Morning brought a surprising amount of chatter from the main lobby area of the Travel Agency.

Wren tiredly wandered into the lobby, trying to find the source of the noise.

There was a very small crowd forming, from travelers and others who had spent the night at the inn, forming around one man. Wren recognized him as the Travel Agency's owner and business mogul, Rin. She didn't know much about him, except that he used to own the majority of the inns around Spira, but most had been bought out when he lost interest in that venture, save for a handful of them. The one they were staying in currently, on the Mi'ihen Highroad, was one of the ones still owned by him.

He was more popular than she'd realized, she guessed. He seemed good natured enough, chatting and laughing with the small group. She didn't know what they were talking about, as listening closer she realized that about half of the conversation was in Al Bhed, which she unfortunately only understood a little of. It took a lot of thinking to be able to understand it by ear, and when it was written, she wasn't much better. At the rate they were speaking, she had already fallen hopelessly behind.

She heard a noise behind her, and when she looked over her shoulder, she saw Merris had been woken up by the noise as well, likely.

"Good morning," she said, humming just a little.

"It's almost noon, isn't it?" asked Merris. "Hope they're not trying to get rid of us."

"If it's that late, we should get going anyway," laughed Wren.

Merris gave a small snort, shaking his head. "How did all this racket not wake up Twill?"

Wren shrugged at that, not sure herself. At this point, she was still listening to Rin and the others speak.

"Dryd umt syh rych'd paah ynuiht mydamo. Ra icat du fyhtan eh yht uid uv dra [Agency] ymm dra desa, pid ed ryc paah xieda cusa desa cehla yhouha cyf res," said one person. The current desk clerk, Wren guessed.

"Ur? Ed ec bnupypmo vun dra paddan dryd fa tuh'd ahluinyka muedanehk... E ryja caah res fyhtanehk ynuiht [Spira] pavuna druikr, ev oui yna funneat ypuid res," replied Rin, somewhat passively.

"What are they talking about?" Wren asked softly, glancing up at Merris.

"Hm? Something about an old man. Must be a regular here. I think they're just talking business," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I wasn't really listening."

Wren gave a small hum, placing a hand on her hip. "Whatever it is, I guess I'm awake now."

"Yeah, I don't think I'm going to get back to sleep," said Merris, shrugging. "Might as well stay out here and let Twill sleep a while longer."

They moved to the table near the front, Wren taking one seat, and Merris taking the other while the employees chatted with Rin behind them.

"I guess it's fine that they woke us up. If they hadn't, I probably would have stayed asleep even longer," said Wren, laughing quietly. "Plus, I keep having these weird dreams…"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, they've been on and off, but ever since Kilika, I keep dreaming about this city on the ocean, and it's glowing so brightly that you can hardly see the stars," said Wren. "The first time it happened, in my dream I was on a boat that was steering itself towards the city, and I felt like if I got out of the boat, something scary might happen. Like someone was going to take me away the second I set foot outside of it. But since then, it hasn't been so bad."

"That is a little weird," murmured Merris, nodding. "I hope you're not losing sleep because of it."

"Not really. I exhausted myself at the temple; if anything I've been sleeping more since then," she said. She paused for a second, then nodded her head slightly in the direction of the conversation behind her. "Well, mostly anyway."

"It hasn't really been as scary as the first time it happened," she added. "I think I just have a lot on my mind."

"That's probably it," he said. "Between being unconscious for basically a full day, and all of this, it wouldn't surprise me if the stress was getting to you. I'm not an expert or anything though."

As Wren started to agree, Twill appeared from the back, looking a little groggy as they spotted the two of them sitting at the table.

"Noon already?" they asked, suppressing a yawn.

"We were just thinking about leaving you behind if you slept any later," teased Merris, placing his chin in his palm. "Good thing you showed up when you did."

"Ha ha," said Twill, rolling their eyes. "It's getting late in the day to leave already. Unless you want to stay here another day, we're probably going to have to camp outside tonight."

"Yeah, you're right. We should get moving," said Wren, huffing. "I'm not really looking forward to it, but I don't want to wait around here anymore. I knew I'd have to sleep outside at some point, if I made this happen."

They went back to their room to get their things, then made their way outside to the stable. They spoke to the worker to retrieve their chocobos, and then were back on the road.

When night started to fall, they were about halfway through the path carved into the side of the rock. It was getting late, and both the birds and their riders were tired.

They tied the chocobos leads so they wouldn't run away, then set up camp for the night on the trail. It could prove to be dangerous to stray far from the trail, with the fiends out. They kept this in mind as they set up, unpacking rationed food to cook over the fire they'd built.

The road itself was covered by the sturdy cliff above, and in that enclosed space, it was dark, apart from the fire. The view of the sea from where Wren sat, however, was illuminated by the moon. She looked out over it as she fed the chocobos their share of the greens they'd purchased from the stable. The humid sea air was calming, at the very least.

She'd been brought here when her mother had died, that was how she knew. The rising tide had carried everything away after the monks from Bevelle recovered the bodies they could find, and now the only thing that she could see in the sand was dead seaweed, and the driftwood that washed up from the ocean. Nothing that set it apart from any other beach in Spira.

But Wren had seen it after it happened. It had only been six years earlier. She had been twelve, not so young that it would tear her life apart, but it wasn't long enough that she had stopped feeling the impact of what had happened. She hadn't been there when it happened, or else she might not be alive, but she had come with the clergy to identify her mother's body before the victims were sent.

"You seem like you have a lot on your mind," said Twill. Looking over at her. They were setting up over the fire, helping to get their meal ready. "You've got a dark cloud hanging over you."

Wren's shoulders relaxed, and she sighed again, still stroking the chocobo's feathers as it ate. "I'm just thinking."

"About what?"

"My mother, uh…" she started, frowning. "She was a recorder for the monks in Bevelle. Wherever they went, we went too. But… you know where we are, right? She was there, recording, when they partnered with the Al Bhed for Operation Mi'ihen."

"...Oh," murmured Twill.

"Yeah," said Wren. "They… said she was probably hit by flying debris, or that Sin's toxin got to her first, before the water started rising, something. I don't know… I'm still angry. At the time, I blamed Yevon, because I thought they should have known that the plan wouldn't work, and I lost my mother because of it-a lot of people lost family because of it."

"I know now," she said, shaking her head. "They had to know. After word came out about Yevon's corrupt politics, I knew. It was just to keep us from suspecting them. I'm still torn about it. I still believe, but not in them… It's what I knew. Is that bad?"

"That's difficult to answer… I don't think it's bad to believe in something," said Twill, thinking. "Yevon has a dangerous history of manipulating people… I don't know what's fact or not anymore myself, and I'm certified as a sender."

Wren frowned. "Yevon was pretty awful, wasn't it?"

"Sometimes," said Twill.

Merris nodded vigorously, making a face.

"I guess what I really believe in is the real people who stood up to fight Sin," said Wren, thinking. She pet the chocobo's neck, still frowning. "The high summoners are so few and far between that there aren't many records on them anymore… And they're probably tailored to whatever Yevon wants us to see, if there are any. But they were real people, who wanted the best for Spira."

"That is something," agreed Twill.

"Better than believing in the church," added Merris.

Wren made a noise of agreement, then went to sit beside the fire with them, sitting on her bedroll. She took a piece of the dried meat, nibbling at it while she looked at the ocean.

"I didn't mean for this to get any deeper than it already was," she admitted. "I was just… thinking about my mother, and her last sphere."

Twill glanced up at that, frowning. "What was on it?"

"...Not a whole lot," said Wren. "It's… dark. The beginning of it is just people working. Setting up machina, rallying together, whatever. Preparations. After it starts, you can see for a few seconds, but it looks how it does before a big storm comes. And then you see Sin, rising out of the water in the distance, but just for a second. After that, there's no picture. It's just… static. And the audio is garbled, you can't hear anything, but it's better that way."

"I guess the equipment doesn't work around Sin?" asked Merris.

"I guess not," she said. "I'm probably not supposed to have it, if Yevon had bothered retrieving it from her. To be honest, if it was real footage of what happened during the operation, I would have destroyed it. I don't want to think about it. I just kept it because it belonged to her."

"I would have destroyed it," admitted Twill. "If it were mine."

Wren nodded slightly, looking back down at her hands for a minute.

Merris put his arms behind him for support, leaning back. "Yevon has kind of screwed all three of us over, hasn't it? I mean, everyone's got something, but it seems like we're just unlucky."

Twill and Wren murmured in agreement.

"We should figure out how who's going to take the first watch," said Twill. "We're not far from the trail, so there should be fewer fiends, but it's better to be safe."

"I'll go first," offered Wren.

"I guess I'll take the next one," said Merris.

"I didn't expect you to be so enthusiastic about this," said Twill, laughing quietly. "I'll take the last one, then."

Wren smiled weakly. "I don't think I'll be getting to sleep for a while. I feel better, but I've still got some things to think about."

Merris nodded a bit. "Just wake me up whenever you need to sleep."

They started to settle in, finishing their meal in silence. Wren went to sit near the chocobos where they were nestled beside each other. While the other two rested beside the dying fire.

She looked at the sea once again, sighing. At least she felt a little more at ease, after opening up. Once they passed through Mushroom Rock to Djose, she'd be alright after literally putting the past behind her.

The other two fell asleep quickly, unsurprisingly. Wren hoped Twill didn't mind getting an early start, but at least they weren't far from town now. Once they made it to Djose, supposedly they were invited to a warm bed by Mobius, though she wondered what her current standing was with him now.

Mobius had been friendly when they met, but thinking about it, the way he'd vanished on her after her accident was odd. Either way, whether they were welcome or not, they had little choice, if they wanted to find Merris' sister. Wren wanted to know what was going on with Mobius, and Respira, too.

It seemed like all of their problems were leading them to Djose.

A/N:

It's been a bit since I posted an update, cause I wanted to catch up on art a little more before I posted a new chapter. No one is telling me to do the chapter illustrations but it's a fun project for me, haha. (In addition to the chapter illustrations I've got a bunch of commissions right now though, so that accounts for some of the time lost too.)

Anyway, the Al Bhed can be put directly into the translator if you're really curious about what it says, I won't be including too many full conversations in Al Bhed and if it's important, I'll certainly provide translations, so don't worry about that.

All of that said I've finished chapter 6's illustration recently, and there's a couple drawings of Wren and her mom in my gallery now. She's not going to be a particularly important character or anything, since she's dead, but I ended up giving her a design and a name, haha.