Riku: I'm back and these updates are gonna be fast for a bit k? So, whose turn is it for the disclaimer?
Mia & Ike: ZZZZZZZ…
Soren: I'll get it out of the way... Riku does not own Fire Emblem (looks up to the heavens) thank you!
Riku: I HEARD THAT!
Chapter 10
A Possible Lead
The group has finally landed in Lycia, and does not have to put up with those annoying bandits any longer. However, before they reach Caelin, they have to cross through a group of other Lycian territories. Each in control of a powerful marquess, some of them corrupt, the first one of these territories is Araphen. One thing that the group wasn't completely expecting was such a deadly welcome, courtesy of Lord Lundgren.
"What city are we in right now?" Lyn asks.
"This? This is Araphen, after Ostia, it's the second largest city in Lycia" Sain explained.
"Second biggest, huh? It does seem pretty busy. By the way, where did Kent go?" Lyn asked.
"He went ahead to the castle a little while ago, and it looks like he's coming back right now" Soren said, pointing to a returning Kent.
And sure enough, Kent came riding in from the direction of the castle.
"Milady Lyndis! Let us proceed to the castle. They've prepared some supplies for us. The marquess has agreed to help us on our journey to Caelin" Kent reported.
"He's going to help us?" Lyn asked.
"Yes. Araphen and Caelin have had a sturdy friendship for many years. When I informed the marquess of our problem, he agreed to help us" Kent explained.
"Looks like it's smooth sailing from here on in!" Sain exclaimed.
"By the way, does anyone know where Mia ran off to?" Lyn asked.
"I haven't seen her since this morning; she probably just took off to explore the town for a little bit. We really don't have to worry about her all that much, she is perfectly capable of taking care of herself" Soren said.
"I know that, but I'm still a little bit worried, her life might not be in danger, but her emotional state is a different story. It might look like she's putting on a strong front, but I can just barely tell that on the inside, she's nursing a broken heart…" Lyn said.
"I've known her for a lot longer than you have so I actually noticed that a while ago. I actually managed to get to talk to her about it, she's starting to come to terms with her situation, but she'll probably return to normal at least for a little while if we manage to find at least a hint of Ike's whereabouts. A little hope for her can go a long way" Soren explained.
"I hope your right…" Lyn said.
At the same time in another part of town
Mia was randomly browsing through different stands in the marketplace when she noticed that a shady character with blond hair and a red cloak was watching her.
'That sword of hers looks familiar… its design is just as unique as Ike's Ragnell… just switch the gold with black, and the silver with orange and it would be an exact duplicate… I wonder where she got it…' the shady character thought.
"Can I help you?" Mia asked, catching the shady character red-handed at spying.
"Oh! Heh… you caught me, well to answer your question I was just wondering where you got that sword from, I've seen one that looks almost exactly like it"
"It was a gift to me from an old friend of mine and happens to be the twin to his blade. Now tell me… where did you see that sword you just mentioned, you must be talking about my sword's twin, Ragnell. Which also means you were talking about Ike, do you know where he is right now? Or at least where you last saw him, please! TELL ME! " Mia asked/demanded, hope rising in her chest by the second, fully believing that she may have finally found a solid lead on Ike's wherabouts.
'This person knows Ike?! And if that sword of hers really is Ragnell's twin, than that means that this must be Mia, Ike told me that if she shows up, I have to throw her off his trial because he doesn't want her to get involved. Heh, Ike's got a girlfriend! Ike's got a girlfriend! Ike's got a girlfriend!' the spy/thief Matthew thought.
"Sorry, but my memory about that subject is a little hazy, all I really remember is that a certain person's sword looks similar to yours, sorry for wasting your time!" Matthew rushed off after that, eager to escape the awkward situation.
"WAIT!" Mia called out, 'He's hiding something… and I'm going out what it is if it's the last thing I do, he might finally be the lead I'm looking for…'
"This is terrible! The castle is in flames!" a civilian cried out.
"Huh?" Mia said as she looked up, and sure enough, the castle had indeed caught fire.
'Looks like my interrogation will have to be on hold for the time being… why do I have the feeling that Lyn is caught up in the middle of this?' Mia thought.
Mia ran for a few seconds until she saw a man mounted on a horse shoot down a man about to attack Lyn. After a short conversation between Lyn, Kent, and the horseman now known as Rath, Mia decided to make her presence known.
"You're just a magnet for trouble, aren't you Lyn?"
"Mia! I was wondering when you'd show up!" Lyn said.
"Well, you know me; I'd never miss out on a good fight!" Mia said, scratching the back of her head.
"So then… our objective is clearly to rescue the marquess, but how are we going to do it? Just rushing in through the front door isn't going to do us any favors…" Mia said.
"There is a secret passageway that leads to the throne room that we can use, but we will have to set off a few triggers to open it. Once we do that and save the marquess, my troops will clean out the marauders" Rath explained.
"That should work, how many triggers are there?" Soren asked.
"Three" Rath said.
"No surprise there, three always seems to be the magic number…" Mia ranted.
"We've spent enough time talking, let's move out!" Rath instructed.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah…" Mia mumbled.
The battle started when Lyn hired Matthew's help to open the barrack doors and Rath setting off the first trigger. One thing that Matthew wasn't aware of was that the very person that he was trying to avoid was in the same party as him now!
Mia chose to move towards the second trigger, located on the outside of the barracks. After disposing of the guard, she took the key needed to unlock the door. Once the door was unlocked, the eliminated the last line of defense in a flash and set off the second trigger.
After the second trigger was set off, and Matthew "borrowed" a few things, Lyn found herself face-to-face with the leader of the marauders.
The marauder known as Bool didn't waste any time in attacking, Lyn narrowly dodged a lance thrust and jumped backward to avoid getting skewered. She then noticed Matthew land a deadly blow to her opponent with an armorslayer, effectively distracting Bool.
'I guess now's a good time to finally bring out the Mani Katti…' Lyn thought.
Lyn took Bool out with a single draw-slash from the Mani Katti, the opponent's armor did not protect him in the least and was killed instantly.
With nobody left to guard the final trigger, Rath set it off and let his men take care of the rest while he escorted Lyn's group to the throne room.
"Ah, it's Rath! You've done well, that was quite the performance!" the marquess congratulated.
"Sir, if you have praise, you should praise this group" Rath stated.
"Oh? And who are you?" the marquess asked.
"My name is Lyndis, I'm pleased to see that you are alright marquess" Lyn said.
"Oh… it's you. So you're Marquess Caelin's…" he paused for a split second.
"Leave us, Rath. I wish to speak to the girl"
Rath left without a word.
"Now… Lady Lyndis. Do you know the identity of those responsible for this uproar?" the marquess asked.
"I believe that it is the work of my granduncle, Lundgren" Lyn stated.
"That's right, which means that my castle has been damaged in your family's petty inheritance dispute"
"My-My apologies"
"When I heard that Lady Madelyn's daughter was in trouble, I thought that I should lend a hand… but I've changed my mind. I withdraw my offer"
"Marquess Araphen! You gave me your word that you'd help us my lord!" Kent stated.
"Your name is Kent, is it not? You failed to inform me of the most important detail!" the marquess stated.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Mia interrupted.
"This girl may resemble Lady Madelyn, but… I didn't expect to see her so tainted by the blood of the Sacae" the marquess put down.
"What?!?" Lyn cried out in outrage, while Mia stewed in fury over the marquess's audacity.
"Don't you feel that the marquess of Caelin would be disappointed to meet this… nomadic mongrel?"
"You--!" Sain attempted to say before he was interrupted.
"Sain! Hold! My apologies, lord marquess" Kent responded.
"Your man is poorly disciplined" the marquess pointed out.
"Marquess Araphen, please… if you would just give us your assistance…" Kent asked one final time.
"I've heard that Marquess Caelin has fallen ill and is currently bedridden. I wonder if he will even survive to meet this girl. In any case, his brother, Lundgren will claim his title, and I certainly wish to avoid trouble with the next marquess"
"You conniving…" Sain said before being interrupted again.
"Sain!" Kent interrupted again.
"I understand Kent, Sain, Mia, Soren, we will take our leave at once" Lyn said, preparing for departure.
Kent tried to protest but was interrupted by Lyn.
"I am proud of my Sacae blood, and I will NOT accept aid from someone that spits upon my heritage!"
"You tell him Lyn" Mia cheered.
'This man is no different from your average noble… corrupt and prejudiced' Soren mused.
And with that, the group left the foolish marquess behind to stew over Lyn's defiance.
A few minutes later while walking through town...
"That was well done milady! That marquess was a lout! Don't worry about a thing, we're here for you!" Sain cheered.
"Sain's right for once, that marquess was nothing more than a conceited and prejudiced moron!" Mia joined in.
"You're right, we don't need his help, and the larger numbers we would have gained would just slow us down anyway. And if what he said was true about my grandfather being sick, then time is something we can't afford to lose!"
A few minutes later, at the outskirts of Araphen…
"Found you!" Mia shouted out at Matthew.
"Gah! What? Oh, it's you again… I'm sorry but I didn't quite catch your name"
"It's Mia, and I don't believe that I caught your name either"
"Oh, right, where are my manners? My name is Matthew, and I'm a master of certain… acquisitions"
"Alright, now that we've been properly introduced, spill it! What do you know about Ike? Considering how you noticed that my sword Alondite is Ike's sword Ragnell's twin means that you've been associated with him at some point" Mia demanded.
'SHIT! She knows! C'mon Matthew, think fast!'
"Alright, I admit that I have run into him at some point in time… but it was so far back that it wouldn't matter anyway at this point" Matthew said, hoping that she would buy it.
"You're lying, you've met him recently haven't you?"
'What is she? A human lie detector?' Matthew thought
"I suppose I'll drag the truth out of you eventually… and if I can't do that, then I'll just have to follow you until I eventually run into him again" Mia said.
"A-Are you sure that that's a good idea? I live a very dangerous life you know? Do you honestly think that you would be able to survive following me around?" Matthew said in a futile attempt at scaring Mia off.
"Are you kidding? This is the Orange Flash you're talking to! It'll take more than what YOU would normally have to handle in whatever profession you have to so much as scratch ME!" Mia said, puffing out her chest, calling Matthew's bluff.
'*Sigh* what a drag…' Matthew thought, thoroughly disappointed.
When Mia rejoined the group, she noticed that Rath became a new addition to the group and decided to get acquainted with him later and chose to lean against a tree and look at the sunset until the group decided to start moving again.
A few minutes later, Soren decided to join her, choosing to stay near the person he knows best in the group. When he got a closer look at her, he noticed something different about her. He noticed that she was a lot more calm and confident, and he decided to ask how it happened.
"You seem to be in better spirits, may I ask how it happened?" Soren asked.
Mia smiled a true smile and said, "I've finally got a solid lead on how to find Ike"
Soren was astonished by this, "Really?! What is it?"
"It's not exactly in words, but I know that that thief Matthew is associated with Ike in some way and the best way to find Ike at this moment is to keep an eye on Matthew and follow him" Mia explained.
"So that's what he was hiding… I knew that he was hiding something… I just couldn't quite figure out what it was. Great job Mia, we're now one step closer to finding Ike" Soren congratulated.
Later, at night near the border of Khathelet
Mia was about to go to sleep after doing her normal evening rituals (sword practice, cleaning up, etc.), and for the first time over the past few weeks, she fell asleep with a confident smirk on her face. Only one thought was going through her mind at this time…
'It doesn't matter how long it takes or how far I have to go… I WILL find you Ike. Even if I have to chase you to the ends of the Earth until the end of time! I will chase after you until we are finally reunited Ike!'
On the other side of Khathelet…
Ike somehow heard Mia's thoughts again tonight, but this time, her thoughts were confident and unwavering.
'It's her voice again, but this time, she sounds like her old self… confident and unwavering… if she really is nearby it's gonna be difficult keeping her out of this. I don't want her to get involved with my mission. If she got hurt trying to help me then I'll never be able to forgive myself!'
Ike's thoughts were once again, interrupted by Hector's snoring.
'I'm worrying too much, I need to get some shut eye, I'll probably run into this "Black Fang" group tomorrow, I don't know what to expect so I better be well prepared and well rested' Ike thought.
Meanwhile, IN Khathelet…
A boy that looked like a bard and a girl that looked like a dancer were running from a group of black cloaked men, desperately trying to lose them. The boy had very light aqua colored hair, and the girl had snow-white hair, once the two reached a small village, they managed to lose the group for the time being and chose to stay the night at the local inn. The innkeeper was very kind to them and let them stay the night.
"We should be safe here for the night" the boy said.
"Yes, we should, but we should probably head north in the morning" the girl said.
"Why north?" the boy asked.
"I don't know why, but someone that has a presence that is both similar and different to us is there and is making its way towards us is there…"
"If you say so…"
Riku: And that takes care of that! Next chapter is going to be packed with as much action and suspense as possible, and I'm pretty sure that anyone that has played FE7 knows who the boy and the girl is already.
Soren: They're Ni-
Riku: SHUSH! You'll ruin the surprise for those who don't already know!
Soren: I'm pretty sure that they already do…
Riku: Well, I'm not taking any chances
Ike & Mia: ZZZZZZZZZZ…
Riku: They're still asleep… and their faces are only an inch away from each other… that's gonna be a hilarious moment when they wake up!
Soren: Okay, while Riku is daydreaming, I'll just say it, please review before we decide to tie you to a wooden pole and let Rath use you for target practice.