Chapters 1&2 have both been edited. Start back at One if you haven't already. :D

And yes, I realize that I grabbed seemingly-random song lyrics out of each of the songs. (It'd be a bit messy to put the whole song up here, after all.)

If I wasn't here tomorrow, would anybody care?
If I wasn't here tomorrow, would anyone lose sleep?
I can never forget, so don't remind me of it forever...
What if I just try not to remember... Would it matter at all?

Arc I - Kelys: An Introduction
Chapter 3 - The Stranger
Would It Matter

I frown. "He wants to what?"

Lora fidgets, tugging on her braid. "He said he wants to see the lexicon, overnight, if you'll let him. He also said he'd meet you at Aesin's Fountain tomorrow morning to give it back personally if you agreed."

I hug Father's lexicon to my chest and decide that examining the ground is a good idea. I'm torn. Lora seems convinced that the stranger staying in Neo Tanis can help me with the section on fonons. The problem is, he's a stranger.

But then, so was the blonde man who brought Father's lexicon back.

I sigh and hold the leather-bound tome out, and Lora takes it and smiles. "See you tomorrow morning?" she asks. It's a rhetorical question. She's not expecting any sort of an answer, so I don't give her one. I just shove my hands in my coat pockets and walk away.

Now what? I sigh and watch as I step through another puddle. Light blue boots are splashed with even more mud, and I kick at the water. Not that that's going to do anything.

I realize a few minutes later that I've wandered off in the wrong direction. I'd been heading home when Lora had found me, and now I'm walking west.

Matthya...

I nod once and start walking again, as if I meant to come this way from the beginning. Then I sigh.

Maybe Rishu's right. He thinks I haven't caught him worrying about me, thinks he's managed to keep it all hidden behind everything else, but he hasn't. Not quite. And maybe I am spending too much time trying to crack a mystery that simply can't be cracked. But what happens when I give up? What if it's not something that I should give up on?

I bite my lip and step over a hole in the ground. I don't make it much farther before I hear familiar yowls. I stop and listen, not just with my ears, but with my mind.

'Seventh-hatched, lost! Left the nest! Seventh-hatched hurt? Hunted? Have to find her!'

Matthya, looking for one of her little girls. My eyes are already darting around, but the youngest of her hatchlings is going to be hard to find by sight. She's the dull gray of her father, and in this mud, the only way I'll find her is if she's got her mother's sky-blue markings. Or maybe the belly and tail-tuft colors of her father's side of the family. Blue, or violet. Either would be more visible than gray.

'Find boy, boy needs... needs... something... not like nest-mates... he needs me...'

The trail of thought is a little more disjointed than Matthya's and I chase after it. The 'boy' the little girl's thinking of is definitely Rishu. I smile a bit ruefully as I consider that. Even hiding his thoughts from me, he's still letting off 'worried' vibes. And this little girl felt that. She knows he's worried about something, she knows being around her and her siblings helped.

Which is why she's currently trying to trudge through a large patch of mud.

I smile a bit when I finally spot her. Maroon tail-tip and belly from the looks of it. And... are those dull green markings? I giggle when the girl's footing slips, and she ends up sprawled out on her belly in the mud.

A few careful steps later and I'm standing right over her. She looks up at me with wide, pink eyes, and I smile and shake my head. "You've got your mother all worried now, you know that? Come here... Rishu will be alright for a couple more weeks." I pick her up carefully and hold her close. She mews at me sadly, and I smile and shake my head. "It's me he's worried about. I'll see if I can't cut it out for a little while, alright?"

She's still upset, but she doesn't keep whining as I manage to get us out of the super-muddy patch. Once we're back on solid—well, more solid, since it's never quite solid during the Dark Rain—ground, I settle into a distance-eating stride.

I'm just calm enough, so I focus on Matthya. "I've got her, Watches-Moths-Flying. I'm bringing her home."

Shock passes quickly, since this is the second time she's heard my voice in her head, and then relief registers.

A moment later, a loud yowl echoes through the forest. A chorus goes up in response, and by the time I get to the next, almost all of the searching adults have returned. Thankfully, no one else has gotten it into their heads to try the same thing the little girl in my arms did.

Matthya is the last to return, and she's greeted by the sight of me trying to get the hatchling to sit still long enough for me to wash the mud out of her fur. Matthya finds it amusing, and a sharp growl gets the baby girl to stop struggling.

Once she's washed up and dumped in with her nest-mates, I turn to Matthya and smile, shaking my head. "She was trying to find Rishu," I tell her. Matthya's mind drifts to the boy in question, and then she growls softly and nudges my arm. She felt his worry too, and now she's wondering why he's worried. She knows that her little girl was just trying to help him. I sigh and sit down on the edge of her nest.

"Rishu's worried about me," I admit. Matthya practically pushes me all the way in, and once all nine of us are comfortably curled up together—my muddy boots and raincoat have been dumped outside the nest for obvious reasons—I continue my explanation. "I... I've been trying too hard, I think. I just want to figure out what happened to Father, and I'm sure the answer is in his lexicon... somewhere... I just can't find it. And... I don't know. I feel like I'm running out of time or something."

'Spirit-sickness? You are spirit-warrior, and all spirit-warriors are spirit-healers. Yours, his, connected.'

It takes me a minute to figure out what Matthya's saying, because she's never mentioned spirit-sickness before. The thing with the spirit-warriors and spirit-healers is nothing new, she talks about that a lot whenever I come to her with a problem.

"You think someone's using Father's abilities against him?" I ask.

Matthya is quiet for a moment.

'Speaks-to-Trees is strong. Perhaps it is not so much his power turned against him as it is his spirit turned against his power.'

I blink, mind gone blank at 'Speaks-to-Trees'. Then those sentences start to compute, as I finally remember the lighira name for my Father.. I know how I got mine, but I am still clueless regarding Father's...

I inhale sharply as I realize exactly what Matthya is suggesting. Not so much someone using Father's abilities to harm him. No, she's thinking that someone could be controlling him, making him use his powers in a way that his mind and spirit want to fight against. And a mind and spirit turned against the body...

"He's killing himself to save whomever he's being turned against," I whisper. Matthya moans. It's soft, and sad, and it hurts her too, because she feels this is the truth.

I reach back and scratch behind her ears, because she needs the comfort as much as I do. Just as well the hatchlings are asleep already. They'd be so upset... Well, most of them are asleep.

I sigh. "Sleep, little one," I mutter, the other hand reaching for the seventh-hatched. She turns her head to look at me, and I smile. "We'll be alright... You should sleep. You need your energy."

In petting mother and youngest child to sleep, I lull myself off as well.

I wake early the next morning as Matthya tries to remove herself from the nest without displacing too many of us, and I giggle a bit. Sometime in the night, all three of the boys have managed to crawl on top of me, along with the eldest of the girls.

It takes me a little while to get everyone off without waking them, and I leave as well after pulling on my coat and boots. I have to go meet Lora and that guy at Aesin's Fountain.

I walk past Matthya on the way out, and she wishes me well.

I just nod in return and keep walking. It's raining, but this doesn't surprise me in the least, so I just pull up my hood and ignore it.

By the time I reach Kaingilv, it's pretty late in the morning. Lots of people are wandering around, buying groceries, or other necessities, or just socializing... Though most of the latter are hiding under awnings for that.

But there's a small group that isn't trying to stay dry, and there's an unfamiliar mind among them. Unfamiliar... but at the same time, I can't really hear... him.

The memory of Maeve talking about her most recent vision comes to me the moment I can see the fountain. Lora's sat on the edge, silvery hair glowing a soft blue. Maeve is holding an umbrella over Rishu, while the thirteen-year-old writes the rough draft of his lighira essay.

And hovering near the three of them is a slate-haired stranger.

"Am I late?" I ask, pushing back the shock as I walk over. Lora and the stranger both turn to look at me.

"Nope! We just got here ourselves. Maeve and Rishu have been here for a while," Lora says cheerfully. "By the way... This is Sakkaku." I nod to the new teen in greeting, smiling a bit before I turn to Rishu, forcing down my pride. I hadn't been planning on telling him that no, he isn't as sneaky as he thinks he is, but...

"Hey... You should head out to the lighira nest as often as you can," I tell him. Rishu blinks up at me, acidic green eyes baffled. "That little girl that hardly left your side those first couple days? She tried running away last night to come find you." He still looks confused. "You're not as good at hiding your concern as you think you are. She picked up on that and now you've got her all worried too."

Rishu blinks a few times, then cringes.

That's when I realize something.

"He's blocking you, too, isn't he?" Maeve asks. I glance at her, and she shrugs and nods at Sakkaku. "I've been having sporadic visions all morning. He asked if I wanted him to cut them off temporarily and he did."

The boy gives me a wry smile when I turn to him. "Lora told me you don't care much for your ability either, and from what I've heard, it doesn't sound fun. I'm sorry for not asking, but..."

"No, no," I interrupt, still a bit shocked. Everyone outside the four teens around me has faded to white noise, but I can't hear the four of them at all... Well, not that I could hear the newcomer in the first place. "It's just... weird... I'm so used to just pushing everything out that I didn't even notice..."

He shrugs a bit, still looking rather apologetic. "Um..." He pauses and glances around at the others. "Do you... mind if we talk in private? I... Um..." He bites his lip, and suddenly the shield around his mind is brought down.

'I need to explain properly, and... The Guardians are not meant to be common knowledge.'

I swallow and nod. "Alright." The boy takes a few steps away, while I glance around at the others to see their reactions.

Rishu looks worried again, while Maeve... Maeve seems torn between concern and curiosity, probably because she knows, just as I do, that I'm probably going to be gone in some way. Lora, however, sighs, leans back, and falls into the fountain, only pop right back out looking sheepish. "Whoops... slick ledge..."

Maeve rolls her eyes and helps the fourteen-year-old out of the fountain, while Rishu's eyes follow me as I turn to walk away.

"Mithri... See you later?" he calls quietly.

I look back and force a smile. "Of course."

If Sakkaku finds the exchange odd, he doesn't mention it. Probably a good thing.

We stop in a clearing a ways away from the fountain, and Sakkaku sighs, leaning against a tree and running a hand through his bangs... Which is really disorienting, because his ponytail is tied up on the left side of the back of his head, and his bangs are hanging over the right side of his face. Effectively, it's producing the illusion that he's got his head turned to the right, when he doesn't.

Then I hear him muttering under his breath, and I blink. "Wait, you know that language?"

He stops and looks up at me. "You know it?" he asks, surprised. I shake my head.

"No... But Father made me memorize something and... it sounds like it's the same language..." I frown, suddenly uncertain. Maybe I shouldn't have...

"What was it?" he asks. I bite my lip, hugging my arms to my chest and wishing I could just have my father's lexicon back already.

"Ming alach vie ang produnar. Strell mie."

Sakkaku blinks a few times, groans softly, and lets his head fall back into the tree. "Yeah. That's Talleki. The only species on this world that might know that are the goblins hiding in the mountains around Bhumi." He's quiet for a moment, before he sighs again and looks at me. "Mithri... This isn't the only world in the universe. It's not even the only version of this world, although I'm pretty sure there are only two alternate timelines for Kelys... I can name two worlds right off the top of my head that aren't so lucky..."

He cringes, and is quiet for a while. I take the time to think over that though.

Other worlds... is that why Father was always gone for weeks at a time?

"These worlds are protected by a group known, collectively, as the Guardians," Sakkaku says, drawing my attention back. "The Guardians are split into four groups, all of whom answer to whoever the current leader is. There are also a lot of others who are... employed... by the Guardians, to keep watch in their own worlds." He takes a deep breath. "Arani was... is? Er... Well... Hmm..."

I blink a few times. "Let's assume is," I suggest, though it probably sounds more like an order. Sakkaku shrugs.

"Arani is a Guardian. He's in the main group. Problem is... Tashinaka, our leader up until about two years ago, sent him out on a long-term mission. That's why he sent his lexicon back to you," he explains. "But, not long after Tashinaka died, Arani... disappeared. None of us have had any contact with him since then."

I let my head drop. Missing. Not dead, but missing... on a long-term mission?

So Matthya's right.

"I hadn't planned on telling you this, but..." Sakkaku trails off, and I look back up at him. "Your father's message? It's basically a request for you to be trained as a Guardian. It's your choice if you want to go through with it, but... There's something you should probably know before you make your choice." He stops and bites his lip. He's watching the canopy above us, not looking at me at all. "Every once in a while, a Guardian lets their element get the better of them, and we have someone go crazy. We've had two go in the last fifteen years, and we're still trying to stop the first one. Heylii and Irene, unfortunately, have torn the Guardians apart. Physically, mentally, spiritually... One of them probably has Arani. And if you join up... They won't hesitate to go after you, Mithri. You won't be as strong or experienced as the rest of us. Easy pickings."

He closes his eyes and glances at me, while I cross my arms and frown. "What do you mean, 'their element gets the better of them'?" I ask. The only element-talk I know about is in regards to eres, mana, fonons, that kind of stuff.

Sakkaku sighs. "Right. Arani had Marik blank out all of those pages." He frowns for a moment, then holds out his hand. "Guardians control the elements in their purest forms." Soft, pink light covers his arm, and I swallow hard when I realize it's suddenly transparent. "My element is Spirit. I've only been a Guardian for a few months, so I honestly don't know what Arani's element was."

I blink. "And because you're controlling something at its most basic level, you don't have to deal with the different kinds of magic found in each of the worlds..." I mutter, a few little things finally clicking together. Sakkaku nods.

"Yeah. We're all over the place. We can't be limited by local magicks when a lot of us aren't melee fighters. So we use our elements." He pauses. "A lot of the people who serve the Guardians as our Home Guards are people who have completed all of the Guardian training, but who can't access their element the way we need to."

It's a subtle comment, meant to give me another choice that won't necessitate leaving, or putting myself in the immediate line of fire.

But I've already made up my mind, for the most part.

Matthya thinks Father is being controlled.

If he's a Guardian, and wants me to be trained as one, then that's what I'm going to do.

"You're not going to talk her out of it, Sakkaku."

Sky blue eyes shoot up to a spot over my shoulder even as I spin around as well.

The woman's hair is gold, with copper streaks, and she smirks. I blink a few times, and then I hear her voice again. Except, not out loud.

'You're a fighter. And we need fighters.'

"What do I need to do?"