He was back where he belonged, but he didn't feel at all like he was actually "home". On the contrary, it felt like he was in some sort of foreign universe. He hadn't forgotten the important things, oh no, but the minor details, like how flowers smelled, or what it felt to have dirt under his boots—those sorts of things he had forgotten. In focusing his mind on events and events only, he'd discarded memories of what it was like to really live.

He figured that his dad was kind of like that as well. Maybe for Kratos, living was superfluous. After so many years, maybe all summer breezes felt the same, or maybe all sunsets were equally emotional. And then they canceled each other out, leaving their recipient with nothing in return. Maybe that was how it felt to live forever. In the end, all you were left with were your memories, because each experience would simply be similar to this one from five years ago, or perhaps this one from five thousand. There would always be some relation; nothing would ever be new. So his promise all those years ago had been unnecessary because Kratos himself would never forget; he could remember for the two of them.

But then that would be selfish, because by forcing all the burdens of keeping the past alive on his father, he only sped up Kratos's growing apathy toward life, and the last thing Lloyd wanted was for his father to be some sort of numb, empty shell of a man. It was hard enough dealing with the man as he was now.

So he'd keep his promise. He'd choose both A and B, and he'd tell himself to not forget.

And this time he would remember everything.


As a dwarf living above ground, Dirk liked to keep to himself. He thought the humans around him liked to keep things that way too. People could get that way. You could act as human as you liked, but so long as you were obscenely short and had a thick accent, everyone kept a good two feet away from you.

Thank the gods that dwarves had a distinct liking for personal space.

He'd even chosen to place his residence deep in the forest out of respect for their preferences; even if all of Iselia professed a liking for his work, they still didn't like his heritage. Thus, visitors were scarce even though the forest was relatively peaceful…mostly because the forest was relatively peaceful. People basically didn't need to be armed to the teeth in this area, and the village blacksmith was perfectly capable of fixing a broken farm tool. So Dirk kept his dwarf-human relations to a minimum.

He did recognize the school teacher, at least. He went to town sometimes for supplies; his memory was good enough to the point where he could recognize faces and features, and silver hair matched with an orange parka-thing stood out very much so. Her name was "Raine" if he recalled.

The boy with her, though, Dirk had never seen. He seemed a typical human; the boy had a messy mop of brown hair that fell into his eyes and looked as if it had been cut rather badly and generic, brown eyes. It was his clothing, however, that marked him as unusual: he had a red shirt, red robes, beige pants, and gleaming black boots which came up to his knees. This didn't seem unusual at first, but then there was the gold lining in intricate patterns on the robes and silvery buckles running up the sides of the boots to account for.

On the whole the young man looked like a priest smashed together with…with a soldier. Clearly not from the area.

"Hello, Dirk," Raine said. "Are you busy at the moment?"

The dwarf let out a sardonic "Ha!" of laughter. "Wish I were, but there aren't too many folks who come all this way."

The woman nodded. "I see. My young friend here"- she gestured to the young man standing beside her - "is in need of your services."

Dirk squinted at the boy. "Is that so? And what's your poison, eh?"

The boy shrugged. "Just a sword with a real edge, that's all. I looked in town and…"

Dirk held up a hand to silence him. "Speak no further, lad. I get the gist of it. You're not lookin' for a toy." He smiled broadly, although it was hard to tell with his beard in the way. "I'm your dwarf, then."

The young man leaned forward eagerly. "Really?"

"You're lookin' at a master." The dwarf puffed out his chest.

Then his potential customer drew back. "Er, I don't think I have anything to pay you with…"

"I'll take care of the cost," Raine cut in smoothly. "Consider it my apology for your previous discomfort."

The boy gaped at her, and Dirk raised one bushy eyebrow. "We all set here, then?"

"I think so," Raine said airily. "How long will the job take?"

"Dependin' on the size and quality, I'd say maybe a little under a week. You can pay me when I'm finished- insurance, if y'like." At the height of his skills he'd been able to hammer out a sword (literally) in two or three days. His stay above ground, though, was steadily lengthening that span of time. Fortunately, humans still took much longer, around a month or so. That was dwarven efficiency for you.

"That sounds good." Raine nodded. She turned to her friend. "I need to go back to town to take care of some things; is it alright if I leave you here to work out the details with Dirk?"

"Sure, that's no problem."

"I'll see you soon, then." Raine turned and headed back into the forest's shade.

Dirk looked up at the boy she'd left him with. "So what'd you say your name was?"

The boy looked taken aback. "I…never said it to begin with."

The dwarf let out a sigh of exasperation. "That was my way of askin' you for it without lookin' like an idiot. Oblige me, will you?"

"Oh! Sorry…it's Lloyd."

"Gotcha." Dirk clapped his hands together. "Well, Lloyd, give me the details inside." He turned and looked back over his shoulder. "Come on, lad, I won't bite."

"R-right."


Pronyma resisted the urge to kill her entire search squad. They had successfully tracked Lord Yuan's trail to the Seal of Darkness, but shortly thereafter, the trail went cold. Footsteps could be seen leading toward the rocky wall; there was an indent where he had probably sat down, but other than that there were no other signs of escape. Someone had been thorough in erasing tracks.

And now her men were milling around like confused chickens, not sure what to do next, and none willing to approach their irate leader. Does every man lack courage in the face of a willful woman? She scorned their cowardice, even though by doing so she also was stalling their investigation.

Her comm buzzed, and Pronyma availed herself to this newest distraction. "Yes?"

Lord Yggdrasil's face appeared on the screen. Although seeming paler than usual, he managed to look otherwise as regal and collected as usual. "Pronyma, how goes your search?"

"We've lost track of Yuan, my lord," Pronyma said. "We are all at a loss." The news would not please the seraph at all, she knew, but it was much better than daring to lie and say that progress had been made.

Yggdrasil sighed heavily. "As I should have expected. We need to divert more resources to this task. I will inform Cardinal Rodyle to assist you; Yuan cannot have gone far. In the mean time, Pronyma, you will address our second pressing issue."

"Sir, I'm not sure the boy can even be located—"

Even through the pixilated screen she could tell that Yggdrasil's eyes had narrowed significantly. "You will find him, Pronyma. There will be no ifs, ands, or buts about this. I need that boy."

"But sir—"

"I don't want to hear it. I don't care if it is a difficult task. Do it."

Pronyma confined her frustration to inward screaming. "As you wish, my lord."

"Good." Yggdrasil disappeared, leaving Pronyma to vent her rage at the nearest rock.

Her lieutenant thankfully waited until after the rock had been sufficiently obliterated to approach her. "…Lady Pronyma?"

"What?" She spun around, eyes flashing.

"I…that is to say…"

"Out with it."

"Y-yes sir!" The Desian threw a hasty salute. "Orders, ma'am! Are we switching objectives to focus on locating Lord Aurion's son?"

"Lord Yggdrasil wishes it," Pronyma said curtly. "It appears that he has made it our first priority, and that the search for Lord Yuan be transferred to Lord Rodyle."

"Where does Lord Yggdrasil wish us to begin?" He was looking at her stupidly, and she had to rein in the urge to drive a fist into that blank face of his.

"Our troops alone cannot search two planets. Contact Lord Forcystus and tell him that we require a substantial force for search parties. Tell him it must be discreet. Lord Kvar, if he is in the mood."

"What about Lord Magnius?" the lieutenant asked.

Pronyma did not even try to hide her distaste. "Lord Magnius is more likely to kill the boy than capture him. The man is a veritable ape. He will have no part in this."

The Desian threw another salute. "Ma'am!" He left to address with her commands.

This left the Cardinal to her own scheming thoughts. Finding Lloyd Aurion was an irritation, a pest of a job that she honestly would rather dump on a fellow Cardinal (sans Magnius) than handle herself. There had to be someone that she could successfully coerce into doing the work for her- someone sufficiently concerned with the boy to actually make an effort to find him.

Who…?


"It's just your everyday long sword; I'm not asking for anything fancy," Lloyd said.

Dirk's thick eyebrows wrinkled. "Stickin' to the basics, then? Most people, they want a little somethin' done on the hilt or some design. You're a strange'un, kid."

"Well, I kind of grew up being alright with the bare minimum, so now it's hard for me to really splurge on anything…"

"Nah, it's no problem," the dwarf said with a laugh, patting Lloyd solidly on the small of his back. "You know what you want, so I'll give it to you." He motioned around his workspace. "Make yourself comfortable until your friend comes back; I'll get started right away. Don' mind me."

Lloyd stood up from the stool he was sitting on. "Alright, thanks."

"No problem," Dirk called over his shoulder as he began sorting through a pile of ores.

Outside Dirk's house, Lloyd drifted from side to side, unsure of what to do with himself. Exploring sounded like a wonderful thing to engage in, but with no knowledge of when Raine would return, he couldn't wander off very far in territory that he still didn't know. In the end he decided that merely strolling around Dirk's house would suffice.

He was so engrossed in walking around and taking in the sights that he didn't watch where he was going, and thus nearly tripped flat onto his face when he collided with some sort of small post stuck in the ground in the side yard of the house. Muttering a few choice words under his breath, Lloyd bent down to get a better look at exactly what had bothered to completely throw him off balance.

It was a small stone marker, made of pale rock no doubt quarried from nearby. Someone had taken care to polish it recently; it shone dully in the retreating afternoon sun.

What the hell is this supposed to be? Lloyd frowned as he tried to find something to explain why anyone would choose to stick a rock in the middle of nowhere. There were no words inscribed on the little pillar to clarify its purpose, but people- dwarves especially (they were a practical sort of race according to the books on Derris Kharlan) - weren't given to sticking things in the ground just to be spiteful. Maybe it was supposed to represent something? But what? Had some important event taken place on this spot? Was this someone's—?

Someone's grave. Lloyd's blood ran cold. It could be a grave, and he'd nearly knocked it over! (Oh gods, what a breach in etiquette…) But whose grave, if that was its purpose? He'd assumed dwarves to be solitary. Had Dirk had some dear friend or family member who was now deceased? It probably wasn't his business to know, but seriously…Lloyd was curious.


Kvar toyed with a few papers while he listened to Pronyma's lackey drone on and on about how Lord Yggdrasil needed some brat to be found pronto. There were so many more productive tasks to be done, but heaven forbid one significant inferior being should disappear! Granted, it was Lord Aurion's son that Lord Yggdrasil was up in arms about, but Kvar personally felt that forgetting about the boy and letting him do whatever was for the best for all parties involved. He'd probably turn up at some ranch sooner or later anyway.

"…urgent matter, and Lady Pronyma requests your assistance in initiating a search for Lord Aurion's son."

"And what does Lady Pronyma offer me in return?" Kvar asked. "She should know by now that I do little without some sort of reward, being a downright selfish bastard." That was who he was, according to Pronyma. She was Yggdrasil's favorite- and she let the whole world know too- and therefore was entitled to saying her opinions of people to their faces whether they wanted to hear them or not. Someone needed to off that woman, and soon.

"The Cardinal said nothing concerning a reward, sir. This is a direct request from Lord Yggdrasil himself, actually."

"Yes, but to Pronyma," Kvar corrected. "And yet she sees fit to give her job to me. Clearly there should be some compensation for this underhanded deal."

It was fun to watch her subordinate squirm under his acerbic tongue. Mindless idiots who wasted his time could serve little more than as entertainment, and that was what he was using this unfortunate soul for at that moment.

"I will connect you to Lady Pronyma directly," the Desian finally said, looking increasingly uncomfortable under the glittering black eyes of Kvar.

"You do that."

There was a moment of static before finally his fellow Cardinal's face filled the screen. "Honestly, Cardinal Kvar, have you better things to do than waste my time?"

"That's my line," Kvar said. "I have a ranch to run; I hardly have the time to gallivant around this depressing planet for one human boy's sake."

"Forcystus will be assisting you."

The blond Cardinal laughed. "Not any time soon, I should think."

"His men, then."

"It still requires that I be there, actively participating."

"I thought you enjoyed hunts, Kvar."

"Only when they're interesting. This boy seems to have no intriguing qualities to him, other than the fact that he is Lord Aurion's son. And as we all know, I've already caught an Aurion. So it is a waste of my time."

"And sufficiently mauled by one as well," Pronyma noted, and he could see her scorn.

"At least I've actually caught one. You, if I remember, do nothing at all except for grovel."

This had gone a tad too far, although that was what he had wanted. "Go to hell," she spat.

Kvar shrugged. "On my own time," he replied. "Now why don't you try to convince someone who doesn't lack a brain? I'm sure you'll have a much easier time."

"You foolish…"

"…selfish, conniving bastard. Yes, I've heard that one before. You're terribly unoriginal," Kvar said. "And how do you know the boy is even in Sylvarant anyway? For all you know he could be relaxing on the beaches of Altamira this very instant."

"I'm following a hunch," Pronyma admitted sourly.

"Oh, you would! Well, there you go. Step one completed. You don't need my help anymore, surely."

"Don't be such an idiot."

Kvar was getting tired of this conversation. Pronyma, as usual, lacked the intelligence to be witty. "Look, if you want to find this inferior being so much, why don't you get someone who actually cares to go find him?"

"I have considered that, you do realize."

"And yet you are still asking the wrong person. I could care less about the fate of one boy, much less Lord Yggdrasil's reaction, simply because this is not a matter under my jurisdiction. The Angelus Project was completed a long time ago, and I hardly want to be reminded of the ignoramus known as Lord Aurion."

Just then, brilliance struck.

"Speaking of Lord Aurion, why don't you go employ his services? You are supposed to be keeping tabs on him, are you not? Why not use him for something productive on the side? And I don't mean in that matter, although I'm sure you would go to any lengths to become entangled with the Four Seraphim. Although, looking at your relations with Lord Yggdrasil, one might guess…"

"Be quiet," Pronyma said in a dangerous voice, "lest I ask Lord Yggdrasil for permission to silence you permanently."

"A threat! Oh, I'm so scared." Kvar feigned distress.

"Ridiculous as usual," his fellow Cardinal snapped. "I might be even more inclined to speak with Magnius over you, now. Good day, Cardinal Kvar." And she disappeared.

Kvar snorted as he swiveled his chair away from the screen. "She'd rather talk to Magnius? Was that meant to be an insult? My god, but their intelligence is nearly on par…"


Raine came back to find Lloyd staring at a small stone in the ground, apparently thinking hard about it.

"What are you looking at?" she asked, walking up behind him.

Lloyd's head whipped around. "What? Oh…not much. I was just wondering what this little marker was here for."

"Oh, I see. Yes, it does seem a little out of place. But there's probably a good reason for it."

"That's what I was thinking," Lloyd said with a short laugh. "Did you finish whatever it was in town?"

Raine showed him some assorted packages she had brought with her. "Clothes," she said shortly.

Lloyd looked confused. "But we won't be leaving for a couple days…"

"Yes, I know. These are for you," Raine clarified. "As you are now, we're going to draw suspicion. I thought it might be better to have an outfit that allows you to fit in more."

Lloyd took the packages from her slowly. "Wow…thanks." He examined them, all done up in brown paper and tied off neatly with string. "What'd you get me?"

"What any decent human being wears, except without anything too fancy. I was originally going to get you just shoes so you could break them in properly, but then I realized that I could spare myself extra bartering later."

The boy looked at her, gratitude in his eyes. "Man, I don't even know what to say. We've just met and all, and already you…"

"I'm following a hunch. I've got a feeling; that's all."

"A feeling? About what?"

"About you. Something says I can trust you."

Lloyd blinked slowly. "Huh." He blushed. "Uh…thanks."

"I also have something to ask you," Raine said. "We need to find you a place to stay while we wait for Dirk to finish your sword."

"Oh, right! Uh…I don't know. Is there an inn or something nearby?"

"I was going to offer to let you stay over," Raine said wryly, "but I suppose that could work as well, although the nearest inn is the next town over."

"Really? Thanks!"

The half-elf tilted her head to the side. "I'm not sure if you'll fit completely in Genis's bed, but I suppose it will have to do. There's nowhere else that I can think of."

"I'll fit; you'll see," Lloyd said enthusiastically.

"Very well then. Let's get back to town before it gets too late."

That night Lloyd managed to drowse off before Raine, who stayed up to finish a lesson plan for the next school day. The candle next to her flickered softly as the sounds of gentle snoring slowly filled the room. Raine's mouth quirked into a small smile as she continued to scribble down notes, ears alert for any possibility of sleep talking. Things could be learned, perhaps.

For an unknown span of time she sat there, working and listening to see if there was something to be gleaned in this quasi-eavesdropping. But the boy did not speak once (It was a good sign, she supposed.), and so in the end she set her lesson aside, blew out the light, and turned in for the night.

Her determination, however, was not so similarly stifled. She was determined to crack the mystery of this boy; she was obligated to by her own curiosity.


Pronyma was in a horrid mood after her conversation with Kvar, and in an even worse one when a visibly ailing Forcystus had also denied her his assistance on the grounds that he had just received a new shipment of hosts from the Palmacosta region and needed all available troops to maintain order. Thus, the situation in Sylvarant remained in her hands. There was only one spot of good news: Rodyle, eerily complacent to her additional orders, had given her a report already detailing no sign of any human near any of Tethe'alla's seals. That narrowed down her search.

She would have to move quickly if she wanted to find the boy; in the span of a couple of hours, he could not have gone far from any of the portals. After a considering period of thinking, she had realized that sending a team to the location of each one and scouring the surrounding area would surely turn him up somewhere. It would be easy, far easier than she had thought, and then she would be free to turn her attention elsewhere, namely finding and subduing Yuan.

What she had failed to consider was the fact that Renegades, on Yuan's orders, had already infiltrated her troops and, thanks to their leader, knew exactly where Lloyd Aurion was. Thus, it had only been a matter of sounding apologetic when they contacted their "superior" to inform her that there, like all the others, was no sign of their target in the Iselia area.

It was then that Cardinal Pronyma started becoming desperate, and people in desperation tend to resort to things they would have never dreamed of doing.


"Here you go." The allotted week had passed and the sword completed; now, boy and weapon were finally meeting.

Lloyd accepted the sheathed sword from Dirk and drew it, eyes widening as they ran up and down the length of the gleaming blade. "Amazing!"

"Aw, it's nothin', just what you wanted," the dwarf said with a chuckle.

Dirk watched as his customer went through a few of the basic forms with the long sword, humming happily. When his tryout session had exhausted itself, the young man sheathed the sword and pulled out a bag- his payment.

"You've earned this and more, Dirk. Thank you so much."

"Quality's my middle name," Dirk said as he accepted the bag of coins. "Use that blade well, lad."

"I'll do my best. Your work's too good to let go to waste." Lloyd's expression changed. "Although, I did have one question…"

"Hmm? What's that?" Dirk's brows furrowed. After all that praise, the boy still had questions?

"It's not about the sword; it's more about…well…I noticed you have this- this stone marker thing outside. It's been nagging me, what it's for."

"You saw it, did you? It's a grave alright. Not much of one, but I figured I'd give the poor woman somethin' at least."

"A woman? Who was she?"

Dirk nodded. "She escaped from a ranch, I think. I found her in the forest years back. Slashed up somethin' terrible. I think I'll spare you the details."

Lloyd's heart was beating uncomfortably fast for no apparent reason. "How did you know she was from a ranch?"

The dwarf circled a small area on his chest. "She had a hole right here, looked like somethin' had been torn out. I'm not blind; this is ranch territory. Those Desians up on that hill fix all sorts of funny things onto those poor fellers. Sometimes a few of 'em wriggle out, usually half-dead and crazy and what not when I find 'em." Dirk shook his head. "I put 'em out of their misery." He waved a hand toward the giant hammer leaning against the anvil. "But this lady," he continued, "was a little different on account of her clothing. She wasn't wearing rags like most of the others. Thought it was a bit strange, myself."

"Did she have long, brown hair?"

The question caught Dirk off-guard. "What's that? Well…hmm…I'm pretty sure she did."

"And...and how many years ago was this, again?"

"I'd say over ten."

Lloyd opened and closed his mouth several times. His brain had just experienced something akin to a paralyzing electric shock, and words were refusing to be said.

"Somethin' the matter?" Dirk was looking at him out of concern.

"No, I'm fine. Thanks for telling me about this. I didn't mean to pry." The young man turned slowly on leaden feet and began walking toward the door. "Thanks again, Dirk."

This was a noticeable change from the infectiously happy mood of only minutes before, but understanding that something else was afoot, Dirk wisely made no comment. "Come back any time," he called before retreating back into his forge.

Raine turned away from observing the stream outside of Dirk's house when she heard footsteps behind her. "Oh, there you are," she said. "I was wondering what was taking you so long. Were you happy with…?" The words died on her lips as Lloyd completely ignored her and made a beeline for the same stone marker he had been staring at yesterday.

The half-elf woman slowly made her way to stand behind him. "Lloyd…?"

"Is this where you are?" The young man's voice was thick with emotion, and he hadn't yet noticed her.

"Is something wrong?" Raine couldn't tell exactly from where she was standing, but it sounded as if Lloyd was fighting back tears.

It took Lloyd a while but finally he forced out, "It's nothing. I'm just being sentimental." He turned away and started down the path into the forest. "Let's get going."

Raine stood beside the marker for a bit, watching as his figure retreated into the trees. She frowned: another mystery to add to her list. With a resigned sigh she began to follow him.


A/N: I did a little research halfway through writing this chapter and realized that swordsmithing takes a long time. Thankfully, Dirk is a dwarf and therefore is magical. But his accent is a pain to write.

Also, just to give you a little heads up, you can start expecting chapters to center around either Kratos or Lloyd, but not both of them at the same time. As they're currently separated, it's very hard to devote equitable space for both of them in the chapter, especially if some major event's occurring. I could write a bunch of filler, but I think I've proven previously that that's a waste of time.

Another heads up: I've got a bunch of exams to take/study for this week, so the next update might be delayed.