you can get out there. As Lloyd already stated, Genis isn't here anymore, so there is no way for us to control the water Mana. Aside from a magic user only a summoner would be able to control the amount of Mana that would be required to reach the unicorn. And before any of you point out either myself or Kratos as a possible magic user, I seem to have lost my casting abilities and Kratos isn't anywhere near strong enough."

"Correct," Kratos said. "It would be useless and a waste of time to pursue this any further. Unless anyone has something else to say on the matter, we should put this behind us and continue on the Journey of Regeneration."

"Actually, there might be a way."

"What?" Raine exclaimed.

"What do you mean Sheena?" Colette watched the purple wearing mercenary closely.

"I-It's like Raine said. We could summon Undine to control the Water Mana," Sheena explained. "Undine should exist somewhere in this world."

After a moment's silence Lloyd raised his hand and asked, "Undine, you mean the Summon Spirit?" Sheena nodded. "Then if we get Undine to control the Mana, you and Colette would be able to go see the unicorn, right?" Sheena nodded again. "So then let's go see Undine." Lloyd started to walk off, but then stopped and turned around. "Where's Undine supposed to be again."

"Undine should be at the Seal of Water," Sheena offered.

"The Seal of Water is the next seal we are going to release," Raine said, "but first I would like to know who is going to get Undine to do what we want. Only a summoner would be able to carry out such a feat and those arts have been lost for a very long time."

"Well it still exists. I… I haven't formed a pact yet, but if I can form a pact, then… I can summon." Sheena stood under the scrutinization of the others for a few moments. "Anyway, if you're not interested, I'm not going to force you-"

"No," interrupted Lloyd, "we need the Unicorn Horn. Please do it, Sheena."

Sheena gave a cautious smile. "A… alright. Then let's go to the Seal of Water. After we release the seal we can form the pact with Undine."

"Alright, let's do it!" Colette shouted. "To the Seal of Water!"

The three teenagers scampered off, leaving Raine and Kratos alone. Raine was staring at the lake, mesmerized by its rhythmic lapping waves. Kratos had his arms crossed and was deep in thought.

"This is quite the detour," Kratos said after a while. Then he walked off, following his errant ward.

After another bout of silence and listening to the water, Raine said, "Genis, am I doing the right thing?" She closed her eyes and slowly turned from the lake. Her lips trembled with the effort to hold back her emotions. As she walked away from the lake on nearly numb legs, she roughly wiped a tear from her cheek.

That night, they rested in the ruins of Luin. It was mostly just burned wood and cracked stone now, as scavengers and thieves came after the city fell to alleviate the town of its more valuable remains. Luckily for the group, it was the perfect place to stop because no monsters dared to enter the town, either out of fear of crossing the long wooden bridges of questionable integrity or the fact that the town still smelled heavily of death.

Colette was kneeling in front of the broken fountain, which was still leaking water, praying. The others had already gone to sleep, except for Kratos. He was on watch again, though he was on the other side of the camp site, sitting next to Noishe on the broken bridge. They'd set up in front of the remains of the inn.

"Goddess Martel, please look out for my friends. Ensure them a happy, long life and keep them safe after I become a true angel. And please give our regards to Genis. Especially from Professor Raine. She really misses her brother. Thank you."


Wow, it's been a while since I've written on this story. Well, here I am.

Pit: "It's about feaking time. Where the heck have you been?"

Inri: "I hope you havn't forgotten about us. It would lead to certain kinds of disaster if you did."

No I haven't forgotten you.

Pit: Wipes the sweat from his forehead and breathes a sigh of relief. "Whew, that's good."

Inri: "It's good to be wanted, but now the readers will probably be wanting to know what's going on with this story."

Oh right, well, I'm not giving that away. But the readers can review and tell me what they want to know.

Inri: "Yes, yes they can. So readers out there. Please please review. Then I can torture Pit here."

Pit: "Yeah, review so she... can... torture me! What?" Starts backing away slowly and shaking his head. "No no no no no, no torture Pit."

Actually, yes, please review. I like reviews, as any other author will say. And on a final note, I hope you enjoyed the story thus far. Thanks for reading.