Namco owns all rights to Tales of Symphonia. I don't claim to own them. This work is not intended for any form of profit and has been written without permission.

I guess I don't actually have too much to say this time around. The writing's going smoothly? Actually that would be a lie, since I've been on an out-of-state trip which is why this has been taking so long. Sorry to disappoint those who thought I died.

In all honesty though, this was kind of a tough chapter for me to write. It's a dialogue-driven chapter, which really isn't something I excel at (I have to struggle to keep it from dragging). But as always, I'm trying to improve.

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Chapter 4: A Little Knowledge

As Lloyd saw the small village of Iselia come more and more into view, he couldn't help but feel a wave of nostalgia wash over him. This was the very place, one day so long ago it seemed, that he, Genis, and Colette had set off for the Martel Temple after the Light of the Oracle had shown itself. And after that, well, the rest was now legendary, the full story of the eight heroes reaching all the corners of the newly-reunified world, Aselia, so named in honor of the Eternal Swordsman's village of upbringing. Despite all of this, however, the place felt foreign in a way, a sense of unfamiliarity mixing with the memories. Maybe I've been away too long, he thought. Then again, he'd only been gone for a few months. But he supposed being away from home could make any length of time, however short, feel like years.

"Lloyd?" Sheena addressed the swordsman as gently as she could over the unobtrusive yet persistent hum of the Rheaird. She had her arms wrapped tightly around Lloyd's waist, having lost her own vehicle to Zelos. This at first had been accompanied by a good amount of furious blushing on both their parts for the close proximity, but by now, any uncertainty had died away. "Are you worried about something?"

Lloyd turned, looking the young ninja square in the eyes as he always did. A small grin seemed to be playing on his face. "What? Now why would I be worried about something?"

The summoner shrugged expressively. "I dunno. You seemed absorbed in your thoughts for a second there." Suddenly she broke into an odd smile. "That, and you've let us drift a good ways off-course." She indicated a spot off in the distance.

And indeed, when Lloyd followed the girl's gesture he saw another Rheaird a good ways away, presumably heading in the right direction. The swordsman could just make out Zelos' tiny figure waving lazily at them.

"Oh…yeah, I knew that," he lied. He quickly corrected the machine's path.

"Lloyd Irving, you're the worst liar in the world. Both worlds, actually."

"Well, that's because lying is—"

"I know, I know: 'Lying is the first step down the path of thievery.'"

Lloyd grinned. "You know Sheena, you almost know the Dwarven Vows better than I do."

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Raine almost wanted to slap Genis for disrupting her class in such a manner. But than again, she just couldn't bring herself to discipline someone so excited about his best friend's return home. And she couldn't completely deny that she was excited as well. Although, another side of her, the cold, analytical side, wondered exactly why Lloyd was returning. The stubborn teenager certainly wasn't one to cave in to homesickness. She couldn't bear to even permit herself to acknowledge it, but truthfully, Raine suspected bad news. Or, in the very least, nothing overly positive. Visiting on a whim wasn't Lloyd's style, and she knew it. However, for the time being, she wore a content smile on her face, outwardly appearing surprised and happy to see the returning pair, inwardly wishing she could buy into her own façade. For Genis' sake. And most likely her own as well.

The sun met the healer's eyes with glaring force as she stepped outside, and for an instant the cheery backdrop washed away any concerns she may have had. The class, taking the professor's departure as cue to abandon the classroom did so, happy for the return of some old friends and the respite from school that such an event provided.

However, intrigue and apprehension washed over the professor like a cloud blocking out the sunlight the instant the Rheairds touched down. Genis didn't seem to notice right away as he ran to Lloyd's side as the swordsman stepped off of his machine, but Raine was quick to pick up on the third and quite unexpected face. "Zelos? My, this is a surprise."

The Chosen smirked. "Ah Raine, my beauty, ever the observant one. I was just starting to think that no one was going to notice my blessed presence."

The professor sighed theatrically. "I see you haven't changed much."

"Wow Lloyd…it's been such a long time!" Genis was acting as if swordsman had just come back from fighting in the Kharlan War. "We've all missed you a lot."

Lloyd's expression was one of shocked incredulity. "Even Professor Raine? I thought she'd be doing some sort of dance the minute I left."

"What, I'm not allowed to miss one of my most valued students?" Lloyd turned to see Raine now standing beside him, having managed to pry herself from Zelos' mind-numbing conversation.

"Professor!" exclaimed the scarlet-clad hero. "How've things been—"

Raine held up a hand, effectively cutting him off, her expression suddenly stern. "What are you thinking? No letter? In four months? You could've died and we probably would've been the last ones to find out about it! And furthermore…" an uncharacteristic grin broke out on the woman's face as she concluded her mock reprimand, "…you aren't a child anymore. Lloyd, stop calling me your professor and start calling me 'Raine'."

Throughout all of this, Sheena was caught up in a sort of awkward silence. Lloyd was immediately welcomed back with open arms, but in the end, she realized that she didn't quite fit in. Not here, anyway. On the road, she and Lloyd got along great, sharing everything with each other. Now, however, it was a different ballgame. Even Zelos looked slightly uncomfortable, she noticed, if only for the lack of a familiar female face to flirt with. Mental alliteration? What the hell?

"Sheena?" The ninja spun around to come face-to-face with Colette.

"Oh, hi Colette," Sheena replied cheerily, happy for someone she could finally talk to.

"Colette! My beautiful angel, how are—augh!" Sheena elbowed Zelos out of the way as he approached the golden-haired Chosen. That idiot's flirting could wait.

Now that she took the time to notice, Sheena saw that Colette had changed a great deal over the period of time in which she and Lloyd had been absent. The girl had grown a couple of inches; she'd only been about shoulder-height before. She had also opted for a wardrobe change: Colette now wore a white sleeveless top which she let hang open casually down the front to reveal a dark blue skintight T-shirt that matched her leggings, which now extended only to her knees. Accenting all of this was the very obvious fact that Colette had matured physically, something Sheena was sure Zelos would have been quick to take note of had he not received an elbow in the face.

"You look great," Sheena commented simply. She shot the Chosen an inquisitive look. "Wow, you've grown so much. Has that much changed while we were gone?"

Colette smiled, her features radiant. "Oh, I guess it's just me. Iselia's the same peaceful place it's always been."

Somehow, the seemingly innocent statement struck a chord somewhere within Sheena. She didn't want to say anything now, but perhaps it was due to the simple yet unsettling fact that whatever peace they had might not be lasting much longer. Though one maniac with some messed-up Exsphere didn't exactly spell Doomsday, she couldn't help but worry that it was all part of something bigger. After all, Mithos had only been one maniac with a messed-up Exsphere and a little ambition to spare. And an entire army of half-elves at his disposal. And everyone who lived in the reunified world knew where that had gone.

The mood changed, however, and Sheena had no idea what they were in for when Lloyd finally put in, "Professor—erm, Raine—there's something we're going to need your help with."

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The schoolhouse seemed a curious place to call a meeting, but then again, seeing as it was the only deserted place in the entire village (Raine had dismissed class for the day) other than the professor's slightly unaccommodating abode, they all had figured it would have to do. The large table wasn't too bad either.

"So," Raine said vaguely, seating herself at what appeared to be the head. "So…" she echoed, her voice trailing off.

Lloyd cleared his throat. "It's kind of interesting, really. You see—"

"We're in kind of a tight situation," Sheena put in, noting that Lloyd was getting absolutely nowhere.

Genis bolted upright, practically shooting out of his seat. "Sweet Martel," he breathed, pointing at the ninja. "You're pregnant!"

The sound of Raine's hand cracking against the mage's skull emanated soundly through the abandoned classroom, which was probably fortunate as it drowned out the Mizuhoan curse word that Sheena had decided to shriek at that very moment. Genis would have wagered all the Gald in Zelos' fortune that the aura Sheena was giving off at the moment was darker even than that of Shadow's.

Once the air had calmed again and Zelos had stopped laughing, the conference resumed. Lloyd, seeing that his companion was hardly in any shape to talk (civilly, at least) at the moment, he took it upon himself to explain the situation.

"Actually, it's worse than that," he started, referring to Genis' previous comment, which drew a few more chuckles from the Tethe'allan Chosen. "As it turns out, we kinda turned the entire Imperial Army against us. Also, the king's probably passed a law by now saying that if any of us set foot in Meltokio again, we'll be arrested on sight."

Raine was taken aback by the news. Bad news was one thing, but she hadn't expected the two of them to make enemies of the entire kingdom. "And how," she breathed, trying to keep her voice level, "did this happen?"

"Well, you see," Sheena spoke up, finally finding her composure once more. She then related everything to the professor, starting with their arrival in the city. She recounted her chase across the rooftops after Lloyd's attempted assassination. All up to the point where she'd come across Annis in front of the castle.

"I see," Raine responded. She had her chin cupped in her hand, a pensive look on her face. "Something bothers me though…where does he come in?" She gestured toward Zelos as though he were some sort of detestable object that the two had dragged in.

Lloyd coughed nervously. "Umm…well, we kind of broke him out of jail."

"What!?" Raine's hands slammed down atop the table so hard that the entire room shook, causing the other five to jump. "Don't you two ever think? It's no wonder—"

"Whoa, whoa, hold on," Zelos cut in rather bravely (Raine was looking murderous). "I haven't even explained why I was so wrongly imprisoned."

"Oh yeah, that's right," said Sheena, glad for an excuse to turn the conversation away from the professor, "you never did tell us about that."

Lloyd nodded. "I'll say. I kind of started attacking the guards before he could—oof!" Sheena's elbow in his ribs effectively cut him off.

"As I was saying," Zelos went on, "it all started on a rather innocent night. I'd invited that muchacha picante from the front desk at the Coliseum over to my mansion to celebrate my victories, and we were just beginning to—"

"ZELOS!"

"Okay, okay. My point is, right when we were in the middle of…things, my front door gets busted open and lo and behold, it's the Cardinal Knights. Well, I sort of had my pants off at the time—"

"You perverted—"

"It's true! I couldn't exactly fight back de-pantsed with Lilly—that was her name, by the way—running around screaming, so as far as the fight went, I kind of got manhandled—figuratively, of course—and thrown in prison. When I inquired as to the charges, they told me that a long-haired male with an Exsphere had been caught sneaking into the king's bedroom. They suspected an assassination attempt, and who to blame other than the only male in all of Meltokio with an Exsphere?"

A sort of shocked silence ensued. Sheena was agape at how similar his story sounded to her and Lloyd's own encounter. Genis was trying to imagine the implications of something like this. Colette was trying to quietly wake Lloyd, who had fallen asleep. As for Raine, she was just speechless. Her temperament remained a mystery, though if her expression was any indication, things weren't looking too good.

Surprisingly, Colette broke the silence after managing to snap Lloyd out of his boredom-induced stupor. "I think Lloyd and Sheena did the right thing."

Genis made a face and a distinct gagging noise. "No surprise there."

"I mean, Zelos was wrongly imprisoned!" the Chosen exclaimed indignantly. "Zelos would never try to kill the king…would you?" At this she appealed to the redhead himself, a look of defiant trust in her eyes.

From her viewpoint at least, it looked to Sheena as though Zelos were about to crack a snide joke, but unexpectedly his face was sincere as he replied, "Of course not."

"But if we assume it wasn't Zelos," Raine cut in, "then there's something missing. Who else in Meltokio would have an Exsphere?"

"Starsphere," Lloyd and Sheena corrected in unison.

Raine went and did a completely unrehearsed double-take. "What?"

"Not an Exsphere," Sheena continued. "That guy I chased after that one night…he mentioned something about a Starsphere. Then I saw him equipped with what looked like a snow-white Exsphere. I'm guessing that's what he was talking about."

The professor was already shaking her head. "That's impossible."

"No, I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to side with them on this one," Zelos assented.

"What's going on? What's impossible?" Colette inquired.

Genis nodded. "Yeah Raine, it's unlike you to completely dismiss a theory before traveling all over the world in order to disprove it."

The professor shrugged. "It's common knowledge."

"Well apparently not so common—"

"Starspheres do not exist," Raine interjected sharply, startling everyone. "It is a myth. A fairy tale. An ancient legend."

"Well, we'd all be very interested in hearing about them," Sheena said.

Lloyd groaned, motioning as if to hang himself. "Great, a lecture…"

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"It's all here, if you really want to know," Raine commented as she selected a book off the shelf in a corner of the classroom. Her attitude was, truthfully, a bit strange to everyone else; to them it seemed almost as if she didn't want to talk about the subject at all. "Raine? Miss a lecture? Where have you been?" Genis would say. "Although," she went on, "I doubt any of it holds any real substance."

Sheena sighed, a hint of impatience in her manner. "So what exactly are these Starspheres anyway?"

The half-elven professor flipped through the book deliberately, opening to a page near the back and laying the tome on her desk at the front for all to see. On the left page was a curious illustration, one of a starry night, one unhindered by clouds. However, the moon was replaced by a huge, glowing orb, decorated by what appeared to be an elaborate Key Crest. Rather unceremoniously, Raine began to paraphrase the text to the right of the illustration.

"Long ago, predating the Kharlan War," she began, "people utilized what they called Heavenstones. The people thought them to increase their spirituality, strengthening the link between gods and mortals. This was evidenced, in their eyes, by significant increases in strength and stamina, far beyond what any normal being could hope to achieve at that time. As far as recorded history goes, these were the first Exspheres."

The silence in the room was ghastly. The others hadn't really known what to expect, but to find out that Exspheres predated the Kharlan War…this already wasn't sounding altogether pleasant. Lloyd in particular wasn't looking too pleased.

The professor continued. "The people obtained these 'Heavenstones' by performing sacred rituals upon their deceased. Thus, by forming this cycle of turning the dead into a new, powerful life force, the people fashioned themselves an appropriate name: The Eterna."

"So wait," Lloyd cut in, "they didn't have to kill anyone for these?"

"No," Genis said as though he were talking to a five-year-old. "Deceased means dead."

"I know that—"

"You're correct Lloyd," Raine interjected, staving off an oncoming argument. "They didn't create these spheres through—well, in the same manner that Cruxis did, anyway. However, some ancient Heavenstones have been discovered and studied, and found to be nowhere near as powerful as today's Exspheres. The Eterna's practice of fabricating them from the already-deceased would explain this."

Zelos let loose a huge, overdone yawn. "All of this is cool and all, but what about Starspheres? A bunch of self-righteous bumpkins and their religious practices doesn't exactly explain why the entire kingdom wants my head."

Raine shot him a glare that, were it not for his overly-cool disposition, would have had him running as fast as he could in the opposite direction. "I'm getting to that." Pausing for a moment for the dramatic effect, she then continued. "This lasted for about a hundred years until they eventually discovered that much greater power could be harvested by offering the wearer's life force to the crystal as well as the deceased. By fabricating a Heavenstone and then completely and utterly binding your soul to the stone as you attach it, it would theoretically evolve and become something much more potent even than an Exsphere. This is what the Eterna called a Starsphere."

Whatever shocked silence there was before didn't last long. Immediately the room erupted into a commotion, mostly out of confusion. Sheena was the first to speak up. "What do you mean, 'binding your soul'?" she demanded. "And just how would you do something like that?"

Raine managed to get the group under control again. Still speaking levelly, she said, "To bind your soul to the Starsphere meant to attach its existence to yours. If you are killed, then the stone ceases to exist. However, the side effect of this was that the converse is also true: should the stone ever be destroyed or even removed, then its wearer shall cease to exist. This bonding was done via a special Key Crest, one that was, appropriately enough, shaped like a five-pointed star."

Zelos whistled upon hearing this. "High stakes. What would the world do if someone like me simply vanished because of some stupid Star-thingy?"

Sheena shrugged. "Start believing in divine justice?"

"That was cold."

As the two continued to go at it, Genis said (loud enough to be heard over the commotion), "But what about his is so impossible?"

"Yeah," Lloyd agreed, speaking for the first time in a while. "I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to make a Key Crest like that." If it were worth anything at all, the swordsman was at least knowledgeable in dwarven technology.

Raine promptly snapped the gigantic tome shut and hurled it in Zelos' general direction, not waiting to see if it connected. "Well, that's the most important part. Apparently all of this energy from the Starspheres was too much to be contained, even in a special Key Crest. It became necessary to construct a sort of control mechanism, which would have to be forged of pure Aionis."

"So that's why," Colette observed. "Manipulating Aionis is an art that was discovered during the Kharlan War."

Raine nodded. "Exactly. And the Eterna were long extinct by then, completely wiped out by the preliminary conflict. There is no way they could have constructed a control mechanism sufficient to contain the Starspheres' power."

As soon as Zelos and Sheena had resolved their differences (at least for the moment), the two returned to the group, Zelos handing the book back to the professor while simultaneously rubbing his head where it had apparently landed. "But what does it all mean?" Sheena inquired after Raine had taken the time to fill them in. "There was still definitely a guy who attacked us, muttering something about Starspheres."

"Maybe he was drunk," Zelos put in.

Raine sighed. "At least we're staying positive."

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A/N: I know, I know. This chapter was probably just a bit on the dry side. I didn't particularly have an easy time writing it, but it is what it is. And I do apologize for this being horribly overdue, but as mentioned in the foreword, I have been gone for a good amount of time (two trips, actually—one for a school function and one for college visits). I should probably tell you all, though, that I will be taking a break from this story so I can finish up my other project, tentatively titled Tales of Flanoir. So check that out when I get it finished (like I said, title is subject to change), and I will be back onto writing this as soon as I can.

Anyway, as I did find it difficult to write much of this chapter, I scrapped many a draft in the process. Here's one of my early ideas for one of the scenes, where Lloyd and Sheena just arrive in Iselia. I think I overplayed the joke in it a bit (which wasn't that good to begin with), which is why I ultimately didn't go with this version. But anyway…

"Wow Lloyd…it's been such a long time!" Genis was acting as if swordsman had just come back from fighting in the Kharlan War. "We've all missed you a lot."

"Don't worry," Sheena cut in confidently. "I've been looking after him."

Genis didn't seem to notice as he continued questioning the swordsman interrogation-style. "So what kinds of places have you been to? Have you run into anymore Exspheres?"

"Sure," Lloyd commented. "In fact—"

"Did you see Presea?" Genis cut in, not bothering to let Lloyd finish.

"Actually," Sheena replied, "we didn't—"

"Uh-huh," Genis nodded as if he'd actually heard a coherent answer. "That's good."

Sheena sighed. "So you know, we were a little short on cash, so I went and borrowed some from the king's treasury."

"Great!" Genis chimed, eager to ask ever more questions. "Did you get attacked?"

"But that wasn't enough," Sheena continued, clearly enjoying the half-elf's frenzied state of oblivion, "so I went and pillaged Heimdall. I have the elder's head in my wing-pack, if you'd like to see."

Etc…

Now that I see it, that version kind of makes Genis look like some brain-dead fanboy. Oh well. That's what revisions are for, I suppose.