Chapter Eleven: Breakthrough

"Why do you have to leave?" Estelle asked, resting her head in the crook of Rita's neck.

"I've already been here for over a week, Estelle," Rita said. "I have work to get back to."

Estelle pouted. "But I like it when you're here. Can't you move here? I could find a room for you in the castle."

Rita, with her arm wrapped around Estelle's shoulders idly played with her hair. "You know I couldn't tolerate living around all these stuffy nobles. Move to Halure like you said you would."

Estelle sighed heavily. "I will, but not just yet. There's still so much to do here. Let's just spend the whole day together until you leave."

"You're not going to bring Ted over, are you?"

"No," Estelle said, "I told him I was busy today so I could spend the day with you."

"Good," Rita said, tightening her grip around Estelle's shoulders.

Estelle smiled a bit. "I told you, Rita, you don't have to be jealous of Ted."

"I'm not jealous! That's really dumb. Why would I be jealous of some stupid brat?"

Estelle's smiled grew wider.

"Besides, the only reason I'm still upset with him is because you still haven't talked to him about his feelings."

Estelle's smile dropped. "Oh. Right. Um, I'll do that soon."

"The longer you drag it out, the harder it will be."

Estelle sighed. "Yes, I know." A knock came to the door, and she popped up, eager for a distraction from thinking about Ted. She hurried to the door, and opened it with a smile. "Oh, hello, Sodia."

Sodia stood up a little straighter and said, "Princess Estellise, I have a favour to request of you."

Estelle tilted her head to the side. "A favour? What kind?"

"As you know, I've been handling the commandant's affairs in his absence."

Estelle nodded. "Yes, and you've done a very good job."

"Thank you, Your Highness," Sodia said. "However, we're nearing the end of the month and I need to fill out the monthly report for him. I need a copy of last month's report to do it properly, however."

Estelle frowned. "I'm sorry, I don't have a copy of that report."

Sodia shook her head. "No, that's not what I meant. The commandant keeps the old reports himself, but I'm not sure if he keeps them in a drawer in his main desk or in the desk in his bedroom. I'm afraid I… I don't feel comfortable searching through the commandant's personal things. I feel that it isn't my place. I just thought… the two of you are such close friends, he wouldn't mind if you looked through his things."

"Oh, yes, I can do that," she said with a smile. "I'm sure Flynn wouldn't mind if you did, either, but if you don't feel comfortable doing it, I'd be happy to help."

"Thank you for your assistance, Your Highness," Sodia said. "You can have the reports sent to my office at your leisure."

"I'll get right on it!"

Sodia nodded, and walked away. Estelle turned to face Rita sitting on the couch. "Come on, Rita, we have a project to take care of!"

"Better than nothing, I guess."

Estelle grabbed Rita's hand as they walked down the hallways to Flynn's office. Rita glanced down, her cheeks a bit pink. "What's this for?"

Estelle gave her a blissful smile. "Nothing. I just want to hold on to you until you leave tonight."

Rita sulked, but didn't try to pull her hand away. "You're such a dork, Estelle."

When they reached Flynn's office, Estelle said, "You look through his desk and I'll check his room, alright?" Sodia did have a point that searching through Flynn's private belongings was a bit rude, so she figured it would be better if Rita took care of the professional work and Estelle looked through his personal space herself.

"Yeah, ok," Rita said. She pulled away from Estelle's hand and threw herself into the chair behind his desk.

Estelle walked through the door to Flynn's room. She paused, looking around with a sad smile. No one had been in here since Flynn left the morning he was arrested. Her heart ached with worry for both him and Yuri. Now that they were out of range, she had no idea what was going on with them or if they'd caught up to Emmery yet. She felt like she'd been constantly worrying every day since his arrest. Just the thought that he might be executed made her want to curl into a ball and cry. Ioder said he would do everything he could, but if the court found him guilty there was nothing he could do.

She pushed these thoughts to the back of her mind. Worrying about Flynn wouldn't help anyone. The best she could do was find that report for Sodia so that when Flynn got his job back - and he would get his job back - he wouldn't have a mountain of work to catch up on. She went to the desk against the wall. It was smaller and simpler than the one in his office, and Flynn rarely used it except when he had something quick to take care of in the evening, but it was possible he might store the reports here. There was a folded piece of paper on the desk, to which Estelle didn't pay any attention until she noticed the name written across it: Estelle.

She paused with a frown. That was clearly Flynn's handwriting, but why in the world had he not written 'Estellise'? She grabbed the paper and sat down on the edge of the bed. There were only a few occasions when Flynn ever called her 'Estelle'. The first was when he was engrossed with work and only half-paying attention to what he was saying, the second was when she caught him very early in the morning or very late at night and he was half-asleep, and the third was when he had just a tad too much wine with dinner. He had never written her a letter during any of those times before, so it was with great curiosity that she began to read.

Dear Estelle,

I'm sorry. This is goodbye.

Her heart throbbed and she re-read the first two lines, certain she'd misread. His handwriting was messier than normal, so it was difficult to make everything out. After verifying that she had actually read it right, she kept going.

You deserve to be told this in person, but I'm afraid if I see to you, you'll talk me out of it. I can't do this anymore, so I'm leaving this life. Please don't cry, I'm sure I'll be happier where I'm going. I'm sorry it had to end this way. I never regretted a minute of the times we shared together. Thank you for being my friend, Estelle. Goodbye.

With love,

Flynn.

By the time she finished the letter, her hands shook so badly it was hard to make out the last few words. No, it wasn't even a letter - it was a note. A goodbye note. That's what people did, wasn't it? Leave a note. She couldn't read it again because tears blurred her eyes. She wanted to crumple the paper up and throw it against the wall, but she also didn't want to lose this, because it was the only evidence she had that Flynn felt this way.

Oh heavens, Flynn felt this way… she'd never suspected he was unhappy. She'd never seen any signs that he was miserable. If he was this serious, why hadn't he at least talked to her? Her whole body shook, and all she wanted was for Flynn to be here, beside her, so she could hug him and tell him it would be ok and just do something. Now he was halfway around the world, completely out of reach and who knew if he still felt like this.

"Hey, Estelle, I think I found - Estelle?"

Estelle glanced up at Rita, who dropped the paper in her hand on the desk and rushed to her side.

"Estelle, what's wrong?" Rita sat next to her and pulled Estelle against her chest. "What happened?"

"I-it's… Flynn." She buried her face in Rita's neck, letter the sobs come now that there was someone here to comfort her.

"What? Flynn is fine. He's in Mantaic with Yuri." Rita worriedly rubbed Estelle's back.

"No, look," she shoved the note in Rita's face. Rita read it in a few seconds, and then her grip around Estelle tightened.

"Oh…"

Estelle clung to Rita, never wanting to let her go. If she lost Flynn… if Yuri moved back to Dahngrest… if Rita was so far away in Halure… she'd be all alone again and she didn't think she could handle that.

"Estelle," Rita said, "do you know what's in that suitcase?"

Estelle pulled herself up and wiped her eyes. "W-what suitcase?"

"That one," Rita said, pointing to the suitcase sitting by the desk.

Estelle wrinkled her brow. "Um… no."

"Give me a second." Rita pried herself from Estelle's grip and crossed the room. She pulled open the suitcase and revealed messily packed clothes crammed into every nook and cranny. None of them were folded, so after sitting in there for so long they were a wrinkled mess.

"A-ha," Rita said. "Look, Estelle." Rita turned to her with an encouraging smile. "Flynn packed a suitcase. He was planning on literally leaving. He was just going on vacation or something. Although… from the sound of the letter, he wasn't planning on coming back."

Relief washed over Estelle like a tsunami. She fell back on the bed and took a long, deep breath, letting the quiet of the room relax her. The only sound was a vague tick…tick…tick… from a clock. "Thank goodness."

Rita returned and sat sideways on the edge of the bed. "I don't get why he'd want to leave, though. Isn't this his dream job?"

"Yes," Estelle said, looking up at the ceiling. "Being the commandant is all he ever talked about. And he called me 'Estelle' in the letter, too, which is odd."

"That right," Rita said. "He always calls you 'Estellise'."

Estelle frowned. "That makes me think… he wasn't entirely himself when he wrote that. The only times he calls me 'Estelle' are when he's distracted, tired, or tipsy. Never in his right mind. His handwriting in that note was atrocious, too. He always puts such great care into making his handwriting as neat as possible. It's almost like he wrote this while drunk, but Flynn doesn't drink that much."

"Hm…" Rita tapped her hand on the comforter. "Didn't Flynn say he thought he was drugged the night of the murder?"

Estelle's eyes widened. "That's right. He thinks someone drugged him and that's why he doesn't remember the entire evening."

"If he was drugged, that would explain the not-in-his-right-mind quality of the letter."

Estelle nodded. "But… even if he wrote it while under the influence of a drug, he was still feeling that way, right? Maybe he lost his inhibitions, but the drug couldn't have created those feelings in him."

"That's true…" Rita said. "But, they were probably buried pretty deep. When I saw Flynn last, he seemed happy. Other than the whole murder charge, I mean."

"I guess so," Estelle said, staring at the ceiling. Rita was silent. She'd never been very good at comforting people when they were upset. Estelle didn't mind; she found her presence comforting enough. She lay on the bed, listening to the tick of a clock and wishing Flynn and Yuri were home safe again.

"What's ticking, anyway?" Rita asked, looking around.

"A clock, I would guess," Estelle said, not looking up.

"Yeah, but I don't see any clocks, so what is it? Now it's bugging me."

"I don't know," Estelle said. "Check under the bed."

"Why would I check there?"

Estelle shrugged. "Nothing. I was just thinking of a book I read once about this doctor." She sat up and looked around. "Hm… it seems to be coming from his nightstand."

"Yeah." Rita grabbed the drawer and pulled it open.

"Rita! You can't just go into Flynn's-"

"A-ha! I found it," Rita said, turning around triumphantly with a pocket watch in hand.

"Oh, where did you find that?" Estelle said, reaching for it. "Flynn was looking for this."

"It was just in his drawer," Rita said, handing it over.

"But…" Estelle frowned. "Flynn told me he'd lent his watch to Yuri a few weeks ago and hadn't gotten it back yet."

Rita shrugged. "He must have gotten it back after telling you that."

"But he was complaining about Yuri still having it the morning before Borden was killed, and he didn't see Yuri again until Yuri visited him in jail. So, when would he have gotten it?"

"He must have gotten it sometime that day," Rita said.

"But he couldn't have," Estelle said. "He didn't leave the castle that day, and Yuri didn't come here, so…" she gasped. "Wait, he did leave the castle. He left at night, after he was drugged, but he doesn't remember where he went."

"Oh, I get it," Rita said. "If he's got this watch, he must have gone to Yuri's place."

"Yuri didn't see him, so I guess Yuri was out that night."

"He went all the way to Yuri's to get his watch back?"

"Actually…" Estelle looked down at the note sitting on the bed. "I think, maybe, he went to say goodbye. He went to the lower quarter to say goodbye to Yuri in person before he ran away, but Yuri wasn't there. Flynn didn't want to leave without saying goodbye to Yuri, so he grabbed his pocket watch and returned to the castle."

"Good thing he did," Rita said. "Who knows what kind of trouble he'd have gotten into if he went wandering outside the city at night, all alone. He'd probably get eaten by monsters."

"Don't say that." Estelle was a bit hurt that Flynn had apparently gone to say goodbye to Yuri in person but only left a letter for Estelle. She understood, though. Flynn was right - Estelle would have tried to stop him. She sighed. "I thought all of our problems were supposed to be over once we took care of the Adephagos."

Rita scooted over on the bed and wrapped her arm around Estelle's shoulders. "Hey, don't get all upset. Flynn and Yuri will be back before you know it."

Estelle leaned against Rita, wishing she didn't have to go home tonight. "I sure hope so."

There was sand in his boots. It seemed silly to worry about that when Yuri was also starving, thirsty, sunburned, and exhausted, but dammit the sand was annoying. Yuri had no idea how long they'd been walking, only that the coast had to be just over the next sand dune. He'd also believed it would be just over the previous sand dune, and the one before that. He had to keep believing that, because it was the only thing keeping him going. When the sun came up this morning to show them where east was, they'd realized they had once again veered off course and walked further into the desert last night.

"I can't believe it," Flynn panted. "After everything we've been through… all the monsters we've fought, the villains we've faced, the trials we've overcome… we're going to die in a stupid desert."

"Hey… who said anything about dying?" Yuri croaked. "We'll hit the coast right over the next dune. You'll see."

Flynn groaned. "Yuri, be realistic. We're exhausted. We have no food, no water, and we haven't seen a cactus since yesterday."

"What's with that attitude?" Yuri said. "You're not giving up, are you?"

"I'm not!" Flynn said. "I'm trying to be realistic. We face a very real possibility of dying before we reach the coast, and blind optimism isn't helping."

"Pessimism isn't going to get us over the next dune, so chin up and put a smile on that face."

"I don't want to smile," Flynn grumbled. "My cheeks are so sunburned, smiling hurts."

Yuri glanced over at Flynn, who walked with his shoulders slumped and his eyes half-closed. "Hey… I'm serious, don't give up yet. I mean, what will Estelle say if her dear ex-boyfriend dropped dead in the desert?"

"Stop that," Flynn said without much enthusiasm.

This worried Yuri more than anything else, because if Flynn wasn't even getting upset with him for the teasing, he must be incredibly tired. "I still can't believe she dumped you," Yuri said, trying to egg him on. "How can she ever improve after dating the empire's golden boy?"

"Shut up, Yuri," Flynn said, with a promising edge to his voice.

"See, this is why we can't die out here," Yuri said. "Just think of the embarrassment if the world's most perfect commandant doesn't have a suitably heroic death."

"Yuri, please stop; I'm too hot to get irritated with you right now."

"And just think of all the poor women who write you love letters. Oh, how heart-broken they would be!"

"There are plenty of people who would be heartbroken if you died too, you know. Your friends, for one."

Yuri frowned and shrugged a bit. A brief montage of his friends faces after he returned from Zaude raced through his mind. He didn't usually think of himself as a person who would be missed, a feeling that actually helped him sometimes. If nobody would miss him, he didn't have to worry about taking care of himself to do the right thing. Also, if there were people who counted on him, then he had people to let down. Remembering how devastated his friends had been when they thought he had died made him feel rotten, so he brushed it aside. "Yeah, well… not as many." It was true - a small handful of his close friends would mourn him, but that was nothing compared to the thousands of people across the empire who would grieve Flynn's passing. Flynn was a real player in the world - that his death would be felt more keenly was just fact.

"Dammit, Yuri, would you just accept that you matter to people for once?"

The last thing Yuri wanted to do was talk about his feelings. He was trying to annoy Flynn out of his pessimism, not open the floor for a touchy-feely discussion on his self-esteem. He tried to shift the subject back to Flynn. "Yeah, sure, but it's more important to the fate of the world that we get you out of here. Nobody else in the empire seems capable of getting anything accomplished."

Flynn didn't respond, but Yuri could feel Flynn's hand right next to his clench into a fist.

"I mean, how could they ever replace you? Where are they going to find another knight without any flaws?"

"Shut up, Yuri."

"Why are you so grumpy all the time? I'm just repeating what everyone throughout the empire is saying."

"I am aware of that, and I'd like you to stop." His voice took on a serious edge that Yuri wasn't sure how to deal with.

Yuri had just been poking fun at Flynn like he always did, but he seemed to have hit a nerve. Yuri tried to laugh it off. With a laugh that was more like a cackle in his parched throat, he said, "You're lucky I like you, or else I'd be pretty annoyed with how often I have to sit through talk of how great and wonderful and perfect you are."

Flynn stopped walking, turned, and grabbed the front of Yuri's shirt in one white-knuckled hand. With fire in his eyes, he snapped, "Would you stop saying that!?"

Yuri stared at him, his mouth open but no words coming out. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen Flynn this furious, and it certainly hadn't been over some simple teasing. He found his voice and said, "H-hey, calm down. I was joking. Everyone else thinks you're so perfect, and I find that kind of funny."

"I know!" Flynn released his hold on Yuri's shirt. "I know everyone thinks I'm perfect. 'Flynn is great, Flynn is perfect, Flynn is the ideal knight to which everyone should aspire'. I'm getting sick and tired of this, because I am not fucking perfect!"

Yuri gaped at him, uncertain if he had actually heard Flynn use the word 'fucking'. He didn't think he had ever heard Flynn swear like that before. Sure, Flynn tended to be more cavalier with his language when it was just him and Yuri, but even then he usually didn't go beyond a few damns or hells. "Are you ok?"

"No, I am not ok!" Flynn flung his arm out in frustration. "My whole life people have told me I'm perfect. I was always the perfect child, the perfect student, the perfect soldier. Do you have any idea how hard it is to be perfect? I can't make any mistakes. I can't doubt myself or show hesitation. If I do, everyone will think I've let them down. No man is perfect, but everyone seems to expect me to be. It's impossible to live up to the empire's expectations of being a flawless white knight all the time, and I think the pressure to be perfect is killing me."

He brought his fist up and rested his forehead on it. "My major victories, my great accomplishments that got me promoted… you did those things. The truth will get out eventually, and when it does, I'll be ruined. I'm trying to do my best, but everyone makes mistakes. Normally people get some slack, because to err is human, but not me. I have to be perfect, and when that illusion of perfection inevitably shatters, everything I've worked to become will come crashing down. All I ever wanted to do was change the empire and make it a better place for people to live, but now the constant pressure to be the empire's shining paragon of justice and virtue is slowly killing me."

Yuri just stared at him. He didn't know what to say. A flurry of memories rushed through his head of all the times he'd jokingly told Flynn he was perfect. Flynn knew he didn't really think that, right? Although… it was true that he put a lot of faith in Flynn. He relied on Flynn to carry the weight of changing the world, and counted on him to steer the empire in the right direction. Flynn was better than him, Flynn was more capable of making a real difference, Flynn was the pillar of justice and order throughout the empire. He didn't think Flynn was perfect, but he did think that Flynn was incredible and he had never even thought that putting all his faith in Flynn to change the system could hurt him. Some friend you are.

Flynn had spent his anger, and all that was left was despair as he hung his head. He'd clearly been grappling with these thoughts for a long while, and all Yuri could do was stand back and let him get it all out.

"I don't know how much longer I can do this, Yuri. Being the commandant is all I've ever wanted, and I love my job - I really do. I just wish I could do this job as me, without dealing with the starry-eyed hero-worship from the rest of the knighthood and the populace. It terrifies me to think that I can't possibly live up to everyone's expectations. Sometimes… I even think about running away. In the dead of night when I'm all alone and all the stress hangs over me, I think about running away to the other side of the world and becoming a farmer. I always brush it aside, but as time goes on, the idea gets more and more appealing. I don't want to abandon everything I've worked so hard for, but I don't know how much longer I can live like this. I suppose it doesn't really matter anymore. I think the only reason I'm even telling you this is that we're probably going to die soon."

Yuri had no idea what to say, but he felt like he should try something. "Hey. Get a hold of yourself, would you?"

"I'm-"

Yuri grabbed the shoulder of Flynn's shirt. "You listen to me. You're not perfect. I think you're kind of an idiot sometimes, really. You've screwed up loads of times before. Remember what happened with Alexei?"

Flynn gaped at him, his brows knit in confusion. "What do you-"

"But, you've also helped a lot of people. You're the one who kept the Heracles from blowing up Zaphias, you liberated Mantaic from Cumore, and you single-handedly stopped a war between the empire and the Union by bringing that letter. What I mean is, you've done a lot of good totally on your own, not just stuff I've helped with. Plus, you've already messed up a lot, so why worry about doing it again?"

"I… suppose so."

"If I were you, I'd treasure this period when everyone still thinks the sun shines out your ass. One of these days, they're gradually going to lose that infatuation and see the uptight, annoying idiot I know."

"But that's what I'm afraid of!" Flynn protested. "Eventually, everyone will see through the façade of the perfect me and realize I really am just a kid from the lower quarter who doesn't know what he's doing."

"No, they'll see through the façade and see a hard-working, fallible human who pulled himself out of the gutter through sheer will power. A guy who tries his best every single day to make the world a better place for everyone. Now shut up and stop feeling sorry for yourself, because you're forcing me to compliment you and it feels weird."

Flynn's face softened, and a smile tugged at his lips. "I'm sorry."

"I'm not mad at you, stupid, I'm mad at all the assholes who expect too much of you and are screwing up your head. Look, just… just do your thing, alright? You're not perfect, and yeah, you're going to disappoint people sometimes, but that's life. I really believe that when people see past the shiny white knight persona, they're going to like the real you even more. But, they're not ever going to see that if we die in this damn desert, so let's keep moving to the coast. When we get back to Zaphias, I'll kick anyone's ass who gives you any grief, alright?"

Flynn smiled a bit. "Alright."

He clearly wasn't totally pacified, but Yuri hoped his words were at least enough to hold him together until they got out of this desert and people who were better at this kind of thing could talk to him, like Estelle. For now, though, he was going to have to watch his tongue. He teased Flynn about his reputation all the time, but he needed to keep a lid on it for now. He already felt shitty enough for inadvertently contributing to Flynn's stress with every joking word.

"Hey…" Yuri said, trying to cheer Flynn up, "did I ever tell you about the time I cooked pan-fried noodles in the desert?"

"What? But… why?" Flynn asked, looking to him in utter confusion.

"Because I had a craving for spicy noodles, that's why," Yuri said.

"So… how did that turn out?"

Yuri grimaced at the memory. "That was one of the worst decisions of my life."

Estelle felt lonely after Rita left, but her spirits rose when, a couple of days later, a servant delivered a message that Lord Zadel had found some information on Baction he wanted to share with her. She had no idea what is was about, but excitedly went to his house that afternoon to meet with him. She knocked on the door and waited on the front step, wishing Rita or at least Ted could be here with her. Well, maybe not Ted. She'd been avoiding him lately, because she knew she needed to have that talk with him, but she'd rather put that off for now. She justified it as being too worried about Flynn and Yuri to deal with anything else.

Zadel's butler opened the door. He bowed when he saw her. "Good day, Your Highness. I was told you would be coming. Please, come in." Estelle followed him into the mansion, and he said, "Lord Zadel is not in right now. A Council meeting is holding him up, but he will be with us shortly. Please wait here."

She sat down on a stiff red sofa in a sitting room and waited patiently. "Thank you very much, sir."

The butler walked away, his cane clicking on the marble floors. Estelle sat back and waited, twiddling her thumbs while she wondered what information Zadel had found. She hoped it had to do with the third family, but she didn't want to get her hopes too high.

After about five minutes of waiting, an elderly woman walked by the doorway to the sitting room, lugging a heavy sack. Estelle immediately jumped to her feet. "Oh, excuse me, ma'am! Do you need help with that?"

The woman paused and set the bag down on the floor. "I would appreciate it greatly, my dear!"

Estelle smiled and picked up the sack. "Oh, it's very heavy. What's in here?"

"Dirt!" the woman said with a grin. When she saw Estelle's confused face, she said, "It's for my garden. Come along, dear, you can help me until my son gets home."

"Oh, are you Zadel's mother?"

"That's right, dear. And you, of course, are Princess Estellise."

Estelle smiled. "That's right." Mrs. Zadel opened a door and led Estelle out into a courtyard garden filled with flowers. Estelle's eyes lit up as she took in a rainbow of orchids, sunflowers, roses, and violets. "Wow, did you grow these all yourself?"

Mrs. Zadel smiled proudly. "I did indeed! My son helped sometimes, but he's terribly unreliable."

"Oh, um, I'm sure he was just very busy with work for the Council."

"So he tells me. Set the bag down over here, please, dear." Mrs. Zadel gestured to the edge of a flower bed where several potted plants sat, waiting to be put into the earth. After Estelle did as she was told, Mrs. Zadel got down on her knees and began to dig with a trowel. "So, how have you been?"

"I've been… alright," Estelle said, kneeling next to the woman and picking up a spare trowel she found in the dirt. She dug where the earth had already been indented and said, "I've been very worried about Flynn, of course."

"Oh, yes," Mrs. Zadel said with disdain. "The commandant's little jailbreak."

Estelle glanced over at her with surprise. Zadel had always been so sympathetic to Flynn, so she'd assumed his mother shared his feelings. She hadn't expected the dismissive tone of voice.

"I'm sure the knights will catch up to him soon," Mrs. Zadel said. "Once he's gone, I hope we can get a real commandant again, someone with respect and a good family."

"Oh… um… I always thought Flynn was doing a good job," Estelle said. "Your son seems to think so, too."

"I always did tell my boy to tread carefully around the commandant. Just like I said to him with Alexei - you watch yourself, Ronald, like him or not, that man outranks you. You'd better brown that nose and stay in his good books! And then during Alexei's coup, we got out of the city with no problems, just like that!"

"Ah…" Estelle said, not sure what to make of this. Zadel was always so friendly, but she hadn't known him a couple of years ago to see if he'd been equally friendly to Alexei. Just because his mother was a bigot and told him to fake being friends with Flynn, that didn't mean he couldn't really be friends with Flynn… right?

A door opened, and Estelle looked up to see Zadel himself step out into the garden. "Hello, Your Highness," he said. With a friendly smile he added, "Mother, have you wrangled the princess into working in your garden, too?"

"She's more help than you are, Ronald," Mrs. Zadel snapped. She raised her head and glared at him. "And now you're late and kept the pretty lady waiting! What have I told you about being punctual?"

Zadel's smile dropped. "Ah… sorry, Mother."

"Apologize to the lady."

"I'm very sorry for making you wait, Your Highness," Zadel said quickly.

Estelle stood and looked awkwardly between the pair. "Um, it's ok, really. I don't mind."

"Well, don't just stand there," Mrs. Zadel snapped. "You asked her to come all the way here."

"Yes, I'm sorry, would you please come with me, Your Highness?"

Estelle nodded and hurriedly followed Zadel, giving his mother one last glance before entering the house.

"Sorry about that," Zadel said as they walked down the hall. "My mother can be… a bit overbearing at times." He laughed and added, "That's why I usually work from the castle."

"Yes, I can see that," Estelle said. He was so friendly… could it all be act? She didn't want to believe Zadel was just playing along with his mother's instructions, but if he'd done the same to Alexei…

Zadel led her back to the sitting room and picked up a folder he'd left on the coffee table. "Here, I came across this information on Baction. I though it might be helpful to your research."

"Why thank you," Estelle said, taking the folder. She flipped through the papers and found that it was mostly just a history of the shrine and what was known about Astal. Her heart sunk; she already knew most of this. Still, she forced a smile. "Thank you very much. I'm sure this will be very helpful."

"I hope so. Now…" He hesitated and frowned, glancing at the open doorway to the hall. "I don't suppose you have any news about Commandant Flynn? The last I heard he was spotted leaving Dahngrest."

Estelle bit her lip. She wouldn't ordinarily spill everything she knew to him, just in case, but she was even more reluctant now, his mother's words ringing through her head. "Um… no, I haven't," she said. It was close enough to the truth. She hadn't heard anything from them in days, not since they left for Desier.

"I haven't, either," Zadel said. "I will be sure to let you know if I do find anything."

"Thank you, I'd appreciate that very much."

"That is all I wanted to talk to you about. Unless you have anything else you need, I'd like to excuse myself and get back to work."

"Of course," Estelle said, standing up with the files tucked under her arm. "Thank you very much for this information. Have a nice day." She waved goodbye and left the sitting room. As she walked out of the mansion, she couldn't help but frown. She really wanted to trust Zadel, but now a kernel of doubt had lodged in her mind and wouldn't go away. She really wanted to talk to Rita about this, but she was back in Halure by now, and her communicator was out of commission with Flynn and Yuri. Estelle sighed and made her way back to the castle. She hoped her boys came home soon.

It had been at least twenty-four hours since they'd stopped to talk about Flynn's issues, which meant it had been about forty-eight hours since they'd had anything to drink and more than that since they'd had any food. Yuri's head felt light and fuzzy and muscles that he didn't even know he had ached. Dammit, he wasn't going to die here. He hadn't come so far and fought so hard to drop dead in a damn desert. He needed to get Flynn home, and he needed to figure out who hired the assassin if it wasn't Emmery, and he couldn't let Flynn die before clearing his name. He couldn't let history books remember him as a murderer. So he pushed himself forward, even though every muscle in his body begged to lie down and rest and maybe not get up again ever.

Flynn stumbled, and then fell forward. His cuffed hand dragged Yuri down with him, pulling Yuri to his knees. Yuri grunted as he unexpectedly hit the sand. "Hey," he grumbled. "Watch where you're walking."

Flynn didn't respond. Yuri looked down at him, but his face was hidden in the sand. He wasn't moving.

"Hey… Flynn?" Yuri pulled his hand forward, dragging Flynn's limp arm along with it. "Flynn, get up. We've got to keep moving… Flynn?" An icy hand clutched his heart, which was almost a relief in this heat. He reached over and nudged Flynn's shoulder. "Come on, get up. I want to rest, too, but we can't just lie here in the sun." Yuri's hands shook and his breath caught in his throat. Was Flynn even breathing? He took a deep breath to remain calm, but with every beat of his frantic heart his mind thought, please don't be dead, please don't be dead, don't you dare be dead.

He rolled Flynn onto his back as gently as he could, which was harder than he expected since his own muscles didn't want to work properly. Flynn's eyes were closed and his face was nearly pure red from sunburn, but Yuri caught the slightest rise and fall of his chest. Yuri let out a small sigh of relief and his muscles unclenched. "Don't scare me like that," he said in a hollow voice. Flynn may be alive, but he was still unconscious.

Yuri lightly patted the side of his face, hoping to wake him up. "Get up, Flynn. Flynn!" Yuri looked around, desperate to see anything that might help, even though he knew it was hopeless. "Come on. You can't die here, you bastard!" He attributed the crack in his voice to how parched his throat was. "You've got to get back to Zaphias and clear your name."

He wasn't a healer. All he knew about First Aid was to put the Apple Gel on the bleeding part. He didn't even know if Flynn had collapsed from heat, hunger, thirst, or possibly a combination of all three. He did, however, have a very strong gut feeling that if Flynn didn't get help soon, he wasn't going to wake up again. That possibility locked into his brain and his heart quickened with fear. He couldn't lose Flynn, not here, not like this.

"Fine," Yuri said to the empty desert. "If you're not going to walk, I'll have to carry you, you lazy asshole." It was only fair. He'd leaned on Flynn for his entire life, just like the empire was doing. Yuri let Flynn carry the weight of the world while he was content to pick off the leftovers, so now it was his turn to return the favour. He grabbed Flynn's arms and stood up, wrapping them around his necked and gripping his wrists tightly. He didn't have the strength to pick him up properly, so he took a few shaky steps with Flynn's feet dragging through the sand and his head lolling on Yuri's shoulder. Flynn's breath tickled his ear, but Yuri was alright with that. As long as Flynn was breathing, there was still hope.

"Ugh," Yuri groaned, pulling him up the next sand dune. "You're getting… so… fat. Too much cake… in the… castle."

Time wore on and the desert stretched out endlessly before him. Maybe he walked for minutes and maybe it was hours, but time seemed to fold in on itself in the haze of heat. He barely even felt the heat anymore; it was like his brain had given up registering the constant sun and just left him in a warm, painful limbo. He probably wasn't even walking in a straight line, but it was hard to tell because the horizon kept moving, like they were on a ship again. His head was light and fuzzy and throbbed with a headache, and he knew he probably didn't have much longer before he collapsed himself. He had to keep pushing himself forward, though. He could deal with dying out here himself, but Flynn's survival depended on him pushing forward, and there was no way he was going to let Flynn die.

He tripped over the creek bed before he noticed it. He fell flat on his face with Flynn crushing him, and he spent a few fumbling seconds trying to push him off. He looked to the creek bed with hope, and then growled in frustration when he saw that it was dry. The ground was cracked and ridged, like there had been water there recently, but now it was as dry as the rest of the desert. "Dammit," he seethed.

But if there had been water here recently, maybe there was still some underneath? It was worth a shot. Using the knife as a makeshift trowel, he dug into the dry creek. The ground was hard and the effort of digging wore him out even more than walking had. His shirt, which hung open and exposed his entire chest, was drenched with sweat, but there wasn't even the faintest whiff of a breeze to get any comfort from being so wet so he just felt hot and uncomfortably sticky. Flynn, though, was bone dry. He didn't have any water left to sweat, so Yuri could deal with being sticky if it meant he wasn't completely dehydrated yet.

The dirt was getting darker the deeper he dug, and felt cool to the touch. He wondered if he should dig a great big hole and put Flynn in it, but he doubted he had the strength to dig that much. Dirt caked under his fingernails as he dug, using the knife to loosen the ground up and then scooping it aside. He barely even thought about what he was doing, his fried brain not capable of thinking about too much else. He was so focused on digging that he didn't even notice at first with water trickled onto his fingers.

He froze, and stared at the puddle like it was a pot of gold. "Flynn!" he croaked. "Flynn, I found water." He reached down and tried to scoop some up in his cupped hands, but there was only about half an inch of muddy water, and it kept slipping through his fingers. In frustration, he tore his sash off his head and soaked it in the puddle. He desperately wanted to drink the entire puddle of water himself, but he knew Flynn needed it more.

"Hey… here, open your mouth." He held the wet sash over Flynn's face, and with his other hand he grabbed Flynn's jaw and pried his mouth open. He squeezed the sash, wringing all the water into Flynn's mouth. "You'd better… appreciate this," he grunted. "You're not even enjoying it." When he couldn't get any more out of the fabric, he went back to the puddle and filled it up again. He was going to keep going until Flynn opened his eyes again. He had no idea if this small puddle of warm, muddy water was even nearly enough, but he wasn't going to give up. He was so thirsty he felt like he could drink the entire ocean, but he couldn't spare any of this water for himself because Flynn needed it more.

He made three more trips to get as much water was he could into Flynn, until the puddle he'd been using dried up and all he had was mud. Yuri lay on his chest, staring down at the hole in despair. Flynn was still unconscious, dammit, he needed more water. He didn't even bother reaching for the knife this time and started clawing in the dirt, hoping to find more water if he went deeper. Maybe he might actually take some for himself this time. His lips were cracked and sore, but licking them did no good because his tongue was like sandpaper.

He saw movement and stopped digging, his mud-caked hand hovering over the hole. At the bottom he saw a mass of worms wriggling around to escape the sun they had suddenly been exposed to. The ground, however, was dry. There wasn't any more water here, and there weren't any more cacti for as far as they eye could see, and for all he knew they were further into the desert and not closer to the coast. Yuri lay still, the sun beating down on him. They needed to keep moving so he could get Flynn back to Zaphias, but… maybe in a couple of minutes. He'd just rest here for a little while and build up his strength before moving again.

The sun burned. His mind drifted. Worms wriggled around before his eyes. Worms… they were like rat tails. Heh, Flynn would hate this. He thought about their trip through the sewers that felt like so long ago now. All those little rat tails living under the puddle, writhing around in a knotted mass. It was like what Ted said ages ago. Rat tails getting all tied together to make one big nasty rat monster. Rat catchers must hate those bastards… they were all prepared to go after single rats, but then they find a whole knotted mess of the things.

He probably stared at that pit in a daze for at least fifteen minutes until the worms had all crawled away into the earth again. He could have laid there for hours for all he knew. All he knew for sure was that at some point, a single clear thought broke through the haze of heat, thirst, and hunger: what if we're not looking for just one rat either? They thought they were trying to catch one rat bastard who hired an assassin, but what if they were actually looking for a mess of rats all tied together? They couldn't find anyone who matched all their criteria for a culprit, but what if there was a whole group of people in on the scheme and they all took care of one aspect of it? They weren't looking for one asshole who hired an assassin, they were looking for a whole damn conspiracy.

"Flynn… I figured it out…" He didn't even raise his head to speak. Flynn wasn't listening anyway. But he'd figured it out, so now they had to get back to Zaphias so he could tell everyone. He'd get up again and keep walking in just a few minutes… yeah… a few minutes. He just wanted a bit of a rest now, to maybe take a nap and give his weary body a break…

A shadow passed over them. Was it a cloud? He looked up with hope; he hadn't seen a single cloud since they got to Mantaic. He squinted against the bright sunlight and saw not a cloud but a solid form flying through the sky. A monster? It was coming toward them. Maybe it was Phaeroh again. It didn't look like it had wings though. In fact, it looked like a giant whale flying through the sky, but perhaps he was delirious.

The massive form settled into the dirt a few feet away from them, and then a human figure slid down off its back. "Oh my," said a familiar voice. "Looks like I found you just in time."

Yuri raised his head and forced a smile when Judith knelt next to him. "And what kind of time… do you call this… huh?"

"Sorry I'm late," she said, pulling a pin out of her hair. "You strayed rather far from the road. Karol told me you boys were in Desier, so I thought I'd stop by and see if you needed a lift. Can you get that cuff off your wrist?"

Yuri took the pin from her and forced himself into an upright position. The promise of salvation gave him a boost of energy. It took a couple tries with his clumsy, shaking hands, but eventually he managed to pick the lock and toss the cuff to the side. "Thanks." He slid the pin into his boot, just in case he needed it again.

"Myorzo isn't too far away," Judy said, grabbing his arm and helping him to his feet. "We'll go there and get you boys some food and water."

"Great… I could go for a burger I think." He bent over and started to reach for Flynn, but Judith grabbed him and pulled him away. "Just climb up on Ba'ul's back. I'll take care of Flynn, don't worry."

Yuri nodded. He really didn't have the energy to argue with her right now. A rope ladder attached to one of Ba'ul's fins allowed him to climb onto his back. Yuri stretched out on Ba'ul's wide, soft back. It was still hot, but at least he wasn't lying in sand anymore. He gently patted Ba'ul and said, "Good to see you again, Ba'ul." He felt a rumble vibrate through his body, which he took as a hello.

Judith climbed up the ladder with one hand, the other holding Flynn draped around her shoulders. Yuri crawled over and helped her pull him up. Once they were settled, Judy pulled the ladder up and Ba'ul rose into the sky.

"Is he going to be ok?" Yuri asked, kneeling over Flynn.

"I think so," Judy said. "We'll have a doctor look at him in Myorzo. Here," she pulled a water canteen out of her bag. "You could probably use it."

"Thanks," Yuri said, but didn't drink it immediately himself. He poured some on his sash to squeeze a few more drops into Flynn's mouth, since he figured it wouldn't be good to pour it into him while he was unconscious.

"Drink it yourself, Yuri," Judy said.

"He needs it more," Yuri insisted.

"You need to drink something before you faint yourself. He'll be fine."

Yuri frowned, which hurt his burned face and cracked lips. Perhaps Judy had a point. He pressed the cool, wet fabric against Flynn's forehead to try to cool him off, and then poured the rest of the water into his grateful mouth.

"Don't worry about Flynn," Judy said. "I'll take care of him. I've got some Apple Gels in my bag. You should get some rest yourself."

"Yeah, alright." As much as he wanted to make sure Flynn was alright, the prospect of sleep was too good to pass up. Without another word, he lay down, closed his eyes, and almost immediately fell asleep.