So I mentioned I've written through Chapter 11 and plotted through...well the rest of this arc, doing so brought another character to the forefront so I decided since Thyremog and Hitenticul are NOT giant war arcs that they will be character arcs with some splices of action, so I've got to put more time into the characters.

I wrote Thyremog as I wrote FENE and the latter half of Ymarkteg, putting a focus on getting from one fight to the next, in Ymarkteg's case its fine because there have already been 50 chapters with the characters, its time to kill off everyone left, but here I need it so there is much more talking and feeling in Thyremog than ever and I actually like it, trend will def continue into Hitenticul.

Hell I said towards the end of Ymarkteg I've burned through almost all my 'giant fight scene' cells so I do like this change, there will be fights and serious fights but more spaced out for these two arcs at least.

The Thyremog Arc

Chapter 5 – Blue Memories

It was a calm day, Soren sat beneath a tree reading one of his tomes when he spotted her, one of the only other Mercenaries who woke up so early.

After their first meeting he just assumed that she liked to train a lot as in frequently, but it was indeed…a lot.

Looking back to his book he sighed.

After a few minutes he found his book being pulled down and was now looking into wide and expecting green eyes.

"Hey Soren!"

"…Mia."

"You get so lost in your books…one of these days someone is gonna sneak up on you in a bad way."

At that Soren rolled his eyes "What? No one is going to bother to cover me?"

Shocked, Mia shook her head "No! Of course not! I mean-of course! Uh…wow that came out wrong."

Standing Soren dusted himself off "I'll do it." Turning he raised an eyebrow.

"I'll watch your back, promise."

"…if you're sure."

"More than sure, you can count on me!"

Opening his eyes Soren heard blades clashing, even as he sat up the memories still lingered.

After the Mad King's War he took Ike's advice to try and be at least a bit lighter, talk a bit more. It was Mia though that forced his hand, the years between that and the Dawn War were full of various moments of her finding him and just talking. He always assumed there was some vile ulterior motive, but the chats were largely inconsequential and at times, serious.

He recalled the battle to free Lucia from Ludveck's rebels, sure enough Mia was always close by when he was casting a spell.

Hearing another clash he stood, grabbed his robe and went topside to see Mia and Zihark sparring.

"Z, you've spent quite some time on your blade work eh?"

Jumping away from one of her attacks Zihark nodded "Of course, every day I didn't I knew I was falling behind, can't let that happen."

Mia chuckled "Don't kill yourself trying to keep up with my regiment, Z."

Nodding at that Zihark moved in "I'll keep that in mind."

Looking aside Soren noted Mist standing by with staff in hand.

Ike appeared next to Soren, prompting the sage to ask or rather state "Rhys stood back."

"Yeah. Everyone here understands and I'm sure he knows we wish him the best."

Soren recalled one of the few times he went with Ike to see Rhys, the man seemed truly happy with his work.

"So Soren, I know you don't like guessing and making assumptions but what do you think we'll come upon first?"

Soren remained silent for a bit before saying "I honestly have no idea, we're all out of our element out here."

"Indeed we are."

"Soren!"

Stopping he turned as Mia came to a halt before him "Where ya goin?"

"Heading up to Melior…"

"Mind if I come along?"

Shrugging he faced her "I suppose not but are you sure you won't be needed here?"

"Soren. You manage us so you tell me."

Turning away he started walking "You're right."

"As always."

At that he scoffed "Not always."

"Right only when it's just the two of us."

Soren wanted to counter but he realized she was right, whenever it was just the two of them chatting, she found the easiest ways to 'stump' him in whatever it was they were talking about.

"How do you do that?"

Mia looked at him questioningly before tapping her chin "Well you are super smart, like wow you must have a massive brain…but because of that you sometimes overcomplicate the simplest things."

"Makes sense…" he muttered. "…to answer the question I'm sure you're going to ask later, there is a bookstore with some rather old tomes in Melior. I make a few trips there to research them."

Nodding, Mia spoke "What kind of spells are they?"

"No spells…just magic theory, elder magic hypothesis and essays on magic and ether forces said to originate from other lands."

"Other lands?"

"That's what they say."

Mia muttered a low "Sounds boring…"

Soren smirked "Well I don't read it for the entertainment value."

Mia laughed before staring at Soren with wide eyes "Was that…was that a joke?"

At Soren's silence Mia laughed even louder "Oh my Goddess that was a joke! Soren! You made a joke!"

As she continued laughing the sage couldn't fight off a small smile of his own.

Snapping out of her thoughts Mia turned to see a bow on the ground, then looking up to the crow's nest she called out "Shinon, you sure its safe up there?"

"Of course it isn't but someone has to keep an eye out!"

"What are you gonna do without your bow?"

After a short silence a rather loud curse came from above, giggling she called back "What are you even looking out for?"

"Exactly! C'mon Mia! We're out here on the ocean blue headed towards who knows what! What if we're right and there are others out there and we come across another ship? We need to know where it is in case they got confrontational!"

"Yeah…yeah that makes sense…you want your bow back?"

"I would be highly ineffective without it!"

Mia chuckled before bending down and picking it up, "You sure that's safe?"

Mia stood up to see Soren and smiled "Talking to me again?"

Rolling his eyes he looked away slightly only to frown and let out a rather long breath "Sorry…I just-"

"Mia! You comin up here today!?"

"Gotta go and don't worry about me!" With that she winked and started making her way up to netting.

"How does she keep doing that to me?" Frustrated Soren turned and walked away.

Unknown to him, Titania stood some feet away, watching and chuckling.

"Titania? Are we fine with you here?"

"The breeze should keep us good for a bit, and there isn't much direction needed since we have no real destination. As long as we don't get turned around we'll be good."

Ike nodded at that "How can you tell? It's nothing but endless blue on all sides?"

Titania remained silent as Mia hopped off the netting, a few feet from the ground. Smiling she turned to Soren who was standing aside, from the way he looked it was easy to tell he was berating her for being unsafe and as always she shrugged it off with a smile.

"Ike, what do you see?"

Ike raised an eyebrow then followed Titania's vision, all he could see was Mist, Boyd and Ranulf chatting, Zihark examining his blade, Rolf shouting up to Shinon, Soren and Mia talking, Gatrie going below decks probably for some food…

"What?"

Titania shook her head "Never mind."

"You are far too…brash in your movements at times Mia."

The woman smiled "Well it's not my fault you set up shop so close to those archers and the sword dude."

Soren rolled his eyes "I know you said you'd watch my back but it doesn't seem like it's the best use of your talents. Next time you might not be so lucky. To be honest I can't believe you got through those three unscathed."

Soren was walking away as he spoke, noticing the silence he turned, Mia was looking down. "Mia?"

Shooting up to meet his glance she chuckled…somewhat oddly "I'm fine."

"Did you hear-"

"I gotta go."

Mia's fought at Soren's side for a few battles now and the sage could tell she was graceful under pressure while also being sudden and deadly. But when she disengaged from her target to cover him, she was…awkward, relying on strength to kill the other men as quickly as possible.

It wasn't like her.

Watching her almost trip as she walked away was also not like her.

"Mia?"

Vanishing around a corner, Soren quickly chased after her, finding her leaning against a tree and gripping her side.

"Mia!"

"I'm fine…"

Sliding down the tree she fell to the ground, he followed her down quickly and pulled out his staff.

Moving her hand away, he found she was hiding a large gash that was still bleeding, clearly from the warrior she ignored to cover him, he landed quite the blow.

"Mia…this is serious, why would you just stand there and talk to me when you could very well be bleeding out?"

He looked at her face and was met with a smile.

"Mia, I'm serious."

"I'm your partner Soren, I've got to cover you."

As he healed her he shook his head "Not like this."

At that moment, Soren realized that while Mia was covering him, he was not returning the favor, he moved around the battlefield however he wished, taking out threats as they appeared which led to Mia having to drop whatever she is in the middle of to follow and cover him.

"This is my fault."

"What? No!" Trying to laugh only resulted in a small coughing fit from Mia.

"I left you on your own…I'm amazed this hasn't happened before."

At the sudden silence, Soren looked at Mia's face again, she was avoiding his gaze.

"Mia, please tell me this is the first time you got hurt because of me."

"Uh…this is the first time I got hurt…"

"I'm sorry."

Mia stopped and looked back at Soren "What about? You didn't say anything-"

"During the war against Begnion…letting you get hurt all those times. I'm sorry."

Mia smiled before laughing "That? That was years ago, Soren what's this really about?"

The sage shook his head "You've been…such a constant in my life, yet I've taken you for granted. Your friendship, your combat aid. If you had gotten killed fighting by me I probably wouldn't have given it a second thought…I'm a terrible person."

Sighing, Mia walked over and gave Soren a playful tap on his head "Soren. I'm still here, there is no need to think about it like that."

Frustrated he looked away "Why are you always like this? It's like I can do no wrong to you…I've wronged many people in my life…yet nothing I do or say makes you go away…why?"

"Remember when we first met?"

At that Soren looked at Mia, only he saw the younger girl, with somehow brighter eyes, shorter hair but just as much energy.

"So…you're Soren, right?"

"…"

"Ike told me to come see you about payment or whatever. I just joined following that fight against-"

"Yes I know."

"Oh…well…need anything from me?"

Soren looked up at her "Why are you joining us?"

"Hm?"

"What do you gain from this?"

Shrugging Mia spoke "Greil saved my life. I feel I owe him."

"Is that it?"

"Well…no…"

Soren stood "It's hard to trust someone who won't tell the whole reason why."

Mia nodded "Makes sense but…I swear that I'm loyal, it has nothing to do with-"

"Your word means nothing to me, I'll let you stay on but tread carefully."

Mia tilted her head "I take it you don't trust anyone."

Sitting down Soren went back to work.

"It's gotta be hard being so pessimistic all the time, you're allowed to trust people y'know."

"No one deserves to be trusted."

"Yikes."

Mia tapped her chin before pulling up a seat "Hey."

After a bit, Soren's eyes finally went up to meet hers.

"I trust you."

Soren scoffed "What makes you say that?"

"People probably think you a rude jerk eh? I mean you do the rude jerk thing really well, like wow but I can tell that-"

"It's an act?"

"No not entirely, it comes from a place of concern, regardless of whether you like any of the people out there, I doubt you want to see them get killed in battle. So someone like me who you don't know is a wild card. I get that."

"…"

Smiling Mia flexed her arm "I mean, I am pretty tough looking…but besides that I can tell that you are someone people should definitely have in their corner so I'm going to trust you."

"Doesn't mean-"

"You trust me, that's fair." Standing, still smiling, Mia continued "I'm going to earn your trust, you'll see."

Soren remained silent thinking about the meeting "Even then." He finally whispered "Even then I couldn't get you to leave…you are stubborn."

"Always have been…despite the things you'd say to me or do, I still trusted you and I still do. Along the way I grew to like you, I don't hang around you to prove my trust anymore or convince you trust me, I hang around you because I like you. Simple as that."

Sighing Soren proceeded to apologize again, prompting Mia to ask "What for this time?"

"After…at the Goldoa border…sorry…"

Mia smiled before taking a step forward and embracing Soren "At the time you looked like you saw a ghost…are you okay now?"

After she pulled away, Soren nodded "I'm better.

"No you're not."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Now you're lying to her, though in all honesty you've been lying to her and everyone since you met. What's next?"

"Dinner!" They heard Oscar call out.

Mia turned "Woah!" Unknown to them, night fell.

"We really get lost in our chats eh?"

Soren nodded slowly as Mia started walking away "Well c'mon food time!"

Soren remained still, watching her walk away while his mind continued its internal fight.

"You want more from her."

"No…I don't."

"You do but you know no one, not even she will accept you. Not as the monster you are."

"I…I know…"

"Then stop fooling yourself."

As much as he wanted to, he thought of what she said.

Despite everything he did grow to trust her and enjoy her company. As much as he knew he should distance himself from her, he didn't want to stop talking to her.

"What a mess…" he muttered before following Mia's retreating form.