((Well, here we are with another chapter. Sorry that it took so long.

Thanks go to my one reviewer, ThatGuyWhoFliesThatPlane. Thank you for your comment.

Someone please review? It encourages me to keep writing.))

Chapter Four: Chores To Do

Over lunch, Yuhina explained a number of things to Seyreon, most of them basic information that she would likely have been amazed that Seyreon did not know, had he not had the convenient excuse of near-total amnesia.

Nearly everything Yuhina told him was at odds with what Seyreon would have believed had he not had someone to tell him these things, although there was one thing that sounded familiar.

"Wait, you say this place is called Ivalice?" he asked. Something about that word struck a faint echo of memory inside him, but when he tried to figure it out, it slipped away.

"You really have it bad, don't you?" Yuhina said. "Ivalice is the name of this country. We're in the town of Cyril at the moment, the humans' town."

Seyreon decided he did not want to understand why she called it "the humans' town" just yet, though he should probably ask soon.

"It's just, when you said 'Ivalice', it sounded a little familiar," he said.

Yuhina perked up.

"That sounds good," she said. "Maybe you're getting your memory back a little!"

Seyreon shrugged.

"When I think about it, it's gone," he said. "I think I'm a long way away from remembering much of anything."

She also told him something about jobs, the clans, and about her clan, Clan Verity, in particular.

"So if everyone has a job, then what's yours?" Seyreon asked.

"Bookkeeper," said Yuhina. "I keep the records for Clan Verity: what missions we've done, which ones we're doing now, what kind of stuff we have, that sort of thing. I can't fight, really; I'm not good at it and I'm too young. So I stay behind and take care of things here. Azi would probably be better at it, but I can't do what they do."

"Azi?" Two things were confusing Seyreon: the term 'Azi', which he did not recognize, and its use as a plural despite sounding like someone's name.

"Ah, that's right, I haven't told you about us yet. Azi are the viera twins Azina and Azila. Azina's an elementalist and Azila's a sniper. Then you have Kei, that's the bangaa Keitoren, a dragoon; also Lamoru, a nu mou sage, and Varei, a moogle time mage. We don't really have a leader; we just sort of work things out together."

Seyreon didn't know what a viera was, any more than he knew what a bangaa, a nu mou, or a moogle was, but he didn't want to mention that just yet. He would have to soon, though, or he might accidentally insult someone.

"And what's my job?" he asked instead.

"You mean you don't know?" Yuhina sounded surprised. "Well, you're dressed like a white mage, and you can use healing magic. That's something white mages do. So I'd say that's what you are."

Dressed like a white mage...? Seyreon, for the first time, looked at what he was wearing, a white robe with red designs on it. It looked odd to him, in the same way Yuhina's and the pubkeeper's clothes had looked odd.

"A white mage," Seyreon repeated. He rather liked the idea, though some part of him kept insisting that there was no such thing as magic. Since that was the part which thought it was impossible to learn things from holding staffs, he was inclined to ignore it. Problem was, that was also the part of him which said his name was Seyreon, and which thought that "Ivalice" sounded familiar.

Seyreon put all these thoughts out of his mind for the moment. He would think on it when he had more information.

"We're not a big clan," Yuhina said, "but we work well together and we look out for each other. That's what we're about, really, taking care of each other. And truth and justice and honor and all that stuff you hear about in heroic legends, but that's kind of secondary, to be honest."

"Sounds nice," Seyreon said.

"It is," Yuhina said with a dreamy smile. Yet it looked to Seyreon as though there was sadness in that smile.

Seyreon looked at his staff. It still puzzled him. How had he come to be lying on the doorstep of the Chocobo's Kweh, holding the staff? Try as he might, he could not remember at all.

"I wonder what staff that is," Yuhina mused. "It's not like any I've seen before."

"Is there someone who might know?" Seyreon asked. He was curious too.

"Oh! We could ask the woman who runs the equipment shop; she might know."

Yuhina quickly got up and started cleaning up lunch. Seyreon did his best to help, but he was not very effective. Still, after not too long they were done, and Yuhina led Seyreon out to the equipment shop.

"I've never seen anything like this," said the shopkeeper when they showed it to her.

"You haven't?" Yuhina asked, surprised.

"Well, it looks a little like a Cure Staff, but the crystal is the wrong shape," the shopkeeper replied. "And I can't explain it, but it feels different. You know what I mean?"

"Sort of," Yuhina said.

"It's the Heal Staff," Seyreon said suddenly.

Both of the others turned to look at him, surprise on their faces.

"I thought you didn't know what it was," said Yuhina.

"I didn't," Seyreon said. "I don't. But you said it looked sort of like a Cure Staff, and 'heal' is sort of like 'cure', right?"

"Sort of," the shopkeeper agreed.

"Well, I can't explain it," Seyreon said, starting to feel embarrassed, "but I have this feeling that it's called the Heal Staff."

Yuhina shrugged.

"Works for me," she said cheerily. "Let's go back home, I've some chores to do. See you later, Annella!"

"Come back anytime!" Annella called as they left.

When they reached the pub, Seyreon knew that it was time. He had to ask now, before something happened.

He waited until they got to the base before he finally had the courage to ask.

"Uh, Yuhina?"

"What is it?" Yuhina asked, turning to look at Seyreon.

"What's a viera? And those other things you mentioned, a moogle, a nu mou, and a bangaa?"

Yuhina could not help it. She laughed.

"What's so funny?" Seyreon asked, puzzled.

"I'm sorry," Yuhina said, trying to contain her laughter. "I shouldn't laugh, really I shouldn't. It's just, you ask the kinds of questions small children ask their parents when they encounter these things for the first time. And," she started laughing again, "and when you ask me these questions, it makes me feel like -like I'm your mother or something!"

Seyreon chuckled as Yuhina led him to a part of the base he had never been to before.

"Where are we, and why?" he asked when he noticed this.

"We're in the storage area," Yuhina explained. "I want to sort all the stuff we have, see if I can find anything interesting that we'd forgotten about."

"Can I help?" Seyreon asked, wanting to do something for Yuhina in return for what she'd done for him.

"That would be great!" said Yuhina excitedly. "You probably don't know much about equipment, seeing as you have amnesia, but hey, I don't know all that much myself, seeing as I can't fight."

"So how will we know if we find something interesting?" Seyreon asked.

"Well, today we'll just sort it by general type," Yuhina explained. "You know, swords over here, spears over there, that sort of thing. Then tomorrow I'll try to find a book or something to help me figure out the rest."

"Think you might have one among all this stuff?" Seyreon wondered.

Yuhina spun around to look at Seyreon.

"That's brilliant!" she said. "I have a pretty good idea where it would be, too. Thanks, Seyreon!"

Seyreon smiled.

"You're welcome."

They walked a short ways further, then Yuhina stopped and opened a door.

"Weapons first," she said. "We'll do the other stuff after this."

Seyreon blinked.

Weapons lay in random piles about the room. It was not a very large room, but neither was it tiny. Although it was not full, there were still a great many weapons, considering that Yuhina had told him they only needed to supply five people with them.

"This seems a bit... excessive," he said, once he had gotten over his amazement.

"I know," Yuhina agreed. "We keep getting weapons as rewards for missions. The stuff adds up pretty quickly. All right, first we want to put all the unsorted weapons in one place... Help me put them on either side of the door."

By the time they were done, they had two long piles leading from each side of the door to the corners on that side of the room. The piles took up about a quarter of the room, but they were higher than the original piles had been.

"Excellent!" said Yuhina. "All right, swords in that corner, spears in the other corner. Rods and staffs in two piles in the middle, and maces in between the swords and the spears. Rapiers over there, knuckles opposite them." She paused a moment, trying to think if she had forgotten any weapon types. "Oh yes, knives here, instruments there. Umm... that's all I can think of off the top of my head; if you find anything and don't know where it goes, talk to me. There are all kinds of swords, but I don't know enough to tell the difference. I'll sort them out another time, maybe after Kei gets back. He should know the difference. Oh right, I almost forgot bows! Put them over there. Once we get most of the stuff sorted out, we can put some things in the corners by the door, but this should do for now. Any questions?"

"How will I know a staff from a rod?" Seyreon asked.

"If you pick it up and it feels like you're learning something, it's a staff," Yuhina said. "If you don't, it's probably a rod. White mages can use staffs but not rods; rods are for black mages."

"Oh."

"That's why you're helpful," Yuhina said. "Without you, I don't know how I'd tell the difference."

Seyreon was glad that he would actually be helpful, rather than just doing something that looked kind of like help but really just kept him from being too much of a hindrance. He didn't know how, but he knew that kind of thing happened sometimes.

"You know," Seyreon said as they began, "you never did answer my question. What are viera and moogles and all that?"

Yuhina laughed and explained the five races as they sorted the weapons.

There were a few mishaps -piles falling over, the occasional incorrectly sorted item, that sort of thing- but overall, the sorting went pretty well.

Yuhina finished her explanation long before they finished sorting, and they filled the rest of the time with casual conversation. They could not talk about much, seeing as Seyreon had amnesia, but they still managed some friendly banter, and that made the time pass quicker.

Several hours later, the weapons had been sorted.

"Phew!" Yuhina said. "That's done. Let's take a break before we start on the next room."

"You mean there's more?" Seyreon asked. He was certain that Clan Verity had enough weaponry for a small army in that one room.

"No more weapons," Yuhina said, beginning to walk back down the hall. "But there's other kinds of stuff -armor, shields, helms, and random other stuff. We don't need to sort the shields, there aren't many of those, but the other things could use sorting."

"This will take quite a while," said Seyreon, walking beside her.

"I'm glad you're here to help, otherwise I'd still be sorting!"

"Well, I'm glad you're here, otherwise I'd still be trying to figure out what was going on!"

Yuhina giggled.

The two of them had dinner, and when it was over, Yuhina sighed.

"I don't really want to sort more," she said. "But if I'm going to be done in time, I ought to."

Suddenly, Seyreon had a thought. The moment he thought of it, he was amazed it had not occurred to him sooner.

"Um, Yuhina?"

"Yes?"

"If there are six members of Clan Verity... then why are you the only one here?"

"Oh, the others are on a mission," Yuhina explained.

Yuhina had told Seyreon about missions while she was explaining clans.

"When will they be back?" he asked.

"Umm... they went to Cadoan, and they left the day before I found you. So that's a day, then today is two days, so they'll be back in two more. The day after tomorrow, probably in the evening."

As Yuhina said this, Seyreon thought that she looked sad for a moment. Before he could ask why, though, her face cleared and she hopped up.

"I think I'll go look for that book," she said. "Want to come?"

"Of course," Seyreon said, getting up as well.

The room where Yuhina thought the book might be was much smaller than the weapons room and contained much less stuff. It was also better organized.

"What kind of stuff is this?" Seyreon asked.

"Mission items," Yuhina answered, walking about the room. "Things we can't use, but which others might be able to. Ah, here's the books."

Seyreon joined her at the shelf.

"Ah! We do have one!" Yuhina exclaimed, pleased. She pulled a book out of the shelf entitled Catalog of Weaponry and headed back to the common area of the base. "I believe we got this from the book's author; he needed a fencer to tell him what different kinds of rapiers did, so Azina went. When she came back, she had a copy of the book. Exactly the sort of thing Azina'd bring."

"She likes books?"

"Oh, Azina loves books. Azila likes them too, but she'd rather learn things by observing. She's the sort of person who'd have written this book; Azina's the sort of person who'd read it."

Yuhina put the book on the table to deal with in the morning.

She yawned.

"I know it's not that late," she said, "but I'm very tired. I think I'll go to bed."

Seyreon, somewhat to his surprise, found that he was also tired. He had slept for an entire day and had not woken until nearly noon, yet here it was only eight hours later (more or less -he had yet to find a clock anywhere) and he already wanted more sleep!

I have been working pretty hard, he mused. And I was injured, that might have something to do with it. Maybe being unconscious didn't really count as sleep.

"I think I'll go to bed too," he said aloud. "Um... where do I sleep?"

"Oh," Yuhina said, "right." She had been so tired, she had almost forgotten about that! "There's a few spare bedrooms -that's where you were when you woke up, in one of them." She gestured to a door which, now that Seyreon thought about it, was the door to the same room he had been in earlier. "You can sleep there."

"Thank you, Yuhina," Seyreon said quietly. "For everything."

Yuhina waved a hand over her shoulder, already on her way to bed.

"It's no problem," she said, opening a door. "Just what anyone would do."

As she closed the door to what must be her bedroom, Seyreon shook his head.

"No," he whispered. "It's not."

Then Seyreon went into his own bedroom and closed the door behind him.