A/N:

RK: Well, this managed to get finished much sooner than I thought it would! Who knew that not having Mara around would be beneficial?! Just kidding. Anyway, I'm still by my lonesome! (Except for the amazing and wonderful IHaveNoIdea8, who beta'd this chapter for me!)

I actually feel accomplished, since I think this is the first chapter I've written completely by myself. Usually Mara and I pass the chapters back and forth to write different parts or just edit things but I now have free reign! Mwuahahahaha!

Well, I'm writing this right before class, so I'm gonna leave, hope you enjoy the new chapter!

Valeria was deep in thought the whole carriage ride to Deo Pass, only breaking from those thoughts when one of the healers riding with her mentioned that there was blood on the seat. Apparently it was from her back, though she couldn't remember how she'd gotten the wound.

And that really bugged her.

The last thing she remembered was giving Tear and Jade some gels and then a black haze filled her memories. The next thing she knew, she was standing above Nyla as the Arka was being healed by Tear and Natalia.

It was the second time so far that this had happened to her, and she couldn't really find anything similar between the two instances. It made it difficult to really figure out what might have been triggering her memory lapses.

A growl was the only thing that warned her of Nyla suddenly jumping out of the carriage. Both healers cried out, but the Arka apparently wasn't having it. Like Valeria, Nyla didn't like being enclosed in small spaces for very long.

Valeria stepped out and stretched after the carriage came to a full stop right near a rocky cliff, immediately regretting the movement when a twinge in her back made itself known. Apparently sitting in a carriage with a freshly healed injury for long periods of time wasn't good for your muscles. Who knew?

The rest of the group slowly got out of the carriage as well, though they didn't seem to have sore muscles like Valeria, which bugged her for some reason.

Shaking her head, she padded over to Nyla, who seemed energetic at least. Tear came over as well, giving the Arka one last look before giving the okay for her to be ready for travel.

A good thing, since Valeria could tell two things: first, the Arka was very antsy, and second, she was hungry. Seeing as they hadn't really stopped for more than a couple of fifteen minute breaks, during which times Nyla had been asleep, she hadn't actually gotten any real food to eat. All Valeria had had in her bags were fruits and vegetables, and the others hadn't had enough food to share with Nyla.

Grimacing, Valeria rubbed her hand along Nyla's snout before nudging her away. "Catch up, find my scent."

Nyla rumbled softly as Valeria took both of the bags from her, then the Arka spun around and ran off.

Turning around, Valeria was met with confused stares of the others. Shouldering the bags, she walked past them. "Unlike us, Nyla hasn't had any food for some time; she's gone off to hunt."

With that as an explanation, the group continued onward for a bit. They'd gotten to the base of the pass around sunrise, and as the sun continued to rise in the sky, so did the heat. Yet, Valeria noted, the heat nor the sun bothered her as much as in the desert, so there was likely a water source nearby that allowed the air to be filled with fourth fonons.

They'd reached one of the first rises before anyone began to talk, though Valeria instantly missed the silence the moment it was gone.

"Man, at this rate, we'll never catch up to Master Van," Luke complained. "We shouldn't have wasted time in the desert and again in that stupid castle."

Anise turned to the noble, glaring. "What do you mean 'wasted time'?"

"I mean wasted time. We don't need Ion anymore. The war won't start as long as I'm around." His gaze then fell on Valeria, not that she really noticed, since she stared in the direction Nyla had run off in. "And why is she even here? It's her fault we went to that castle!"

"You moron," Anise huffed.

"H-hey!"

Tear sighed, placing her hand to her forehead. "Luke, even I thought that was arrogant."

"The peace is based on the respect the Malkuth Emperor and Father have for the Fon Master. Without Ion there would be no mediator," Natalia told Luke, she then looked at Valeria as well. "And Jade was the one who wanted to go to Choral Castle, so the information Valeria gathered must be important in some way."

"No, it's not that either country holds respect for me. They merely want Yulia's Score. I'm not really needed," Ion interjected right as Valeria turned around, seeing the dejected look on the Fon Master's face.

"Not necessarily, from what I can understand, the Order is run by the things that you do. It's due to you that there have been more scorers being trained due to the changes you've made since Evenos passed the torch to you," Valeria told him, her finger tapping her chin thoughtfully.

"I agree with Valeria. You carry weight as a deterrent, Ion. Even if you do owe it to Yulia's Score," Guy argued.

"I see. You're all still young. So, how about we get going now?"

Valeria almost fell over laughing when Jade pulled that out of nowhere, especially when she could actually see where he was coming from in that manner. Not that she'd willingly say it out loud.

Luckily, Guy said what she already knew. "How does he pull out a line like that at a time like this? You can never tell what that guy's thinking."

The group began walking again with the hot head in the lead, Guy at his side. Valeria smirked as she kept toward the back, wondering just what reaction she might get if she began telling the noble boy a couple of things that she'd learned about the Dorian General. Then again, after glancing to her side, she realized that saying such things to bother Luke would also likely bother the Melodist walking next to her.

And contrary to what some of the others may have thought, Valeria wasn't an idiot, nor completely insensitive.

So instead, she fell back to walk next to Jade for a while, and was glad she did since the conversation she became a part of was hilarious.

"—how stupid can he be, anyway?"

"Still angry, are we?" Jade asked the Guardian. "That's not like you."

"I-I'm not angry!" Anise was quick to defend herself. "I love Luke!"

Since she was close enough, the blonde clearly heard the girl also mention his money.

It made her think again, though she knew better than to go completely into her thoughts since she wasn't riding Nyla. She had noticed that almost every conversation that she remembered (though Valeria couldn't really remember actually having a legitimate conversation with Anise), the girl had mentioned that she liked Luke for his money.

There had to be a reason behind that, didn't there?

In fact, now that she thought about it, when Anise wasn't doing her duties as a Fon Master Guardian, Valeria recalled her running around the Cathedral doing tours and such for money. Then again, Valeria never saw money being exchanged for the tours, but seeing as Anise tended to have better things to do than that, she highly doubted she did those things for free.

Of course, she really could just be reading into those things a bit too much.

"—that was still quite a careless choice of words. Then again, what more could one expect from Luke?"

Valeria smirked. "You know, that's basically the pot calling the kettle black, Jade. I remember a lot of times where you've said careless words."

Jade sighed. "Yes, but most of my 'careless words' as you call them, are used to make a point."

Anise frowned. "Look, I don't really want to talk about this anymore! I'm going to catch up with Ion."

Valeria watched in amusement as she ran off before turning and looking at Jade. "You know, the more I think about this, the less I actually believe your excuse about wanting me to come along. Sure, I did give you some valuable information from Dist's computers, but that should've been the end of it. You could've left me tied up and unconscious in those carriages and told them to take me to Kaitzur, yet here I am."

Jade sighed again. "I'm not sure what will happen once we get to Akzeriuth, and because of that, as much as I hate to say it, some of your skills might be required. After all, I'm still not entirely sure what the Dorian General is up too."

Valeria paused, then frowned. "If you're talking about that time with Nyla after we were training, I don't know if I can do that again. I haven't been training that skill, plus that took a lot of effort and water."

Jade shook his head. "Not just that, though it would have been helpful. You've listened to your brother, and have learned a lot of things from him."

"Oh, well, we'll have to see when we get there. Let's just catch up for now."

Valeria walked forward a bit, just enough to get away from Jade. She actually felt a little alone for the moment. Usually when Nyla needed to hunt, Valeria would stay in one small area to catch up on her sewing or read some letters from her brother, uncle, or even Jade.

Yet even though she was surrounded by a group of people, Valeria felt like she was by herself. It was odd, she felt disconnected to them. Sure, she knew Jade, but none of the others were very familiar to her. When they clustered around one another it felt like she was the odd one out.

And she hated that feeling.

Sighing, she dug into one of the bags she'd grabbed from Nyla, pulling out the papers she'd shoved into the main pocket. After looking ahead real quick to see the terrain and who else was in front of her, Valeria looked down at the papers, finally deciding to look at some of the ones she'd brushed aside.

The more she read, the more she grew interested in some of the projects that Dist had been working on. As far as Valeria knew, the Reaper had been a huge part in a lot of the replication processes over the last nine years, a couple of which Dist probably didn't realize she knew about.

But some of the papers seemed to be incomplete, or rather, the data was exhausted and they had all they could get from it.

So the rest was likely on the disc that the Limiter had asked for.

Valeria grinned. It was a good thing she decided to keep a copy for herself.

"Well, I have to admit, I'm surprised."

Valeria blinked, looking up to see that the Princess was walking next to her. "Huh?"

"I would certainly think that after all this walking along the pass, we would come across some monsters. And yet, the further we travel, the less I see."

Valeria thought about it for a moment. "I'd imagine Nyla has something to do with that. When she chooses, she can release a sort of scent into the air that draws predators toward her. All Arkas have that trait, it helps them when travelling, since they had been bred to be travelling companions."

"Oh, I'd forgotten about that. The Arkas were bred from a couple of different canine monsters, correct? And some of the major talents that they possess are their scent changing abilities and their fierce loyalty."

Valeria nodded. "Yeah, so while she's hunting, she tends to release the scent of a weakened prey, so all monsters in the area head toward her with the intent to eat her, when instead she'll attack and kill them, thus earning her own meal."

"I have heard that Arkas can sometimes have other abilities, is this true for Nyla?"

Valeria thought about it; she wasn't really sure. Most of the time Nyla left the artes to her, so she kept a frontal assault. Valeria supposed it was possible. "I dunno, she has her own secrets just like the rest of us."

Natalia frowned.

Valeria sighed, not wanting to get into it with her. "I just don't know, I'm usually the fonist when we're traveling."

"Oh, so she hasn't really practiced then."

"Yeah, I guess..." Valeria shrugged. " It doesn't matter to me, Nyla is Nyla."

"Of course! Forgive me, I didn't mean anything by that," the Princess told her, she then excused herself to walk near Luke, leaving Valeria to her thoughts once more.

Though she didn't have long to think when Jade suddenly spoke up, drawing attention to himself.

"The road is in surprisingly good condition."

"Yeah, especially since it's not really used anymore," Guy added, his eyes trailing along the road.

"How come?"

Valeria sighed, leave it to Luke to ask a stupid question. Didn't Duke Fabre actually want his heir to know basic information? The blonde was beginning to believe he didn't, or maybe it was a certain someone else...

"This road was in operation back when Akzeriuth was a part of Kimlasca," Guy explained, answering the red head's question.

Natalia nodded. "Since Malkuth took it from us, there's been no reason to maintain it any longer."

"...But, if Akzeriuth is Kimlasca's next target, it certainly would make sense to clean it up..."

Valeria hung her head. "Jade? Remember that pot and kettle thing? You're doing it again..."

Not that Natalia seemed to hear what she said. "What is that supposed to mean?"

But if Jade's amused look was any proof, he definitely heard Valeria. "I said 'if'. It certainly doesn't appear to have seen any recent work. The fact that it's still in such good condition speaks well for the Kimlascan engineers who constructed it."

"You have a most...trying way of putting things," Natalia accused, her tone clear that she wasn't amused in the slightest.

Jade chuckled, "I suppose I do. I'll try to be more careful."

Valeria could tell he had no intention of doing so. "Liar... You enjoy pestering people..."

"Valeria! How could you say such a thing?"

"I'm going to go back to ignoring you now."

For the rest of that day and most of the second day in the pass Valeria kept to herself. It wasn't until the Fon Master stumbled and collapsed to his knees that she broke from her silence to help.

As Anise began fretting over him, Valeria crouched in front of Ion, placing her uncovered left hand against his forehead. It was clammy and just a little warm, which meant he was just wearing himself thin.

"Are you all right? Do you want to rest a bit?" Valeria heard Tear ask as she began rooting through one of her bags.

"No... I'm fine."

Valeria snorted. "Just because half of us are soldiers or used to pressing on like this doesn't mean you should as well. You're worn down, allow one of the healers to use a small healing arte and give me your canteen, we're taking a break."

As Ion handed over his canteen, Luke crossed his arms. "A break? What are you talking about?! Master Van's gone on ahead!"

"Luke! There's no harm in resting a little!" Natalia snapped. It was a good thing too, since she put it in a nicer way than Valeria would've.

Valeria watched the red head out of the corner of her eye, noticing he was about to snap. Guy seemed to realize as well, since he tried to calm Luke down. "Yeah. This is a tough mountain path. There's nothing we can do."

"I'm the ambassador! If I say we go, we go!"

Valeria looked at Jade, scowling. Sure, the conversation they'd had the day before let her know that there was a reason for Luke being there, but no one had actually informed her that the noble jerk was an ambassador. Plus, wouldn't it make more sense for the princess to be in charge?

The silence from the group almost had Valeria laughing, since she had a feeling most were thinking bad things about their "leader".

"L-Listen you!"

"Let's get some rest," Jade sighed and cut off whatever Anise had been about to say. "Ion, I trust that's all right with you?"

While Anise helped Ion up, the Fon Master looked at Luke sheepishly. "I'm sorry to be a burden, Luke..."

Valeria didn't stay near them to wait for the noble's response, instead she walked ahead for a moment, noticing a small plateau. She told the group about it, knowing it'd be an ideal place to make a small break encampment. This way, they'd be able to see from all sides in case any monsters were coming, and the Fon Master could feel the breeze better up there.

The group, besides Luke, clustered around Ion. Even Valeria joined them. She still had his canteen, and was once again digging around in her bag for some more herbs. Once she found what she'd been looking for, she opened the green haired kid's bottle, but frowned.

Looking at the Fon Master in annoyance, she pulled out one of her spare bottles and began transferring water from one to the other. "Fon Master... Next time you're almost out of water, inform someone..."

"I've been wondering for a while Valeria, but you've been putting herbs into your water bottles as well as a few of ours, why is that?"

Turning to look at the princess, Valeria shrugged. She swished around the Fon Master's bottle before handing it back. "Normally I travel by myself with just Nyla, so I learned about natural herbs that you could find nearly anywhere with greenery. Some herbs, like the ones I just gave Ion, can help restore energy, vitality, and strength. So whenever I see some herbs that I think can help me, I pick them, dry them and then keep them in case I need some energy. Normally I use them on food, but throwing them in water works as well if you need them that badly."

Natalia's eyes widened in interest. "Fascinating, I never knew that. Would you be willing to teach me about herbs?"

"If possible, I'd like to learn as well."

Valeria chewed her lip as she considered the question the two healers asked. She wasn't sure how much longer she would be traveling with them, so she didn't want to make a big promise. But then again, since they were healers, they needed to learn about ways to heal without seventh fonons.

"If we have time before Jade tosses me elsewhere, sure. We can start now, if you want, it'll give us something to do while we let Ion rest."

"That would be wonderful," Natalia agreed.

After resting for a few hours, they finally moved onward. During their break, Valeria had managed to teach the two healers about two different types of herbs, and since she had a few she hadn't dried yet, had explained the process of drying them as well. They both seemed happy to learn about herbs, so it was actually beneficial, something she wasn't used to.

"Making friends, I see."

Valeria flinched, not having paid attention to Jade walking beside her. Scowling, she pushed his shoulder. "Shut up! I was just teaching them something they didn't know. You know, something any other nice person would do. Why don't you try it sometime, Jade? Share that brain of yours."

It was Jade's turn to frown. "I don't like explaining things, much less teaching."

"Yeah, I know. I was being a smart ass, duh."

Jade chuckled, though before he could say anything, a gunshot rang out. Before she realized what happened, Jade had placed himself in front of her, though the bullet had landed nowhere near them.

"Stop!"

Looking up, Valeria had to keep from groaning at the sight of Legretta standing up above them. In the past, she'd had a few of run ins with the Fourth Division Commander, though each occurrence was because of Dist. That idiot didn't always follow orders right away when he was working on a personal project.

Then again, each time Legretta barely gave her a glance, so there was a possibility that she didn't even know who Valeria was.

"Tear, why do you continue to spend time with those people?"

"I'm under orders from Grand Maestro Mohs. What about you? Why are you kidnapping Ion and traveling to the Sephiroth?!"

Valeria looked between the two and frowned before looking at Jade, who had moved a couple of feet in front of her now. She really needed to get more information, this whole half-assed explanation had left her in the dark on a lot of things lately, and it really bugged her. Sure, she'd know Ion had been kidnapped, that's the reason Anise was with them, but why were they bringing up the Sephiroth?

"To win freedom and free will for human beings."

"What do you mean...?" Tear questioned, her tone curious though still defensive.

"The world is completely controlled by the Score," Legretta told them, shifting the guns in her hands to aim toward both Jade and Luke. "People read the Score for anything they do. The Score rules their lives. Don't you think that's wrong?"

"The Score doesn't exist to control people," Ion insisted. "It's merely a tool to help them follow the correct path."

Legretta's gaze fell on Ion next, before shaking her head. "Perhaps for you, Fon Master, but most people depend on the Score. It controls them. The worst cases consult the Score to see what they should have for dinner. You are no different."

"We don't go that far, but..." Anise argued. "If the Score shows the future, then it's best to live as it says..."

"The Score you get read on your birthday is a useful reference," Guy added.

"Yes, and you hear your life's Score from the moment you're born, so..."

Valeria looked down at hearing the princess' words. Not that this was coming as a surprise to her, but if you hear your life as told by the score from birth, then why would people allow themselves to have bad things happen? Surely one's parents, if they heard about something tragic happening to their child at an early age, would try and stop it.

And if that was the case, then Valeria wouldn't have had to deal with the life she had, maybe she would be elsewhere without all the trauma that her past had inflicted on her.

"Why would people follow a Score that lets their loved ones be pained…?" Valeria muttered softly, not having meant to speak aloud.

She looked up and realized that in her thinking she'd missed something else from the conversation. Legretta was now looking down at Tear with something akin to disdain. Biting her lip, Valeria knew what this meant and began to draw her knives.

"Then we'll stop you by force!"

We?

Before Valeria could completely draw her weapons, something slammed into her back, sending her sprawling to the ground a couple feet away from everyone else.

Gritting her teeth and ignoring the pain from the sudden onslaught, Valeria looked up to see who had hit her.

And felt all the blood drain from her face.

"You almost lost down there, you know what that means..."

The same silvery-white pants tucked into silver and grey boots.

Coarse hands gripped her slender wrist, dragging her forward.

The same black tunic, never buttoned in the front to show off his muscular chest.

Chains bit into her flesh as she jerked back, away from the sting caused by flesh striking her own, blood welling up on her lip from the force of the impact.

Even his gold and silver gauntlets were the same.

Cold laughter had her cringing, she fought to keep the tears from her eyes as she glared at him, trying to get over her fear of what was about to happen.

Yet now... Why did he have a tabard resting on his hips? The swirling design was detailed, about as detailed as the tabard she stole from Asch that hung from her own waist.

"Next time, don't break your weapon. He was very unhappy with you for that..."

Smug amber eyes locked onto her silver ones from beneath brown and black dreads, and in their depths she saw his glee at finally finding her.

Those amber eyes held a fire as he stalked forward. Using the last of her dwindling strength she moved to kick him. Yet he caught her strike and twisted her around, leaning into her back to breathe in her ear.

Valeria knew that he'd been looking, knew they both had. As she slowly stood and drew out some knives, she had to pull back her emotions at seeing him.

"Come now, did you really think you could best me right now? I'll always be there to bring you down, you know that."

He drew his own weapons, knives similar to her own, and his smug smile grew. "Well, well, what a pleasant surprise. I never knew that we'd run into you once we joined the Knights."

"After all, we love to play, don't we?"

"Besides, I did promise that we'd play again, WildCat."

Valeria gritted her teeth, fingers tightening on her weapons.

"Aeron..."

Aeron tilted his head at Valeria for a moment before rushing at her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the group splitting up. Tear, Luke, and Anise moved to strike Legretta, while Guy attempted to come help Valeria, leaving Jade and Natalia toward the back to cast artes.

Aeron collided with Valeria, his twin knives held against her own with amazing force. Valeria knew then that he cared little for the others, even as he twisted his grip to swing around and kick Guy, who had been trying to aim for his backside.

Guy took the strike on his sword, the force it sending him flying back. Using the momentum from that, Aeron knocked Valeria's knives away and swung his right arm forward.

Valeria hissed as she jumped back to avoid the blades, but he used that momentum to lunge forward and aim another strike at her thigh.

With no time to avoid it completely, she twisted to the side, wincing as she felt the knife bite into her left thigh, leaving a trail of blood in its wake.

Rising from her roll, Valeria darted forward, muttering under her breath. Right as she struck against Aeron's blades, ice formed a coat along her own, lengthening the blades so that they sliced the sides of his face.

What she hadn't been expecting was his leg to swing beneath her to knock her over.

As she fell, she curled in on herself, her training kicking in so that she herself would roll out of the way. But when she rose, Aeron was once again there, ignoring the blond swordsman who was swinging his own blade at him.

Or so she thought.

At the last second, Aeron dipped forward into a crouch, his hands going to the ground so he could kick back, into Guy's stomach. Right before the blond flew through the air, his sword managed to slice down towards the ground right as Valeria tried to back away from Aeron. The sword cut across Valeria's collarbone towards her right shoulder, the instant pain causing her to lose her grip on the knife in that hand.

Aeron stood slowly as she staggered away, a frown where his smug smile used to be. "What was that?"

The ground beneath him shuddered as Jade's stalagmite formed beneath Aeron. He barely glanced down as he side-stepped the arte, something that shocked Valeria. How was it possible to side-step an arte like that?!

Natalia had run over during that time to heal Valeria, much to her relief. But the look on Aeron's face bothered her as he turned to face Guy, parrying against his sword.

As the two clashed again and again, Valeria steadied herself and began to pull the fourth fonons in the air towards her, readying them as she began to cast her arte. She held it back for a moment, allowing more water to build and then signaled Guy.

The moment he was clear, Valeria released her arte on Aeron and watched as the water from Spread formed beneath him and threw him into the air.

She ran forward then, knowing that she needed to get beneath him if she wanted to cause any damage.

"Diving Dragon!"

Aeron dove at her, blades out, and Valeria realized she'd never actually learned what artes he'd known. Bringing her blades up just in time, she parried with him, saving herself from the sharpness of the knives, though the force of his strike had him lying on top of her.

That feeling alone had her eyes widening and limbs shaking.

Now Aeron was scowling at her, teeth bared. "You little bitch! How dare you use artes when you're not allowed!"

Valeria vaguely heard someone yelling at her to move, yet she knew in the position she was in, Aeron had her. His knives pushed against hers as he put more weight on her stomach, making it hard for her to breathe.

Where was Guy? There was no way Aeron would be able to keep his hold if the blond attacked.

Suddenly a fonic circle formed beneath the two of them, and Aeron looked up in shock, right as an onslaught of water fell over the two of them. While it was clear that the water hurt Aeron enough for Valeria to push him away from her, instead of harming her, the water began to give her strength.

Rolling away from Aeron, Valeria stood and dashed back toward Jade as Guy ran at the downed Aeron.

"Valeria, are you okay?"

"Now is not the time for this Jade…" she countered, settling into a casting stance and beginning to form an arte.

"This I summon, icy breath cover my enemies to sleep forever— Gyhaa!"

Valeria fell back; staring in disbelief at the knife imbedded in her side as the blood welled up and began to seep out of her body. Looking up, she watched as Guy landed a strike on Aeron's left shoulder, the shoulder of the arm that had thrown the knife.

The man with dreadlocks fell back himself, rolling away from the swordsman who kept after him. He kicked out at Guy, catching the blond's blade and forcing him away as he pulled another knife from somewhere.

Ignoring the next arte that Jade had cast, as well as Guy who had quickly recovered, Aeron put forth a burst of speed to come at Valeria. She lay helpless on the ground, her mind in shock for some reason at seeing the blade in her side, though she knew this wasn't the first time she'd been stabbed.

A loud growl was heard and a red form knocked into Aeron, sending him to the ground before standing in his path to Valeria. Nyla crouched low; fangs gleaming as she slowly inched forward.

"Aeron!"

The knife wielder scowled, glancing back for a brief instant before sighing. "Well, looks like our fun ends here. Hope you enjoy my gift, WildCat. You sure have a lot of surprises, though…"

Aeron ducked out of the way of Guy's next strike then darted behind one of the large boulders surrounding the pass, disappearing from sight as Natalia ran over to Valeria.

Gift?

It dawned on her the moment she thought it and slapped Natalia's hand when the princess attempted to pull the knife from Valeria's side.

"Don't, there's poison on the blade…"

Natalia gasped as Valeria realized all other sounds of fighting had stopped. She looked over and watched as Jade grew annoyed with Legretta.

"...So, it was you people who resurrected that forbidden technology!"

The next few words escaped her as she felt a wave of pain build up from where the knife was still in her body, and she had to keep from bending over in pain. Nyla padded over to her then as well, rubbing her muzzle against Valeria's face in an attempt to calm her. And seeing as she was using a soothing scent, it actually began to help until another wave jolted her senses.

"Over my dead body!"

Valeria heard that and wanted to giggle, even knowing that it wasn't a good idea. Just how fast acting was Aeron's poison? She couldn't remember at the moment, but she could've sworn it wasn't this bad in the past.

"Jade! Tear! I need your help! Valeria's been poisoned!"

The next instant the two of them were there, Legretta either gone or forgotten about, Valeria didn't know. Jade moved to grab the blade as well, though Valeria remembered enough to bat his hand away as well.

"Remove the blade…poison spreads…" she mumbled, trying to remember the specifics of the poisons after all the years since she last encountered them.

"Do you know what this poison is?"

Valeria struggled to nod at Tear's question. "Panacea…Sage…Jasmine…Verbenna…knife out…last…sleep…"

It felt like ages as the pain from the poison seeped through her body, until finally she felt someone tilt her head back and liquid spilled down her throat. As the last of it was swallowed, she felt the knife being pulled out and the soothing feeling of a healing spell being cast on her.

She blinked a couple of times and the final time she did, she realized it was dark out and there were stars in the sky.

Shifting positions, she realized she was lying on Nyla against the base of a tree. Looking around, she found that the group had moved from where they'd fought Aeron and Legretta to a sheltered space ways away from the exit of the pass.

The pain in her side was gone now, for which she was thankful, but looking down she realized once again she was covered in bandages, though luckily none were bloody.

"Ever since joined this group it's been one injury after the next!"

"So it seems."

Valeria flinched at the sound of the voice, then cringed when she actually felt more pain from her side. Nyla, who had awakened right when Valeria had, realized this and growled softly at Jade.

"My apologies, I didn't mean to startle you."

Valeria grunted softly and snuggled back down against Nyla, whose tails wrapped around the girl instantly.

"Is this a bad time?"

The two humans looked over at Tear, who had just come from the other side of their camp. "No, what's up?"

Tear smiled at Valeria. "I wanted to check your wound again, but since you're awake, I have a question."

Valeria sighed. "How did I know what poison it was and how to counter it, right?"

Tear nodded as she unwound the wrap around her waist.

"I… Um, knew him from a long time ago. He used to test poisons on me and his favorites were the localized ones that caused massive pain without doing a whole lot of damage, that way he could toy with the victim longer, and slowly bleed them out if he so chose."

Tear looked uneasy, and even Jade seemed shocked by this. Normally she would've kept quiet about this, but since it looked like Aeron was somehow working with the Oracle Knights, she supposed she needed to give out some info.

"From what I can remember, he has a few sets of knives, though he only ever coats one with poison at a time. If he ever leaves a knife in you for a long period of time, I would suggest you just leave it there, unless you have no choice but to take it out. Otherwise the poison will actually spread to other points of your body before you have a chance to counteract it. Most of the poisons can be countered by using the items that I told you."

As she spoke, Valeria looked away from them, mad at herself for having to explain things she would rather forget. It had been years, so many years, since she'd last seen Aeron, and she'd hoped that he would never cross paths with her ever again.

It seemed like her hope was wrong.

"You should be almost fully healed by morning, so we can head to Akzeriuth after that."

Valeria nodded at Tear's words and turned to lie back down on Nyla, instantly lost in her thoughts.

Why did Aeron suddenly appear now? And what was he doing with the Oracle Knights?

A/N: I'm rather happy with how I intro'd Aeron. What do you think? Think he's going to be an issue later on? *grins* Anyway, hope you liked the chapter!