Disclaimer: See the first chapter.

A/N: Not as long as last time, but what the heck. Hope you enjoy!

ஜ۩۞۩ஜ -The Faithful Sentinel- ஜ۩۞۩ஜ

Chapter I: A Place to Relax

Gnomeday, 37 Rem Decan. AD2018

"Today: pick some flowers. Exciting."

Sacha kicked her brown, dirty boots up onto the surface of the clean table with a loud thump, ignoring the fact that there would undoubtedly be someone in soon enough to scold her for her lack of manners. Sighing, she ran a hand through her messy brown hair, a piece of paper crumbled up in her other hand. It was actually a letter from her friend, one Anise Tatlin, a thirteen-year-old bubby black-haired girl who was rarely found without a massive grin threating to spilt her face and her faithful orange doll, Tokunaga, hanging from her back. Despite her innocent and carefree appearance, she was actually a trained soldier, and one of the many Fon Master Attendants to Ion, the Fon Master.

After the green-haired youth had mysteriously vanished from Daath without a trace, his Guardians had been sent to all of the many cities, towns and villages of Auldrant, from Chesedonia to Keterburg. As far as Sacha knew, Anise had been sent to Engeve, while she had been sent to Saint Binah, also known as the Citadel. The name most likely came from the giant wall that surrounded the small city on all sides, with only one imposing entrance. Despite the formal appearance, it was a beautiful city full of blooming flowers and friendly villagers.

However, there was only so much that Sacha could take. And after the Oracle Knights (as well as a few God-Generals) had shown up, no doubt searching for Ion as well, the place had taken on a dark brooding feeling, devoid of its usual cheer.

After receiving a long letter from her chirpy friend, the brunette soldier had taken residence in the Malkuth Military Base, and was currently sitting in the waiting room, leaning into the comfortable seat as she closed her eyes and hummed to herself.

She had read through the letter so many times that it hurt, brilliant blue eyes scanning the page for some hidden meaning, but the only thing she saw was her friend's curly hand-writing, full of swirls and scribbled out lines (Anise never had been the best speller).

She was going insane. Then again, spending two months trapped, for lack of any better words, in a small city without being allowed to leave would make someone like her anxious. She wanted to have adventure! She hated sitting around, silently counting cheagles in her head as they jumped over fences. But Anise's letter had told her that the young teenager was headed to Kaitzur to wait for Ion and the others, and that they would likely stop off at Saint Binah to replenish supplies. If that was the case, Sacha was sure that she could convince the small group to allow her to stay with them for a while.

After all, it would only be her fulfilling her duty as a Fon Master Guardian; someone who was with the Fon Master at all times, and would sacrifice their life for him without hesitation, if the situation called for it.

But what good would come from dying..?

"Excuse me?"

"Hmm?" Sacha looked up in surprise. A small maid was standing at her table, hands clasped tightly behind her back like all of the servants around here seemed to do. "Is everything alright?" Sacha caught her briefly glancing at her mucky feet, and out of respect, she silently lowered them back to the ground and sat up.

"If you don't mind my asking, are you thirsty?" The red-haired girl continued. She held up a steaming cup of tea, a delicious smell wafting from it. "From what Master McGovern; the older one, told me, you haven't had a drink in quite a while. Would you care to have some?"

Sacha wanted to tell her that she didn't actually like tea; it anything, she hated it. However, upon seeing the girl's red face and tired eyes, she smiled and took the cup from her. "Thank you. I am rather thirsty, now that you mention it."

"I hope you like it," she admitted somewhat-sheepishly, pulling at her long sleeves. "It's my first attempt at making tea."

Oh no.

Sacha took a small slip, and almost spat it out in horror. Way too much sugar; there had to be at least ten spoonfuls of it in there. Forcing the horribly sweet taste down her throat, she smiled at the maid with what she hoped to be a genuine smile.

"It's lovely, but I would put less sugar into next time. Just a small suggestion."

"T-thank you! Please have a nice day here in Saint Binah." The red on the maid's face reached to her ears, and nodding hurryingly, she walked out of the room.

Groaning louder, she resigned herself to the fact that today was going to be another boring day full of nothing but pestering the locals, trying to find out some more information about Ion, and picking some peony flowers for her new vase.

The joys of being a Fon Master Guardian.

"Dear Sacha,

It's been FOREVER since you and I last talked to each other! What's it been now, two years? Man, it feels way longer than that! Like we've never met before, and yet we're already soul mates destined to be together forever and ever and ever!

...Ewww. That came out wrong.

Moving on. In case you didn't already get the news (since after all, the Order of Lorelei can be pretty useless at the worst of times), Ion's been spotted in Engeve! In fact, he was there to help work out why the cheagles were stealing the food there. It turned out that a cheagle caused a fire up in the northern regions, where the ligers live (the same kind of monsters that Gloomietta has), and they all moved down to the forest. How sad!

He managed to get the peace letter from Emperor Peony IX, so we're gonna try and head to Baticul in order to present it to the king there. Don't worry, we've got our ways.

They had to kill the liger queen (who had some eggs too!), and we all know that the queen's Gloomietta's so called 'mother'. I'm not looking forward to how she reacts. Most likely by screaming something about me taking Ion away.

Seriously, why is that spoiled, selfish, annoying, weird and crazy brat so ANNOYING!

Ahem. So... I'm headed to Kaitzur, since that's where I told Ion and the others I'll meet them at. I'm gonna try and get some passports for us all. I'll get one for you, no worries! 3

Finally, Ion's travelling with some rather interesting people. One of them is the son of Duke Fabre! You know, only one of the most powerful families in all of Auldrant!

But the thing is, he's really annoying, self-centred, obnoxious, and such an idiot! But he must have a lot of Gald, so I'm gonna marry him as soon as I'm legal to (why is sixteen so far away!)! Don't you DARE try to steal him away, okay? He's called Luke.

The next one's the Commandant's sister! You'll know her when you see her. She's got really big melons, and long brown hair the color of... uh, hair? She's called Tear. Such a weird name...

Finally, there's THE Colonel Jade Curtiss! You know, the colonel of the Third Division, Malkuth Imperial Forces? He's so amazing, and you know what the best thing is? He's representing the Emperor, so I'm gonna be stuck with him for ages! :-) If he wasn't so old, I would so marry him instead of stupid Luke...

So if they stop off at Saint Binah, just tag along. Tell them you're guarding Ion in my place, or something like that. Don't worry. I'll come up with some story to protect your butt, should anything happen to you.

After all, you're NOWHERE near as amazing as cute, adorable me!

Much love,

Anise~"

Smiling to herself warmly, Sacha pocketed the letter that she had taken out to reread again, for lack of anything else to do. The letter was definitely written by Anise; no one could ever hope to match her hyper and friendly nature, mixed with her love for all things Gald and gullibility at times.

Her fingers lightly darted along the weapons that she had in her belt, briefly resting on the sleek silver of their blades. The sunlight was still shining brightly in the sky, and apart from the many Oracle Knights stationed around the city, nothing had changed, save for the gloomy atmosphere and feeling that had settled into the small city.

After all, if the Oracle Knights had come demanding for something (and the God-Generals, too), then they weren't going to leave until they got it.

Young children still played tag with each other, and made daisy and peony chains for their friends. The smell of the bakery nearby drafted all over the centre, which made her stomach rumble, hungry for food.

Walking up to the inn, the only thing Sacha wanted was a good wash and some food. She had managed to rent out a small house on the outskirts of the city, but it was too far away for her to walk to. Besides, she was feeling a bit lazy today. She blamed it on the hot spring day.

The last thing that she was expecting (or wanting) was someone's arm preventing her from entering said inn.

"Identity, please," a tall man barked, wearing the typical black uniform of the Oracle Knights. "Unless you are a registered member of the Oracle Knights, I'm afraid this area is sealed off."

Abruptly stopping to look at the taller man, she placed her hands onto her hips with a sigh. An inn being sealed off? Really? What were the God-Generals thinking?

"Fon Master Attendant Sacha Eclinn, Daathic Guardian to Fon Master Ion. I was dispatched here to Saint Binah to search for him. May I pass?"

"I need status or documents confirming your identity, miss. Words aren't enough."

"Ugh," Sacha said and sighed loudly. Undoubtedly, she was going to be here for a while. Some Oracle Knights could be right jerks sometimes. "My Oracle Knight uniform is inside. May I please retrieve it, to prove my identity?" She was speaking the truth. Due to the unusually hot weather, she had swapped out her uniform for black shorts, matched with light-blue sandals and a baggy white t-shirt. She had kept her brown belt and poaches for her weapons, as well as her many golden bracelets and black sleeves.

"Madam-"

"Please? I'll only be a few minutes to change, and you can stand outside my door the whole time."

"What if you try to escape through the window?"

Gah! It seemed that she had got stuck with one of the most annoying Oracle Knights in all of existence! "I wouldn't want to leave if I was trying to enter in the first place."

He didn't look convinced, but lowered his arm. "Very well then. Five minutes. Any later, and I will come inside to check on you, regardless of what state you may be in."

That was basically a nice way of saying, "I don't care if you're nude; I'm coming in anyway."

"Thank you," she barely managed to mutter through her gritted teeth, walking into the inn. The inn keeper looked after her as she walked into the room where her items were being kept.

It was a small place; with only a bed and a bedside table, with a small fonstone serving as a lamp beside it. Sacha pulled out a small wooden box from underneath the bed.

"No one's been in my stuff. Good," she said to herself. Shaking her head (what kind of person talked to themselves?), she quickly took out her uniform and pulled it on.

After a few minutes, she pushed open the door and came face-to-face with the Oracle Knight from earlier. He looked her up and down, his eyes lingering briefly on her chest. If she could have done so, she would have slapped him across the face. Instead, she crossed her arms over her chest and sighed.

"Now do you believe who I am?"

"Sacha Eclinn, Ionian Sergeant and Fon Master Guardian of twenty years. Correct?"

"Yes."

"I apologize for my rudeness earlier," the man said, stiffly bowing to her. The brunette smiled.

"No, it's fine. Just don't do it again, alright?"

"Understood."

Sacha turned away from the small inn and began to walk off. Now that the small commination had been dealt with, she wasn't hungry anymore. She could still do with that refreshing shower, but that could be done at her own house. For now, she would simply head up to the top of the Soil Tree. It offered a view of the whole city, after all, and she could easily see a blob of green hair from there.

Well, she hoped she would.

"Coming through!"

She stopped walking when she came to a small line of people on the edge of the streets. There was a lot of loud chatter along them, everyone attempting to get to the front. Trying to peer over them all, she managed to catch sight of a brown carriage trudging along the stony path, two horses pulling the large vehicle in from the front, as a broad man in a yellowish jacket held onto its reins. A second one soon followed, and she politely but firmly shoved her way to the front to catch eye of it.

After all, more often than not, they came from Engeve. And given the Oracle Knights around the city searching for Ion, sneaking on-board a carriage seemed to be the most logical choice. If he was to be anywhere in Saint Binah, then his small group of people would most likely choose to board one. She wasn't sure how they would be able to do so without knocking out the poor driver, but some sacrifices had to be made in life, she supposed.

Sacha casually slipped into the small crowd that had begun to follow the two carriages, most likely seeking out some supplies from the many crates shoved awkwardly together in the back. They finally came to a stop beside the Soil Tree, and the residents immediately started to chatter excitedly amongst themselves.

"I do hope they have some Lemon Gels for my son," one woman exclaimed. "He's been dreadfully sick these past few weeks! Coughing all of the time, and sneezing and he looks so pale! He needs to go and serve in the Malkuth Imperial Forces! Nothing about his Score said that this would happen..."

Sacha didn't have the heart to tell the lady that Lemon Gels only truly healed wounds.

"Don't remind me!" Another young woman said loudly. "The Score for my daughter predicted that she would become a nurse. What does she and go and do? Train to be a fonist! Honestly, it's madness!"

"My son thinks that just because he can use the Seventh Fonon, he suddenly has a right to go and become a healer for the Imperial Forces. His Score said that he would help out in the local shop, and that's what he'll be doing, Seventh Fonons be damned!"

Frowning at what everyone was saying, Sacha pushed her way to the front of the large crowd, where they were beginning to unload the many crates. As a man moved out of the way of several especially large crates, Sacha could have sworn that one of them moved.

Then again, she was most likely seeing things.

"Stop touching me!" a voice hissed from the one of the crates, before a loud thump sounded, followed by some kind of whimpering noise before it went silent.

Okay. She definitely hadn't heard that in her head.

Watching as a broad man picked up the crate that had spoken and began to walk towards the alleyway, she decided to follow, ignoring the curious stares from a few people and a small handful of Oracle Knights that had tagged along to see what the big fuss was about.

After all, if there was even the tiniest possibility that Ion was inside, then she was following it.

A/N: Messing around with canon is fun. I should do it more often (and no way is it because if I wanted to copy the script word-for-word, I would have to restart a new game when all four save files are already in use and I can't be bothered to delete one of them).

I've looked over this and edited it plenty of times, but knowing my luck there's still spelling errors in it. Please tell me if you saw any!

Hope you enjoyed the chapter!