Welcome to Chapter 9. I apologise for the double-up of the first phrase in the previous chapter, I completely missed it when I edited the document to add my recap and introduction. Shouldn't happen again. Also, thanks go out to my reviewers and those who took time to leave a comment. It's greatly appreciated.

As I keep forgetting to say, because it pains me so, I do not own Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, only my own characters and their names.

PREVIOUSLY

The caravan finally reach the Veo Lu sluice tree, only to find that instead of yielding myrrh the tree offers up a droplet of poisonous liquid miasma. Luckily, the chalice is removed before any lasting damage is done. Confused and angry, the group head for Shella where, they hope, they will get some answers.

Chapter 9: Kass's Secret

"Who goes there?" a voice hailed from the shadows, "Friend or foe?"

The Yukish gatekeeper loomed out from the mist thrown up from the fast-running river that flowed under Shella. He held out a hand to stop them.

"Friend of Shella," Ciaran stated, "We don't have a Mark of Shella but it's vital that we speak to Elder Amidatty before he leaves again."

Although it was impossible to see the face of the Yuke, everyone could picture him raising an eyebrow behind his bronze sallet.

"Please, sir," Mioko pleaded, "Surely he told you we would be arriving? He requested us to come specifically."

"The Trinity caravan?" the Yuke queried.

"Yes!" snapped Kass, "Please hurry up and raise the bridge. It's taken us six hours at full speed to get here and I'm too tired to argue."

With deliberate slowness, or so it seemed to Kass, the elderly Yuke shuffled to the water's edge and raised his furred arms towards the citadel. His body was outlined in a spectral glow, which then surged from him in a silvery arc across to the gateway that led into Shella. Gradually, it formed the shape of an insubstantial, yet reassuringly solid, bridge that flickered in the all the colours of the rainbow because of the surging water below.

"Thank you!" Mioko called as Ciaran seized her arm and pulled her over at a run with Kass and Sera hot on his heels.

"Which way?" Ciaran asked Sera, for she knew the citadel best.

"Amidatty usually teaches up outside the north lecture house at this time, but I doubt he'll be there today. He'll be in his quarters, the second floor."

"Right, and - "

"Ciaran?" Sera interrupted, "Can I meet you later? There's something I have to do."

She'd seen the place where she'd first met De Nam, and realised that she had to see him immediately, just to assure herself that he was still real and alive. He'd not written in a very long time. Ciaran slowed, studying her face, then nodded.

"Okay. Make your way up when you're finished."

As the remaining three caravanners headed up the left fork Sera turned right, into the housing district of Shella. She pelted along the narrow streets, dodging magical accessory carts, stalls of food, and pedestrians, until she recognised his house. No lights were lit even though night was starting to fall. Her heart sank, but she forced herself to the door anyway. She had to knock, just in case.

After rapping on the door on three separate occasions and waiting impatiently in between, she was on the brink of desolation. He'd finally left Shella. He'd gone out on a fool's errand into the miasma and she'd never see him again. Stifling a sob of frustration, she collapsed on the step and buried her face in her hands.

Damn. Damn damn DAMN -

De Nam sat down beside her, biting his lip in sympathetic amusement.

"You can cry inside if you want, Sera."

Sera jumped so violently there was no way to disguise it, so she didn't bother trying, instead throwing herself at him and wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Where were you?" she demanded, half in anger and in relief, "I thought - "

"You thought I'd run out into the miasma without even writing you a letter asking permission? Oh come on, Sera. Like I'm going to do anything without your say so."

"But where were you?" She couldn't stay mad at him. De Nam held up a basket in which were some groceries and sparkling stones - presumably some form of hewn raw magicite for an experiment - wrapped in crisp white cloth.

"Shopping. Even us poor Selkies have gotta eat. Now..."

He stood up and offered her a hand, which she took.

"Do you want some dinner? I'll cook, and you can tell me why you're here, how long for, and why you're so desperate to see me." He winked.

Half an hour later they were sitting down to a stir fry of star carrots, bell peppers, gourd potatoes and a chunk of spiced fish each. Sera, realising she hadn't eaten all day since midday's lunch had been cut short, wolfed hers down so quickly that De Nam stared at her in fascination.

"You know, you looked really attractive with that smear of sauce on your lip," he said, grinning. Sera scowled at him and rubbed her mouth.

"Shut up. I'm just really hungry."

"There's more if you want," De Nam gestured with his fork, but Sera made no move toward the remaining vegetables. He frowned, "Sera, what's up?"

"How do you know something's wrong?" she said.

"Because you never turn down food and you look upset. Did I miss something important while I was wrapped up in my, ah, silly research?"

Sera sighed, and leaned back in her chair. It tipped onto two legs. She looked up at the ceiling for a while, saying nothing. De Nam continued to eat in the knowledge that she would talk to him when she wanted to. Eventually, Sera cleared her throat. He looked up expectantly.

"De Nam, what have you heard about the state of the outside world lately?"

"Very little. It's a bit isolated up here. The only news we get is via the caravan and travellers."

"Tell me what you know."

De Nam shrugged, and finished eating. "Elder Amidatty says that there was a bad harvest in Fum, one of the mines in the western lands has been completely stripped of ore resulting in a minor economic crisis and that monster attacks are becoming more frequent in the mainland centre." He spoke as if he'd learned the news by rote. "There's also a widespread claim that the myrrh trees are offering less myrrh for the efforts of the caravanners to reach them. Amidatty put it down to poor timetable management and it just being a bad year. It's not completely unheard of. Happened six or seven years ago, as I recall."

"That's as may be, but the claim is true. The myrrh trees are giving little myrrh. In the case of some, they are giving none at all. Repeatedly."

"Sorry?" De Nam looked concerned, "The trees are giving none at all?"

"Yes," Sera said patiently.

"I thought I'd misheard you. Well, that's a little… disturbing. Is there an apparent reason for this?"

Sera paused. She thought back to the meeting with the Dezeltan caravan in Marr's Pass, and Kass's casual theory that the trees were running out of myrrh. But Mioko had found out that wasn't true, to an extent. She glanced sidelong at De Nam, who was watching her intently.

"My friend Mioko - you remember Mioko?" A nod from him, "She's got an odd knack for locating myrrh trees, almost as if they tell her where to find them. Well, we were at the sluice the other day and…"

For an hour Sera recounted the events at the tree and the droplet of miasma that had fallen, and Mioko's explanation of its occurrence. She backtracked a little to fill in the details of the farings of other caravans, and then sighed again.

"Right this moment I suspect Mioko is telling your elder that exact same story. We have no idea what to do, or why the miasma has suddenly thrown the system so out of balance that it's great enough in quantity to replace the myrrh. I don't understand what's happening."

As she said that, she suddenly felt very small and insignificant. A great and heavy burden sank onto her shoulders, but she couldn't quite work out what it was. She was a pack horse; she carried the weight, but could never see exactly what was in the bags. What could she possibly do to resolve this? Just knowing the true situation didn't mean that she automatically was in a position to come up with an answer to the problem.

"De Nam?" she said after a while. The young Selkie man looked inquiringly at her, chin on hand. It was apparent that he'd been staring into space only moments before, as if trying to work out a complex equation.

"Mm?"

"Thank you for the tea. I'll pay you back before I leave. But I have to go and find Ciaran and the others and find out what Amidatty said…"

"Sera," De Nam said, "It's gone ten. It's dark out. I suspect Ciaran knows where you are or at least that you're safe. You can stay here tonight and go to him in the morning."

Sera rubbed her eyes roughly. She was truly tired and De Nam's offer seemed more than appealing.

"Alright," she agreed, "But don't let me sleep in tomorrow. I know you're an early riser. Get me up before you go out."

"Sera," De Nam appeared not to have heard, "Why in the name of the lady do you think you have to pay to eat here? It's not a hotel, it's a friend's house."

"I don't know," Sera confessed, "It's just that the only contact I've had from you in a year is three letters. You used to write to me a lot more before that. I appreciate that you took the time to write to me, but if you think about it we hardly know anything that's happened to each other in months. We sort of… drifted apart. Even though…"

"Even though?"

"I feel like I've known you for a very long time, and I know that you don't expect me to pay for anything because you consider me a friend even though all you know about my life so far could be written on one side of parchment." Sera looked hard at him, as if daring him to laugh, then slumped. "Lady, but do I need to sleep."

"One side of parchment?" De Nam raised an eyebrow, "You obviously don't think I remembered anything we talked about the first time we met, or all the ones after it, or in any of the letters. I could easily fill three, maybe even five or six pages. Both sides."

"Maybe," Sera conceded, "But that's not what I was driving at. I can't think straight. Let's just say that any debate we might be going to have, you've won already."

"I could really take advantage of that," De Nam said teasingly, and flicked water at her. She half-smiled.

"Behave. Doesn't it bother you at all that life as we know it could be coming to an end in a matter of months?"

De Nam put his head on one side and mimicked her posture, folding his arms on the table and leaning on them, "Not right now, no."

"And why is that?" Sera challenged.

"Are you familiar with the phrase 'everything else pales by comparison?'. In this case that would be because I have a pretty girl in my house."

"Yes. It usually crops up in various forms in poetry. Bad romance poems."

"I'm a rubbish poet," De Nam commented, stretching luxuriously. Sera couldn't help reaching out to tug his hair. "I should imagine you are, yes. Stick to alchemy and crazy yet somehow plausible theories."

"So shall I tell you a secret then, and not a poem?"

"Aye, if you like." Sera rested her chin more comfortably on her hands and allowed her eyes to close. The room was cosy and warm. In the blur that her surroundings had become she heard the crackle of the log fire and the wind outside as it billowed softly round the corners of the Shellan houses. There came another, closer sound as De Nam pushed his chair back and came around the table. Carefully, he pulled her to her feet.

"You can have my bed. I'll sleep in here."

She was too tired to argue. She felt distinctly cheated and wondered why, and from the misty depths of her sleep-fogged mind she realised.

"Hey," she protested, "You said you'd tell me a secret."

"I will," De Nam replied, guiding her along the corridor and through an archway hung with a bead curtain that divided it from the room behind, "This is my room. If you want me I'll be back in the main room."

"I do want you - to tell me the secret!"

"If I tell you, will you go to sleep? I promise I'll wake you up tomorrow." De Nam was already leaving the room.

"Yes! Just tell me."

There was a pause as De Nam hesitated in the doorway, and then footsteps heralded his return to the bedside. Sera fought to stay awake as he bent down and whispered something in her ear. Then he left.

Am I dreaming? Did I dream that?

Confused, Sera rested her head on the pillow. It was soft and smelled faintly of baking bannock bread. She smiled, and fell asleep.


Mioko woke the next day and wondered why she felt so worried.

The events of the previous day hadn't dulled in her mind; they were terrifyingly clear, right down to the acidic smell of the miasma droplet as it had hit the stone with a hiss. But that wasn't why she was worried, frightening though it was. That was a known horror, one that she had come to uneasy terms with. No, what was scaring her now was that Kass was making no noise in the next bed. He was always the last one to rise and so Mioko was familiar with his sleeping behaviour. Not once, in the entirety of their friendship, had Kass gone a night without snoring his tiny little snores. She'd woken up this morning without that one constant sound. It seemed like a doomsday milestone, a marker heralding the more drastic changes to come.

"Kass?" she said quietly, not wanting to wake Ciaran who was sprawled on the far bed, "Are you already awake?"

Kass made no response, so Mioko got up and threw her tunic on over the shirt she always wore. Buckling her belt, she made her made around the bed and bent down to check. Kass's eyes were closed, and he was breathing steadily. He was, quite clearly, deep in slumber. As Mioko straightened up wearily, Ciaran stirred next to her.

"Mioko?"

"It's me," she affirmed, "Morning."

"Sera got here yet?"

Mioko shook her head.

"Where'd she go?" Ciaran asked, "I'm assuming at least one of us would know."

"If I'm any judge, she'll have gone to visit her penpal," Mioko smiled briefly, "Mr. De Nam. The Selkie alchemist? He lives in Shella, I believe. She'll be here soon, don't worry."

"Ah," Ciaran rolled over and pushed his face into his pillow. When he next spoke his voice was increasingly muffled, "Right then. She'll be joining us later. What time did Amidatty say he wanted us?"

"In about an hour. We're having breakfast up there, so all you have to do is get out of bed and get ready."

"Fat chance," Ciaran said flatly, "If I stay right here I can ignore all these huge problems that seem to be cropping up lately."

"I'd rather know what was going on than be completely ignorant of the facts, only knowing that the myrrh was gone and stumbling about in blind terror as the year gets closer to finishing." Mioko proclaimed this without anger or fear. she just seemed so... matter of fact.

Ciaran snorted, but made no reply. He agreed with her, but he wasn't going to admit it. Nor would he admit that he was scared. After a pause, he pulled himself from bed and grabbed his breeches, which were hung over the edge of his bed.

"Do you mind?" he asked Mioko jokingly, and she blushed and turned round. "Sorry, Ciaran."

When the Clavat was dressed, they both glanced at still-sleeping Kass.

"Should we wake him?" Ciaran said.

"I don't think so. He needs sleep just as much as the rest of us. When he wakes up he knows where to go. All the same…"

Mioko looked in one of the drawers in the desk that was stood in the corner. She came back with a quill and parchment and scratched out in her neat writing a note explaining their absence. This she left by his bed.

"Come on," Mioko said, heading for the door. Ciaran followed. The door shut behind them.

The second they were gone Kass opened his eyes and took a deep breath, as if he'd been forcing shallow breathing for a long time. For a moment his shoulders shook violently as if he were having a spasm, then he forced it to stop. He looked around as if to check no one else was in the room, then got up and cast about for something. His eyes fell on a mirror hung on the wall too high for him, but he moved the desk chair and stood on it. Then he looked into the mirror.

"Oh no," he said desolately.

Kass's eyes were completely purple, tinged with black. The strange new colouration swirled across his irises like smoke, curling back on itself and forming the suggestions of obscene shapes. Already the whites of his eyes were going grey, and somehow Kass knew that they would be black soon. He sat down on the chair and hugged his knees.

Since the mines Kass had been plagued by a constant tiredness that had been affecting his usually cheerful and optimistic lookout. But that wasn't the worst; in his minute or so outside the miasma, he'd heard voices. This in itself wasn't odd, because the very nature of the miasma was to beguile its victims into staying outside the boundary of a crystal. But once he'd regained the protection of the chalice, the voices hadn't gone away like they should have done. They were inside his head now, and regardless of where he went or who spoke to him, the voices were always there speaking to him over the top of everyone else, like a sinister overlay. Somehow, they'd entered his mind.

Since then the tiredness had grown progressively worse, leaving him prone to distraction and fits of anger or irritation. Even when hefting his lance he could suddenly feel the weight of it like never before, as if he were growing weaker every day.

Sometimes he didn't feel like himself at all. And sometimes, he knew he wasn't. Sometimes, the voices in his head were doing the walking and talking for him, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't force his way back into control until they decided they'd had their fun. And while they were in control all he could feel was overpowering, numbing black hatred and such a pain in his chest, in his entire body, as if he were being corroded from the inside by acid.

Now, even when the voices were subdued, he could feel that same pain. No one knew, not even Mioko. No one could tell how hard he fought to stand up straight and not judder with the agony.

Kass had been infected by the miasma in a way that he'd never heard of before. Instead of taking his memories it was taking his body, although no doubt when it was completely in control of him it would take his memories as well. Kass was deadly frightened, because he knew with a horrible certainty that there was nothing could be done. The voices told him so every day, and this was the one thing they said that the Lilty did not doubt.

The infection was going to kill him. It was just a matter of how long he had left.


I really didn't want to write this chapter as I've grown so fond of Kass. He's in serious trouble. Hopefully, you feel my pain. Speculation on Kass's condition is allowed, but don't expect any spoilers from me ;) As always, I'd love to hear what you think.