"They escaped?" Len yelled, banging his hands on the table as he glared at Meiko and Kaito. "You had them right in Jiraun, surrounded by guards, and you're telling me that they escaped?"

Kaito swallowed. "Your majesty, one of them, the elf, had a teleportation amulet that allowed her to-"

Len waved him away and shot a glare at the stoically standing Meiko. "I pay you all that gold and you can't even manage to capture, in your own words, 'four little girls'?"

Meiko sighed. "Well, your highness, you were the one who neglected to provide us a description of what the other three girls looked like. Anyways, it shouldn't be difficult capturing them again. The one we had captured in Jiraun, in particular, we crippled."

"Crippled?" the prince asked, blue eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Kaito saw in this a chance to redeem himself. "Yeah! We gave her back a harsh punishment that she won't be forgetting anytime soon. She won't be as capable a fighter as before, not that she was ever a good fighter in the first place...she was exceedingly easy to capture, your majesty."

Len looked only slightly mollified. "If you say so...but you all know we don't have much time left," his brow creased and he walked over to the window, looking outside. "There have been more earthquakes, recently, and storm clouds are gathering at Highpoint. The Harbinger is awakening. You must find her, soon, otherwise we are all lost." As he said this, he traced his fingers over the cool glass of the window, looking as though he was drawing comfort from it. The young prince was weak and frightened - Meiko could see that easily now. Her brow furrowed in contempt, but the prince had gold so she let it be.

"You two are dismissed," said the prince.

"Yes, your majesty!" Kaito said, saluting instinctively.

"Yes," said Meiko, and she left.

-o-o-o-

Luka wasn't sure where she was, when her eyes slowly opened after what seemed like an eternity of deathlike sleep. She waited for the now-familiar feeling of throbbing pain networking through her body, but to her surprise, there was none. All she could see was the sunlight filtering through tall trees, and all she could smell was the sweet scent of nature.

Was she dead? Luka wondered. Looking around Luka saw that she was alone in some clearing in the woods, lying on a soft, clean bedroll. Pine water, crushed leaves that she could not identify, in a wooden bowl next to her. Slow memories floated through her foggy head.

Torture, she remembered. She had been tortured for what seemed like eternity, surrounded by the screams and wails of the damned like her. Tortured for the knowledge of where her friends were, and when Luka proved too stubborn, living through having her fingers crushed, ring finger sliced off, and face slashed, her torturers seemed to have sentenced her to death, after a brutal raking of her back with the cat's claw, strips of her own flesh peeled off, taking away muscle to reveal bone. Meiko had stood above her as Luka laid on a stone table, the abrasive stone irritating her back wounds, as Luka sniveled and sobbed, begged and pleaded for mercy. She had forgotten, entirely, where her friends were now, yet Meiko did not believe her.

Luka shuddered at the memory. Her back still ached, dully, but it was better now. Some kind of healer…

"Ah.." said a soft, musical voice in surprise, and Luka looked up, saw a vaguely familiar elf, male, with red hair, holding another bowl of pine and crushed leaves from the smell of it. "You're awake."

"Where am I?" Luka mumbled, foggily. Her tongue felt thick and uncooperative.

The elf knelt, placed the bowl on the floor, taking out a cloth and dipping it in the medicinal bowl. "You're in the forest of the Nilveri."

"The forest of the Nilveri…?" Luka placed a hand to her spinning forehead as the elf gently moved her up to a sitting position, applying the healing salve to her back, which erupted in stinging fire at the contact from the wet cloth. Luka stifled a gasp and bore it, stoically. Her tolerance for pain had increased by quite a lot, during her tortures. "Why…"

"Your friends found you," said the elf quietly as he moved the cloth carefully on Luka's back.

"My…friends…" Luka had almost given up all hope of them ever finding her, and a small smile cracked her lips. "They found me? Where are they? Where's…where's Miku? How'd they escape?"

"I'm sure they will tell you soon," said the elf, looking vaguely amused. "In the meantime, you are still very weak. You should rest."

Luka nodded. Rest sounded good to her torture wracked body, and as the elf gently laid her back down on the bedroll Luka's mind occupied itself with wondering about her friends – how they were doing, if they were eating properly, if they were resting too, how they saved her. Slowly all of her memories were coming back to her. The Nilveri, Yukari's people…how did everyone get from the jail to the forest? Lily…how was she doing? Was she still traveling with them? And Miku…did she find out anything about herself, did she see the Broker? Luka hoped fervently that Miku did not come to some harm, while rescuing Luka.

"I will go and tell your friends that you have recovered," said the elf, getting up, but as he did Luka noticed a blur rushing towards her, and she stiffened. The blur stopped, at Luka's bedroll, and Luka saw that the person who had been rushing forward so urgently was Miku.

Luka's eyes widened, heart filling with happiness at the sight of her again. Miku looked radiant, with her deep teal hair, worried blue eyes, and porcelain skin, her lips curved up in a soft smile that Luka couldn't help but to return. It felt as though it had been ages since Luka had last seen her. She must've gone through a lot of adventures in Luka's absence.

"Luka," Miku whispered, her voice cracking a little. "Are you okay?"

Luka didn't want to worry her. "I'm fine! Recovering, but I should be okay soon! Oh…" Luka remembered her tortures, her missing ring finger, her ragged ear, the cuts on her face, now scars, and she looked down, suddenly feeling ugly, useless, and ashamed. Looking at her right hand, Luka realized that she couldn't steal or hold a sword as well as she used to. At least she didn't lose fingers on her left hand, but she preferred using her right over her left despite being ambidextrous - it seemed more convenient, especially since the shortsword she looted from the soldier had a right handed grip. Luka swallowed. How could she protect Miku now? "I guess...I won't be as much use anymore, huh?" she laughed, weakly. It hadn't really hit her until now. Luka had always relied on her deft and nimble fingers in her life as a thief, and now that she had only four fingers on her right hand...

Miku's eyes widened. "Luka, that's not true at all! Don't think that!"

Luka looked down. "B-but...my hand..."

"It's okay, Luka," said Miku, leaning in. She gently took Luka's hands in hers and Luka's breath caught, for some reason. "I...I believe in you. You can overcome it...you can train here!"

Luka bit her lip and looked up at Miku. "But...that'll take so long...who knows when I'll be good enough to wield a sword again?"

Miku opened her mouth to respond, but before she could say anything she was suddenly shoved aside and Luka felt warm arms encircling her in a hug.

"Luka!" cried Yukari as she practically throttled her, so enthusiastic was her hug. "It's great to see you awake again!"

"G-great to see you too, Yukari," Luka wheezed, wincing in pain as her back shot electric jolts of pain up and down her spine. "C-Could you let go of me?"

"Oh," Yukari gasped, hurriedly withdrawing, "I'm sorry...it's just, when I found you were awake I had to see you! It's been a really long time after all..." The elf looked a little embarrassed, her ears slightly drooped and her lips curved up in a sheepish smile, brow slightly wrinkled.

"It has," Lily agreed, and Luka looked over at her. The engineer was crouched next to Yukari, looking at Luka. She was smiling too, a little. "I'm glad to see that you're awake."

"How long was I out?" Luka asked.

"Eight days," Yukari answered instantly. "The healer told me that it was really close..." the elf suddenly looked incredibly morose, brow furrowing even more now. "If we were even a few seconds late, you would've died."

"W-what?" Miku scrambled to a sitting position and stared, aghast, at Yukari. "Th-the healer didn't tell me that!"

"If he told you then you'd probably have gone into hysterics," said Lily. "And, you know, we really don't need another outburst from you again."

Miku looked as though she had been struck, stiffening a little at Lily's words. "That was-"

"H-hey," Yukari quickly intervened. "That's in the past, you two...Miku was just really worried about Luka at the time. And maybe...maybe she was right to have done that...because if she didn't, then Luka would've died. We would've taken too long, talking to the guard and getting him under the glamor...what matters though is that Luka's alive now."

"A life for a life, eh," Lily said, quietly. "Anyways," she looked over at Luka, who was completely lost in the conversation. "You should take some time here to recover first, before we move on."

"Yes!" Miku said. "You should rest and recover here. And you can train too..."

Luka looked at Miku, Lily, and Yukari. Outburst? What outburst did Miku make? There was some tension between Miku and Lily that wasn't there before. Luka wanted badly to ask, but she knew that now was not the time, so she swallowed her questions and nodded. Her priority now was to get some coordination back. Coordination was, she knew, exceedingly important, especially in her past life as a thief.

"Okay," said Luka, her voice soft.

Yukari looked at her and smiled, kind. "I'll get some food for you, okay?" she got up to her feet and ran back into the wood, disappearing between trees, movements light and nimble. Lily stared after her for a bit before returning her attention to Luka.

"You went through a lot, didn't you?" Lily asked.

Luka nodded. "Yes. The torturers were not...kind..." Luka squeezed her eyes shut. She didn't like thinking about the tortures. She didn't want to think about the wails and screams of the others, she didn't want to relive her own pain, and watching the deaths of so many other people.

"Lily!" Miku hissed at her. "Don't talk about that!"

"I'm trying to find out more information about her captors," said Lily, irritated.

"We already know what we need to know," Miku said. "Meiko, Kaito, and the whole of Elphegort itself. They're all after me. You don't need to bring up painful memories of her tortures again! We already know!"

Lily scowled, but looked a little guilty nonetheless. "Yeah."

Luka bit her lip. "Um...it's okay, Miku...if anything helps, then..."

"No," Miku cut in, harshly. "I'm sorry, Luka. It's probably all too new and fresh in your memory for you to talk about it now. We'll wait."

"Oh. Um," said Luka.

"Food's here!" Yukari called as she lightly ran over to Luka holding a bowl of some kind of soup. It smelled heavenly to Luka's nose - for two months she had fed on nothing more than stale bread and water - so Luka grabbed the soup and gulped it down before she could even taste it, felt the nourishing liquid rush down her dry throat. When she finished Luka looked disappointedly at the empty bowl, and timidly she looked over at Yukari.

"Is there...any more?" Luka asked.

Yukari laughed. "Sure, you can have more! But you're not supposed to eat too much at the same time, so two more bowls, alright?"

Luka smiled and nodded. "Alright!"

-o-o-o-

"The elves," said Meiko, suddenly.

Kaito looked up from his food. "What? What about the elves?"

Meiko was silent, her brown eyes staring off into the distance, sitting on an old gray rock with her sword poised over her whetstone. She sharpened that thing lovingly every day. "What do you think about them?"

Kaito shrugged and wiped his nose with the back of his hand. "Well, they're just elves. They mind their own business, we mind our own business..."

Meiko smiled, thinly. "How far is your king willing to go, to capture this Harbinger?"

Kaito frowned. "Well, we're supposed to bring her and her friends back to the castle alive, remember? So it's not like we can just kill them or anything."

"Remember that elf girl they were with?" Meiko asked.

Kaito nodded, hesitant. "Yes..."

"When she escaped, she used an amulet," said Meiko, a small grin pulling up the corners of her mouth. "That amulet...I remember now. It's not just any ordinary teleportation amulet. Remember what the Broker told us, when we went to see him?"

"Yes, and I remember very well the payment he extracted," Kaito said, grumpy. His beloved collection of antique coins, all for the knowledge of who the elf was...hardly a fair trade, in his book.

"That elf, Yukari, isn't just any elf," said Meiko. "She's the princess of the Nilveri. Now think. Who would give her such an amulet? The elves are distrustful of humans, they think we're vulgar and ugly. The fact that the princess is traveling with them..." Meiko's brow furrowed. "I don't know why that is, but the elves are protective of offspring. They don't reproduce as quickly as humans, they live long, long lives. The father would give the daughter some amulet, something that she could call on in times of trouble, to take them home."

"So they're in the forests of the Nilveri!" Kaito's eyes lit up in comprehension.

"Exactly," said Meiko. "If we go in alone though, it'll be suicide. We'll be killed on sight. We need backup, a battalion."

"Wait," Kaito protested. "That would be war, marching into the elves' territory with a battalion."

"No," Meiko corrected. "We will only attack if the elves attack first, and we will make it very clear that we only need the Harbinger, the engineer, and the kid we captured. The princess can stay but the other three must come with us."

Kaito looked down at his hands. Meiko was a little strange, he thought. Surely they could ask the king to send a diplomat over to the elves and ask for the Harbinger. No need to resort to intimidation tactics.

As if Meiko read his mind, she shook her head. "No," she said, decisively. "Diplomacy won't work here."

"Why not?" Kaito asked.

Meiko smiled, and to Kaito's eyes it seemed terrifyingly empty. Nothing seemed to exist within Meiko's eyes other than some driving thirst for vengeance, and Kaito shuddered despite himself. "Because. Why waste time with diplomacy when a battalion speaks better?"

-o-o-o-

Luka tossed a ball up and down, catching it lightly in her left before sending it up again, catching it in her right. Juggling, she supposed. She used to juggle a lot for money. Back in Marlon, back when she was eleven, she would juggle on street corners for money, perform whatever tricks the crowd wanted her to do, for the money to buy food and live. As she got older less and less people gave her money for her juggling, and it didn't take long for the thievery to take over. Luka had always stole back then, but it was only after her juggling and other acrobatics tricks failed when she decided to steal full time.

"Up and down, up and down," Luka whispered as she walked in the woods. It was comforting, safe and secure here. Dependable oaks, mossy rocks, bushes with flowers and berries, the sound of nature all around her. Somewhere to her right Luka heard the sound of a bird twittering.

She was getting better. The food the elves fed her, the salves, they were making her stronger. They could never, of course, give her finger back, but her back no longer pained her as much as it did. She had been practicing more with the sword too. Yukari had graciously assigned her to a swordmaster and though he was a harsh trainer Luka found herself getting better and better.

Better. Yes. She was better. She had to be better to protect Miku. Amongst the four of them was an unspoken agreement that this was only for now. They had to leave soon so that the elves would not be harmed - so that the ones who had dogged the Harbinger for so long would not arrive and ruin everything. The king, Miku had told her. She looked so pained when she said that, so confused. The King wanted to kill her and the worst thing was that Miku didn't even really know why. Her voice sounded so choked when she said that that Luka, for one heart lurching moment, thought that the girl was going to cry. But she didn't.

Luka's heart ached for Miku. The girl was suffering so much and Luka couldn't do a thing for her. She swore to protect her, but how could Luka protect Miku from insecurities and fear and pain? Luka wanted to take Miku away from it all, from everything - she wanted those carefree moments in Lockben back - but she couldn't.

Burning with shame Luka slowly stopped juggling and only walked, until she got tired of that and returned to the main settlement of the elves. As she entered the village the elves stiffened in their activities, warily stared at Luka for long, agonizing seconds before looking back down at their work. Most of the elves disliked the humans taking up space in the settlement. Luka couldn't blame them. Their track record for safety wasn't exactly the best. Yukari, her father, Mew, all three of them got in heated arguments about letting Luka, Miku, and Lily stay here nearly every day. It was stressful, being so openly unwelcomed.

Luka walked through the elf settlement, suddenly feeling irritated, annoyed. She wanted to be alone again and so walked through the elf settlement to the more secluded lake, where, to her surprise, she saw Miku.

Miku was crouching by the lip of the lake, back facing Luka. She was dressed in her tattered blue and gold Crypton clothes, an eternal reminder of her home, and timidly Luka approached her and sat down next to her. Miku stiffened and looked at Luka, blue eyes wide.

Luka smiled, sheepishly. "Hi," she offered.

Miku stared at her for a few seconds and slowly relaxed. A small smile touched her face. "Hello," she said. "How are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm good!" Luka said, quickly, maybe a little too quickly. "I can juggle now. I only have one ball with me now, but..."

"You used to juggle, didn't you?" asked Miku. "You told me that back in Marlon."

Luka nodded. "Yeah. I could juggle a lot back then! Once I juggled six balls."

"Oh," said Miku. She looked at Luka, again. There was some kind of conflict in her face. Luka had noticed that Miku looked like that for a while now, around her - as though she had something to say, but couldn't quite manage to say it. Miku swallowed and forced her face away, looked down at the lake again. "That's impressive..."

"I suppose so," said Luka. "Hey...Miku?"

"Yes?"

"I'm...I'm sorry," Luka kept her eyes trained on the placid surface of the lake.

"Sorry?" Miku looked at Luka, confused. "Why?"

" I didn't really protect you very well," Luka admitted. "And I said I always would, right? But I let myself get captured-"

"No, Luka," Miku interrupted, alarmed. "You did protect me. They didn't know where we were, thanks to you, and that's how we were able to...to rescue you, in the end, right? You did protect me, Luka!"

"But...I mean, I wasn't there for you...you could've gotten hurt, back at the jail, you could've..."

"Luka," Miku hesitantly took Luka's hand in her own. "Please don't think about that...I didn't get hurt at all. You protected me, really you did! Even though you lost some things, in the process, you gave it up for me."

Luka felt a bitter smile touch her lips. "Yes," she said. "I'm all scarred up," she laughed, weakly. "Ugly, isn't it?"

There was a long silence, and Luka, worried a little, looked over at Miku. There was that conflict in her face again.

"Miku?" Luka asked.

"Um," said Miku. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath. "C-can I...t-tell you something?"

"Of course," said Luka, confused, worried. "Wh-what is it?"

Miku opened her eyes, looked at Luka's face. "I...I don't think you're ugly. I, um," Miku's cheeks colored and she looked down again. "I...I think you look, um, g-good. I...I think you're really pretty. Um, I...I think you're beautiful."

Luka was astonished. "W-what?" Disbelief colored her voice. "But, my back, my ear, I—"

"I don't care!" said Miku, hotly. "I think you're the most beautiful girl in the world!"

Now Luka was laughing. Miku was so endearing, trying to make Luka feel better about herself like this. Miku was, in Luka's eyes, infinitely more attractive than Luka ever could be, so the words coming out of Miku's mouth were, simply, unbelievable. "Miku! Thanks for trying to make me feel better, but there's no way I'm so good looking. You're ten times prettier than I am. But um, I...I really appreciate it," Luka laughed again, softer, and scratched the back of her head, sheepish. Her cheeks felt hot. "I'm...I'm happy that you'd go so far to try to make me feel better." Though a large part of her wished that Miku meant it, Luka didn't survive on wishing.

Miku looked frustrated, childishly so. As if she was going to start stomping her feet. "It's not just that! I want to make you feel better, but I think you're really pretty too! Even though you have scars, I still think you're beautiful. B-because, Luka," Miku swallowed, hard, "Luka, you've always been there for me. You're so kind and you always try to protect me. And when I saw you in Jiraun I was so scared and so angry, because you were so hurt."

Luka was completely taken aback. All she could do was stare at Miku as unfamiliar, warm happiness made its way through her body. "I..."

"So..." Miku looked at Luka's face again. "Luka, I...I love you."

Luka's heart felt as though it was about to burst. Her mind was filled with questions, insecurities. Miku loved her? Her? But Luka was a nobody. Luka was just a street rat and Miku was a noble. Not only that but she was a noble from the Crypton Tower.

"R-really?" Luka managed.

"Really," Miku nodded. "Um...I know how you say that...you're always going to protect me. But, um...Luka, I...I want to protect you too. Do you..." her blue eyes darted up, timidly, to Luka's. "Do you love me too?"

Love? Luka hadn't even dared to think the word, convinced that the gulf between them was too large. But now that Miku had said it, the inhibitions and mental barriers were shedding away. Luka swallowed. Her throat felt thick, uncooperative. Luka felt as though she was free-falling yet at the same time she felt happy too, unbearably so.

"You love me?" Luka asked again, just to make sure.

This time, doubt and fear crept into Miku's eyes. "Y-yes...I do...you...you don't love me back, huh-"

Luka interrupted her quickly with a kiss. Miku stiffened, and then, slowly, relaxed, returned it. It felt unfamiliar, new - Luka had never kissed anyone before, not really, but it felt good, nice - Miku's lips were soft and welcoming and Luka felt as though she could kiss her forever, but eventually she pulled back and rested her forehead against Miku's.

"Don't think that," whispered Luka. "I...I love you too. I was just...I never thought someone like you would...I never thought that someone like you would love me. But um...I love you, Miku. I really do."

Miku stared at Luka for a long moment before a smile broke out on her face and she clung to Luka, burying her head in her shoulder, and Luka hugged her back just as fiercely.

"I'm so happy," Miku whispered. "I'm so happy you do."

Luka's body felt hot with happiness and she couldn't stop the smile painted on her face. Holding Miku like this felt incredibly perfect and Luka's down mood from earlier was completely swept away. She had a sneaking feeling that even if her swordmaster insulted her during the lesson later that day she wouldn't mind. The feelings she had for Miku for so long but never dared to put a name to, until now, were running rampant in her. All Luka wanted was to stay like this forever. She wanted to convey this to Miku somehow, to let her know the depth of feeling Luka was experiencing, at the moment.

"I'm happy too," was all Luka's mouth could say, and somehow, it was enough. Miku laughed a little, burrowed deeper into the hug.

They stayed together like that for a long, long while.