RK: Sorry for the long wait! Here's the next chapter!
Mara: As always, neither I nor RK own Tales of the Abyss, we only own Valeria, any other OC and our original plot.
RK: Please don't hesitate to review! We like knowing what people think of our fic! Enjoy!
It was still in the early hours of the morning, yet Jade was already up. Even while away from the capital of Malkuth he still had things to oversee, and paperwork needing to be completed and sent off to the right people. It had taken him most of the night to finish nearly all of the work he'd managed to keep on him during most of the chaos that he'd been involved in since the Tartarus had been taken over, and the steward in the castle had gotten his mail for him, which had included more paperwork to finish up and send off.
Jade had been considering sending a report to Peony explaining some of the things that had been going on during the journey to Baticul. The only reason he paused was due to the fact that he wasn't sure who to trust the information with, and sending a messenger would be a bit risky.
Soft snoring brought his attention to the figure lying half off the bed in the corner. Valeria was on her back, her right arm and leg hanging off the bed, almost hitting the ground. The shirt she'd stolen from Emperor Peony had ridden up, and was dangerously close to rising above her chest while the cloths and glove that had been on her left hand had fallen off soon after she'd gone to sleep. Curiously though, the right glove remained exactly where it was, as if tied to her arm. The only thing Jade had personally removed from her was the pack strapped to her thigh, mostly due to not knowing if there was anything breakable in there that would've been crushed when she tossed and turned.
He had to wonder where the blonde had been the day before. Both times he'd come by to check on her while still with the others, she hadn't been in the room. The third time, when he'd come back for the night, only Nyla had been in the room with the blonde staggering in twenty minutes later without a word and collapsing on the bed he'd meant to claim for himself, having thought the girl would curl up next to the Arka. Luckily, the chair he'd claimed for paperwork was able to recline so it didn't bother him too much. Still, he wanted to know where the girl had been during the day when he'd told her to remain in the room.
Slightly worried Valeria would soon tumble over he looked at the other bed, "Nyla, would you wake Valeria up? I'd hate for her to fall off the bed and grumble about it. It's hard enough focusing as it is."
The Arka lifted her head and snorted. Jade waited, staring at the creature as it seemed to make its decision. Hopping down from the bed, Nyla padded to where Valeria was and placed her nose against the girl's bare stomach. In less than a second, a scream was heard as Valeria shot out of bed and tumbled off the edge, away from the cold nose that had laid against her skin. Nyla snorted, hopping up on the bed Valeria had just vacated and curled up once again. The blonde, on the other hand, pulled down her shirt as she glared at Jade.
"Could've woken me up in a nicer manner."
"What would be the fun in that?"
Her scowl grew deeper, which amused Jade even more, since he actually hadn't even lifted a finger against her, yet. "So, where were you during the day?"
She blinked at him, "Here. The whole time."
Nice try. "Now, normally I'd believe you, yet I did manage to make two stops here while still wandering around with Luke and Ion. You weren't here either of those times and when I arrived the final time it was only Nyla here. I'm not going to ask again."
He kept eye contact with her as she remained silent, weighing her options of telling him the truth. Finally she sighed, "Nyla and I were exploring, it seemed like a better idea than staying cooped up in here the whole time."
"And yet you seem just as tired as before, even with a full eight hours of sleep."
"Seriously? I had eight hours?"
Technically she had seven and a half, but he wouldn't ruin it for her, since she seemed to view that as an accomplishment. "Valeria, when was the last time you slept well?"
The blonde leaned back against the bed, encircling her arms around her legs. "It's been a while. Haven't been home in a while either…" her eyes widened, as if she hadn't meant to say that aloud to him, "I mean…"
Jade sighed. "I take it Chesedonia wasn't your first stop?"
"Nope," she admitted slowly, putting a lot of emphasis on the 'p'.
"In any case, I have to head up to the castle again in a little while to have my audience with the King. I had planned on wandering around the city a bit before hand. Would you care to join me?" Normally he wouldn't offer but he did have to speak with her a little before he went up and talked with the King.
Valeria shook her head, "No, I'm probably going to go back to sleep. I dunno why, but I feel comfortable sleeping here. Normally while away from home I have trouble sleeping. I never know when someone might accidentally come into my room to clean it or not. But here? I feel fine."
Seeing no other choice, since she decided to remain in the room, he was forced to explain his plans. He really would have preferred not to, though."Well then, before I leave I might as well warn you. I was able to get a small briefing from Emperor Peony before I left Grand Chokmah. Akzeriuth is facing troubles, and I'll most likely be sent there with an ambassador from Kimlasca. In all likelihood we'll be leaving as soon as possible. That is, if the King agrees to the peace treaty."
"And what? Am I coming with you?"
"I've yet to decide. For now, I need to leave. If you're hungry, I believe the kitchen has already set things up in the dining room."
He didn't give her a chance to respond; he needed to think. Leaving the inn, Jade glanced up at the city above him. If he really had to say, he would have rather left Valeria here.
But it wouldn't be a good idea for a few particular reasons.
The main one was due to her habit of getting into trouble. She was in trouble often enough, and it was hard to get her leniency when dealing with Malkuth troops. If left here without someone to actually keep an eye on her, she would likely get into serious trouble, and if Malkuth troops were hard enough to deal with, Kimlascan ones would be a nightmare.
Another was her issues with getting close to men. While it wasn't as severe as he'd seen Guy react around women, after an episode like she'd had on the ferry, she wouldn't want to interact too closely with men. At least not men that she didn't know or trust. He'd seen her bump knuckles with a couple of men who are under her brother's command, so it wasn't that she couldn't touch them, it was mostly that she didn't trust them.
Though it didn't always used to be that way.
Jade looked from the blonde huddled on the ground, covered in blood, to the man holding the knife in front of him. His platoon had been looking for this group for weeks, never once able to find them. It had been pure luck that they'd stumbled on the encampment when they did.
Without wasting any time, he'd spread out his troops and had them attack the encampment, their goal being the people locked in the pens outside of tents. That in itself was cruel, as most of the people locked away weren't dressed for the harshness of the Keterberg climate. It was then that he'd heard screaming towards the south, a little ways away from the encampment.
He'd followed the sounds to find a muscled man sitting on the stomach of a blonde female, who barely looked to be a teenager, a knife held at her throat. Jade didn't know if the man had been serious but he reacted quickly, rushing to the man and knocking him away from the girl.
He didn't want to tear his gaze from the man as he eyed Jade and then the girl before finally laughing.
"Don't worry WildCat, this isn't the last you'll see of me. We'll play again, someday."
Before Jade could finish casting a fonic arte, the man ran off. It was tempting to follow him, but the girl was severely injured. At least it looked like she was, if the blood belonged solely to her. Before he could make an attempt to speak to the girl, one of his soldiers rushed to him, explaining that while most of the men had been captured, the leader and a good portion of the men had gotten away. Jade sighed, telling the Corporal to tend to the injured and get those who had been held there to safety.
Yet when the corporal tried to go near the blonde, she screamed.
Her silver eyes were wide as he tried once again to get closer to her, and she attempted to scoot back away from him, dragging her already injured body across the wooden grate that had been placed on the ground. Her screams kept increasing the more the corporal tried to get closer to her, and when her back hit a metal cage she flinched away from it, though kept her eyes on the two men in front of her.
Jade sighed and walked closer as well, intending to drag the corporal away from her and think of something else that would allow them to help her. Yet when he moved closer she didn't scream, only kept her eyes on him.
The red-eyed man shook his head, snapping his mind away from the memory of his first meeting with Valeria. Even now, he was still a little angry about what he'd seen, a man attacking such a young girl, and it had been years since the encounter. A man Valeria refused to talk about, who Jade hadn't been able to locate.
He'd been walking around for awhile, allowing his mind to wander onto other things besides the girl currently under his care. Before long, he was forced to look over when a Kimlascan soldier began walking over to him.
"Colonel Curtiss, correct?"
"I am."
"His Majesty is ready for you, they've finished early, and request your presence at the palace."
Jade nodded, "Lead the way."
…
Valeria sighed.
It had been about an hour and a half since Jade left. She'd gotten food, fed Nyla, and had then proceeded to climb atop the inn's roof just to get away from the idiocy of the inn keeper. Apparently, the woman seemed to believe that Valeria was one of the foreign emissaries, though Valeria had no idea how that happened, and wanted to make sure Valeria had everything she needed.
What she needed was some peace and quiet!
Her plan for half of the day was to try and rest up, since she felt comfortable there. Or rather, she had felt comfortable there. Now she was mostly annoyed. So instead of relaxing on a nice comfy bed, she was lounging around on the roof, looking out over the city. She had to admit, it was a rather nice view. It allowed her to check out a lot of the area without forcing her to walk around, plus she could people watch. It amused her greatly to watch all the people walk around Baticul, not many of the people seemed to have varying shades of hair, which was interesting to say the least. Mostly Valeria saw brown and black, not a whole lot of diversity. Though occasionally she saw an unusual shade of hair, like pink… And green…
"What the heck? Why does Noir have Ion with her?"
Sure enough, the female thief, along with York and Urushi, were leading Fon Master Ion through the streets, escorted by a single oracle knight. Valeria noticed that Ion didn't have his Guardian with him, so that meant this likely wasn't a sanctioned mission. It made her think back to the previous night when Noir mentioned that she and the boys were doing a mission that they couldn't push off to a Smuggler or a Slaver.
So they were there to steal Ion, huh?
And Valeria had a feeling Noir knew where Ion was staying because of her.
Sighing, Valeria slipped carefully from the roof and made her way toward where she'd last seen the thieves. She looked around for a moment, a little disorientated with how the city was built, but eventually came to the conclusion they'd likely been headed toward the exit.
She reached the exit to the city and then had to pause. Sure enough Noir and the others were there, but so was Sync.
"Why is Sync here? And what would they want with Ion?"
There were so many questions sprouting up in her head, and she really wished she could get some answers, but first…
"Anise, I wouldn't go out there if I were you."
The Fon Master Guardian jumped in surprise when Valeria walked up to her, dragging her back from the entrance's line of sight. She quickly turned to look at Valeria in shock.
"Where did you come from?"
"I've been following Ion for the past twenty minutes, trying to figure out what's going on. But as I came upon them I realized there was someone standing guard outside the city."
"Who?"
"Sync the Tempest."
"Oh no! I can't get Ion away from him…"
Valeria glanced upwards, debating about going and finding Jade. This was mostly for him to deal with, he was the one who was supposed to escort Ion here, so he should likely know what to do. "Only thing we can do now is locate Jade and see what he knows."
Anise looked like she was about to say something, but Valeria walked away, heading back towards the cable cars. She wasn't entirely sure which one led where, since there were numerous ones that would lead anywhere in the city, but she figured she just needed to see which one led to the highest point.
Anise caught up with her as she chose the second highest point, since the first one was closed, and stood quietly next to her. Valeria couldn't really tell if the girl was mad at her or not. Not that she minded, since she didn't know the girl at all.
The cable car opened and before Valeria could exit, Anise rushed past her.
"Luke!"
Sure enough, the redhead was walking toward the cable car with Tear and Guy, who jumped away as Anise got closer. The girl then shoved Tear out of the way so she could get closer to Luke, much to Valeria's amusement.
"I missed you! But you're always together with Tear, aren't you…"
Tear actually looked apologetic, "Oh... I-I'm sorry. But don't worry Anise. I'm not with him because I want to be."
Valeria laughed, coming over to the group right as Jade walked up. It amused her that the melodist would go from helping the red head to insulting him, though she doubted the girl realized that was an insult.
"Anise, shouldn't you be with Ion?"
"Colonel! When I woke up this morning, his bed was empty. So I went out to look for him, and ran into some people who said they had seen someone that looked like Ion leave the city with some circus performers..."
Valeria nodded, "Yeah, and then I caught her before she ran out after them, and decided to come up here to find you. Apparently the Dark Wings took a job to collect Ion."
Jade sighed, "Well this is a fine mess."
Luke tilted his head to the side "What?! But how did they know where to get Ion?"
Knowing it was her fault, Valeria decided to remain quiet about that question. So far as she knew, Jade didn't know that she was friends with the Dark Wings and for the moment it was probably a good idea that it remained a secret.
Guy spoke up, trying to calm the red head, "It doesn't really matter how they knew, all that matters is that we need to go get Ion. So let's go get them!"
It was then that Anise finally remembered why she and Valeria had come up to this level of the city. "You can't! The God-General Sync is right outside the city."
"This is bad. If the Six God-Generals are outside, they'll find out that we're going by land."
Valeria and the Guardian both looked at Tear, each having a confused look on their faces. Though it was Anise who spoke. "Huh? You're not going to Akzeriuth by ship?"
"No, that's a decoy. Damn it, we've got to find a way out..."
The moment the redhead finished talking, Valeria zeroed in on Jade, daring him to tell her which way they were heading. If he thought she would remain in this city, he was insane.
"Then take me with you on your way! If I can get outside the city, I can look for Ion!"
Luke looked between Anise and Jade, looking at the Colonel with a confused look. "What do you think, Jade?"
Jade sighed, looking annoyed with the situation that he'd been thrust into. "I suppose we can't refuse her... it sounds like Mohs isn't involved in Ion's kidnapping this time."
"That's right. Mohs was mad," Anise agreed.
"Then, Grand Maestro Mohs and the Six God-Generals really aren't connected...?"
Valeria snorted, earning a look from the Melodist who'd just spoken. Valeria held up her hands, not willing to say anything, though she remembered an incident with Sync while she'd visited nearly a year ago that had the Grand Maestro giving orders. Not that she'd admit this, Jade wasn't aware of that, visit after all.
Come to think of it, Jade likely wasn't aware of how often she'd ditched town and wandered off to other cities. She wondered what he'd think if he knew all the places she'd gone off to?
Then again, it was Jade. He probably knew more than he let on.
Luckily, he also decided to ignore her interruption as well, "Though, whether Mohs is trying to cause a war or not is a separate issue."
"What do the Six God-Generals want with Ion? He said they took him to that place called the Sephiroth, right?" Luke pondered.
Jade shrugged, "We don't have enough information to guess. Right now, we should concentrate on getting out of this city."
Guy seemed lost in thought for a moment before he snapped his fingers, "Wait... I know a way. Let's go to the abandoned factory in the old part of the city. We can get there by aircar."
Valeria held up a hand, "Wait, whoa, hold on. Jade, please tell me you're not planning what I think you're planning…"
He looked at her with a small smirk, "Ah, I forgot to mention that this morning, didn't I?"
Valeria scoffed, "Forgot to mention? You never said anything about going by land! And I'm guessing there's no way I'm staying here? No, don't answer that. I'll answer it for you. I'm not staying here."
"I'm glad you agree. Now go get Nyla and meet us—"
"Nope! Nyla and I will find our own way out of the city, there is no way I'm taking her underground in some abandoned factory, we'll find you."
"Valeria!"
Not wasting another second, Valeria turned on her heel and made her way to the cable car, getting in right before it closed. She waved at Jade as he stared at her with a frown on his face. Not that she cared, she wasn't fond of dark, damp places, as the factory was likely to be. Not to mention she had a few things she now had to pick up if she was going to survive the trek over land.
Why did Jade have to do this to her, didn't he remember how bad she was with heat?
Valeria sighed. She hadn't actually planned on coming back to this branch of the Underworld so soon, but she'd come up with nothing during her initial scouting of the city. She'd had to buy a couple of items from a few different shops, a couple of extra water bottles, a tank top, extra food, and a couple of other fun toys, so all that was left was for her was to figure out a plan of getting out of the city. There was no way she'd willingly go through that stupid abandoned factory.
She'd mentioned that it was because of Nyla, but in truth places like that made her think of a few things from her past. Things she'd rather forget about, not that it was possible. Though she had been serious about Nyla, if they had to climb up and down long steep ladders, the Arka might not be able to follow.
After hesitating for a moment, she walked over to a Black Market trader, waving him over before she could change her mind.
"'Ello li'l lass. Wha can I do fer ya?"
"I was told that if I ever wanted to get a hold of someone, I just needed to mention his name and he'd find me."
"Oh? Who iz it?"
"Tell Drayden that Valeria is looking for him and will meet him near the info dealers."
The trader chuckled, "Will do, lass. Will do."
Valeria hesitated for a moment before she walked away, heading back toward where she'd left Nyla. If the trader did it, he'd do it. If not, well she'd burn that bridge when she got to it. For now, she'd attempt to get more information out of the dealers if they'd let her.
She and Nyla made two other stops while walking toward the dealers, deciding to see if there was anything of interest in the Market Stalls. A few items seemed to be of interest for her, yet she wasn't willing to pay the price the guy asked, knowing he had probably stolen it from some other unfortunate soul. If her knowledge of markings was correct, that is.
For a few of the Underworld selections, there were groups that banded together and worked well with each other. A couple were thieves who teamed up with merchants, as well as smugglers who worked with assassins. Two of those branches had markings that symbolized they worked together, and the man who was selling at this current stall bore a mark of the Thief/Merchant type.
Shaking her head on the deal, Valeria walked away and finally figured she'd head for the Information Dealers, though before she could get to the dealers' space a voice stopped her.
"Ya know, this is much sooner than I thought you'd need me."
Turning to look at the side, Valeria spied Drayden lounging on one of the many couches spaced around the cavern. His legs were sprawled in front of him and he held a metal tankard in his hand, though from the smell Valeria knew it wasn't alcoholic.
Placing her hands on her hips, Valeria tilted her head, "Is that a problem?"
The silver haired man laughed and set down his drink before he got to his feet and walked over until he stood right in front of her, having to bend down a little so he could look in her eyes, "Nah, I've been bored anyway."
It took a little bit of effort, but she didn't back away from him and looked him in the eyes as well. "I need to get out of the city, but I can't go out via the port or the main entrance. Oh, and I refuse to leave via the abandoned factory."
He grinned, "Purely because of your pooch, correct?"
"Purely. Now get out of my face."
His laugh echoed around them, but he did stand to his normal slouched height, tilting his head to the side in thought, "I might know a way. Any particular direction you're heading?"
"East, over land, not by sea."
Drayden raised a brow, though she only saw it due to his bangs hanging to the side. "The desert? Not the best place right now, sandstorms are due any time now."
"Doesn't matter, I only need you to get me out of the city."
Drayden held out his hand, motioning for her to begin walking. She did, Nyla right at her heel, and the Smuggler on her right. "Right-o. I can get you out, but first I have a question."
"Yeah?"
"You know Dist the Reaper, right?"
Valeria hesitated, not sure whether or not she should answer, and Drayden seemed to take her silence as yes.
"You know, it's not that hard of a stretch. I did see what happened on the ferry. Plus, I can get more information here than you can. I was asking purely because I wanted to be polite. Only reason I asked was there's a job that someone needs done. Yet no one would be able to accomplish it unless they know the Reaper, how his mind works."
"If you think I know how his mind works, you're insane."
He waved his hand in front of his face, "Tomato, tomato. You know him, right?"
Valeria sighed, "Yeah…"
"Good, let's go talk to the dealers. You accept the job, I'll get some info that you want."
It was Valeria's turn to raise an eyebrow, not trusting him once again, "You the one who asked for the job?"
Drayden chuckled, "I dunno why you're so cautious against me, your pooch has yet to growl, even though I stood right in front of your face. Though to answer your question, no. It wasn't me. It was the Limiter who requested this."
Valeria stopped and looked at Drayden, surprise on her face, "The Limiter is looking into Dist's idiocy?"
The silver haired man shrugged, "Dunno, just heard that she needed someone else who could actually access the information to get it for her. She's apparently willing to pay well. Not to mention it'll get you in her good graces, opening more doors."
Valeria frowned at his choice of words, "You talked to Noir, didn't you?"
"The thief came to me last night and we had a wondrous talk, haven't had a chance to catch up with her for a long time. Fun gal, interesting way of thinking. Talked about you when I mentioned I had been saved on the ferry. If I know that thief at all, and I believe I do after running into her over the years on jobs, she cares for ya. And due to that, she requested of me to help ya out on occasion. Which includes making sure the Underworld doesn't swallow ya whole."
"So Noir talked you into making me a Piece instead of a Known?"
Drayden grinned, "Yup. Let's get you a name for yourself."
He led the way to the Info dealers, and instead of being brushed aside like she had the day before, the dealers actually made an effort to help him. Within the next twenty minutes, Valeria stood off to the side holding a fonic disc that she apparently needed to insert into a machine that Dist had used. There were some instructions for her as well, though she decided to ignore them for now. She'd need to read them when she got to the location anyway. Now she was waiting for Drayden to get done talking with a few of the dealers before he'd get her out of the city, though she still had no clue how he was planning on doing that.
Nyla was once again lying down, not that Valeria blamed her, since before they even got to Chesedonia, they'd had a rough time. Maybe it hadn't been the brightest idea to travel around Malkuth with just the two of them. They'd run into quite a few interesting creatures that seemed to believe it'd be a good idea to attack the Arka and her owner. On many occasions Valeria had had to try and fix Nyla since she tended to jump into fights, though she'd thought the Arka would have learned by now that doing so wasn't the best idea. The first trip Valeria took Nyla with her to Daath came to mind.
Nyla had barely begun to grow from being a small pup, but she hadn't wanted to leave Valeria's side. It came with being an Arka, Valeria supposed. For most Arka, once they bonded with a particular human, they wouldn't bond with another. And Valeria had been given Nyla pretty early in her pup stage, so they bonded pretty quick. But it was during a trip to Daath, when Nyla was smaller and unable to carry Valeria, that they'd come upon a rather unforgiving creature that seemed to believe the two of them were encroaching on it's territory.
Both of them had tried to defeat the thing, but it kept throwing Valeria to the side every time she tried to cast while Nyla wasn't much of a threat to it yet, not having the strength in her forepaws to actually do a lot of damage. In fact, had it not been for Sync showing up, Valeria had a feeling that both she and her Arka would've been killed. But even with the God-General helping out, Valeria had been severely injured and Nyla had lost part of her right ear and gained a scar across her eye. Luckily the eye remained intact, though.
And after all they'd just gotten into recently, they now had to go into the desert. Someone clearly wasn't smiling on them.
Sighing, Valeria sat down next to the Arka, leaning against her while waiting for Drayden to finish up. Luckily it didn't take too much longer, and he came walking over to her with a small stack of papers.
"Here ya go. Some, not all, of the information you'd been looking for. Though why you'd want some of this stuff, I have no clue."
Valeria stood, nudging Nyla with her foot. The Arka grumbled but stood moments later. "Thanks, though it's none of your business what I do with this information."
Drayden laughed, "Sure, sure, now I suppose you'll be wanting to catch up with your group?"
"How did you…?"
"Come now, it's the Underworld, things get reported all the time. A couple people saw a group including that Colonel friend of yours and the red head going into the abandoned factory. Knowing what I know about that place, they'll likely be getting out of it right as I get you out of the city. You and the Arka are cool with water, right?"
"Yeah… Why?"
"Oh, no reason."
