A/N: Some of the very beginning of this chapter is recap, just go ahead and skip that massive chunk of words if you want to.

To Tom-Ato13, Yes, Saige is a noble, but it was really only heavily implied in chapter 8.

Chapter 13—The Davros

~Saige~

"Why don't you start with how you got here?" I prompted Jayna, who seemed to be having problems with how to explain her story. She was nervous—this I could remember, at least—of speaking in front of large numbers of people, and I supposed having every eye in our camp upon her wasn't helping her story-telling skills much at all.

"Right." She was looking at her hands, the fire, the sea, the sky; anywhere other than our group. "Well, I…I was a stowaway upon the Davros. We've been trying to find Saige for years now, after we split up."

"We?" Eliwood asked.

"Yes…there were three of us—Saige, me, and her other best friend, Liliana. We had heard of a brilliant tactician who had instructed the Marquess Caelin's granddaughter, Lyn—of course, we knew that this fit Saige. We tried to contact this tactician, only to run into another dead end." Jayna spoke quickly. "She had vanished after Lyn had been returned to her grandfather and Lundgren had been defeated. So now, we finally tracked her down. We had just caught up with you back in the port. However, while Liliana was securing us a place to stay at a nearby inn, I was gathering information from the sailors. They said that you had gotten pirates—Captain Fargus—to agree to take you to the Dread Isle, and that you were leaving that morning. I knew I didn't have very long to act, so I quickly hid myself aboard the Davros."

"And Liliana? What happened to her?" I asked.

"I didn't have time to inform her of what was happening. She should still be back in the portside inn, waiting. Anyway," she returned to her story. "after you had left the ship, the pirates found me and took me to Captain Fargus. Luckily I was able to explain the situation to him before he tossed me overboard. Even though he was still suspicious of me, I managed to convince him to lend me a small boat of my own to follow you here."

I nodded, absorbing all of this information. It didn't seem that there were holes or discrepancies in her story.

"What about you? What happened to you since we parted?" Jayna asked me.

"Well, I'm sure you already know of Lyn's story. But just recently I was traveling again, and stopped to stay the night in a small village. It was there that I met Eliwood again when bandits attacked. With him were Marcus and Lowen. Rebecca—the daughter of the village's Magistrate—volunteered to help us. And then in the middle of the battle, we met up with Bartre and Dorcas again. Afterwards, I agreed to travel with Eliwood while he searched…for his father." I paused, looking at Eliwood. I didn't like mentioning his father when the loss was so recent. "On the way to visit Lord Helman, we were ambushed by mercenaries hired to kill Eliwood, which is where Hector came in with Oswin, Serra, and Matthew. We ended up chasing Marques Laus out of his own land and into Caelin—along the way finding Priscilla, Erk, Guy, and allowing Merlinus to join us. We joined forces with Lyn in Caelin, and with the help of Kent, Sain, Wil, and Florina, we managed to take back Castle Caelin. In the battle, we freed Lucius and Raven, who joined us in the fight. We found Leila—one of Ostia's spies—who told us that the Black Fang was here. We ended up going to Captain Fargus for our passage, since none of the ordinary sailors would take us. He originally was going to make us pay a very steep price for his services—100, 000 gold, actually—but he eventually decided to allow us free passage if we could make it past all of his crew. And from there…well, you should know the rest."

"I see…" Jayna said, looking deep in thought.

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~Saige~

"Lady Saige, get up." I was shaken.

I grunted, rolling over so that I was facing away from the familiar voice. "Just five more minutes, Kent."

"We're leaving in five minutes." He came back with.

I groaned, before forcing myself to sit up quickly. "Ow!" my hand flew up to my right temple as it erupted in pain. We had bumped heads when I had sat up so suddenly, because he had been leaning over me. "You have a hard head!"

"I could say the same for you, milady." Kent said as he rubbed his own forehead.

"Ow…that hurt." The pain slowly began to dull into a steady throb.

"At least you're awake. I'd suggest you get your things ready, because the pirates will be here soon."

I gave a reproachful look at his back as he left, the pain still not gone.

I jumped at a whistling sound, and my head snapped up to see one of the flares that Captain Fargus had given us explode in a burst of blue light. Ugh! Kent! We hadn't even lit the signal flares yet! Captain Fargus and the pirates wouldn't be here for another hour!

I debated between giving Kent a piece of my mind and going back to sleep, but I concluded that neither would be wise. Kent just wanted to make sure that I was ready on time, I was sure, and the pain in my temple still hadn't gone away, so sleep wasn't a possibility.

I dragged myself out of my bedroll, replaced my mother's circlet upon my brow, and began to get ready. I buckled my belt around my waist, the familiar weight of my dagger bringing me comfort. I clasped my cloak around my shoulders quickly and hugged it around myself, hoping to retain some of the warmth that still remained from my blankets.

Packing up my bedroll, I set it on my bag, before making my way over to Eliwood, who was sitting alone off to the side away from everyone else. Most everyone else was gathered around the dying fire.

"How are you?" I asked the young Lord quietly.

"Oh…Saige…" he glanced up at me, before his gaze returned to the ground. "I'm fine."

I sat down beside him—from the look on his face, he sure didn't look fine. The sadness that showed in his eyes made my heart wrench. Such a compassionate and kind man shouldn't look like that.

"Are you sure? You don't look alright."

"Yeah..." he still wouldn't meet my eyes.

"Eliwood." I grasped his arm. "Look at me."

Almost reluctantly, he turned those sad blue eyes on me.

"I don't remember…what it's like to lose a parent. Just know…that I'm here for you…I mean, if you even want my support…" I stopped there, unsure on what else to say. I never had been one for meaningful speeches.

A short pause, then, "Thanks, Saige, but…could you…leave me alone for a while?"

I sighed, nodding. Of course he'd want to be left alone—it was foolish of me to think otherwise. I stood up—casting a glance at the rest of the group, who were still huddled around the fire—before heading out to the edge of the beach, where the waves met the shore.

Despite the fact that the sand was cold and wet, I sat down, pulled my leather boots off, and let the waves wash over my feet. The after the water first touched my feet, I moved back a bit—since the water was freezing, and had cooled me off quickly. I was definitely wide awake now.

The fog had dissipated, for the most part, and I could see all the way out to the Davros, where Captain Fargus' men were surely working to get the boats out to us as quickly as possible. The ship was silhouetted by the rising sun, which was almost directly behind it.

I rubbed my sore eyes—I had gone to sleep late last night, and Kent had woken me up early—as I thought about our whole situation. It was depressing, nerve-racking, and most of all, terrifying. I had first realized what a serious business being the tactician was back when we had that very close call with Florina—she had almost been killed, thanks to my carelessness. Since then I'd had other near-deaths—though now, with Eliwood's father…

I shook my head. That wasn't necessarily my fault…but what if I had come up with a better strategy to get to him faster? Maybe he wouldn't have died...and maybe it wouldn't have made a difference—we'd never know now.

I could send someone to their death with one wrong move. That someone could be Lyn, Hector, Rebecca, Sain, Wil, Eliwood…or Kent.

Which brought up another depressing topic. Even though I'd kissed him back on the Davros, he still had feelings for Lyn—and that wasn't likely to change anytime soon. Hells, she might even end up feeling the same way about him. And where'd that leave me? There was still that memory to think about…had I met Kent when I was younger? The resemblance was uncanny, and the boy's father had referred to him as Kent…I knew I'd still travel after all of this was over, there was no doubt about that—that is, if I survived, and we succeeded. Yet…

I sighed, shaking these thoughts out of my head. It wouldn't do to dwell on the inevitable.

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"Sorry!" the voice was distinctly male.

"Ugh." I sat back up, rubbing the back of my head. What the heck just happened? It seemed that I had slammed into someone on accident. "Wha…what was that?" I shook my head, trying to clear it.

A hand was thrust into my line of vision, and I took it, reluctantly. I wasn't quite sure I was ready to stand after that...I could have a concussion.

They must have understood this, too, because they took my other hand as well and slowly raised me to my feet again. I was surprised at who I had run into—despite the fact that it felt like I had run into a brick wall, it was a young boy, about my age. His hair was a bright color of orange—and his eyes were amber.

Regardless of his gentle treatment, my head still spun, and nausea hit my stomach.

The boy's eyes widened in horror as he saw my face, and my mother's circlet.

"You're…you're a noble? I apologize—I should've been watching where I was going." From the look in his eyes, it was as though he was afraid I was going to call my guards to throw him in jail or something.

"It's fine…I don't have guards…" my voice sounded sluggish.

"What?"

"Have we met before…? You seem familiar…"

"Milady, I think you might have a concussion." He slipped an arm around my waist. "Let me take you to a priest."

"Hmn. That would be for the best…who are you, anyways?"

"My name is Kent—I'm training to become a knight of Caelin."

"And I'm Saige…I'm a noble, but both of my parents are…dead."

"I'm sorry…"

I shivered—the cold had snapped me out of that memory. I tried focusing on it again, but it slipped away from me like sand through my fingers. So I had met Kent when I was younger…but he didn't remember me…?

We'd been sailing on the Davros for almost two weeks now—and there were no indications of a storm like the one we'd had on the way to Valor, much to my relief, though I still couldn't help the fear that remained.

"So…Saige." I jumped at the voice.

"Yes, Sain?" I turned, leaving my back to the railing. "I'm surprised you aren't still harassing Kent."

"Why is it that our conversations always come back to Kent?" the green knight leaned closer, that smirk on his face again. "Besides, there's not much I can do on a ship."

I sighed, "There's plenty you could do to him…I mean—" I cut off as the smirk grew into a smile.

"No, no, go on. Tell me what you would like to do to him."

My brow furrowed in anger, and I swung my hand up and slapped him in the face for a second time. "How dare you?"

"Wha—"

"Augh!" I stormed off, leaving him there.

"W-Wait, Saige! I didn't mean it!"

"Yeah, bull!" I called back over my shoulder.

I paused outside of the door that led into all of our adjoined bedrooms. Had I seriously just said that? I really needed to stop even listening to the pirates' conversations—otherwise I'd end up talking like one of them.

When I pushed my door open, I saw something that I definitely hadn't been expecting.

"Jayna? Sweet Elimine! What are you doing?"

The said swordswoman was sitting on the floor, going through my pack.

"I—well, I'm doing what any good friend does! I'm going through your things, of course!"

I slapped a hand up to my face. "You…make no sense whatsoever."

"You can tell an awful lot about a person from what they have in their bags…besides; I haven't seen you in years! I figured I'd…I don't know, I guess I just thought this might bring us closer again. You seem so much more comfortable with everyone else, and…"

"Ugh." I closed the door behind me, trudged over to my bed, and flopped on top of it. "Whatever."

"Is something wrong, Saige? You've seemed a little…off."

I opened one eye, gazing at her lazily, before rolling onto my back. "Yeah…I suppose so."

"Having trouble with the men?"

My eyebrows just about shot into my hairline. "How'd you know?"

"Best friend's intuition. So what's the problem?"

"Well…you know Kent, right?"

"The paladin? The one who's so uptight?"

"Yeah…that's the one."

A pause, then, "Am I supposed to know what's wrong just from that?"

"I thought you had 'best friend's intuition'!"

I could hear her sigh, "I did, but I'm not that good. Care to clarify?"'

"He has feelings for Lyn…still."

"Still? Sounds like you did something that you thought might change that…?"

"I suppose I might've thought that at one time…" I interlocked my hands behind my head. "Yeah, I was being foolish and went and kissed him."

There was a little squeal from Jayna—and she was at the side of the bed, looking up at me, in an instant. "You did? What was it like?"

"Um…I don't know?"

"And he still has feelings for this…Lyn?"

"Yes, Lady Lyndis. We're good friends, so it's impossible for me to even consider hating her."

"Hmm…and is there anyone else?"

"I guess…maybe Eliwood?" Her face fell at this, so I continued on. "Well, I mean, since you're so smitten with him…"

"No, if you…I'll be forfeit in any relationship if you do have…feelings for him."

I was silent for a moment as this information sunk in. "You…you're a good friend, Jayna."

She gave a sad smile at this, and said, "So does that mean you'll…"

"…Only if you want me to…" I said slowly.

She sighed. "Oh, well. He was good prey, but I'm sure I can find someone else."

My mouth curved up a little. "Prey?"

"Oh, you know!" she waved her arms around. "You know what I mean!"

"Well, actually, I don't."

"Grr…you're so infuriating when you want to be, Saige!"

"Yes, that is a certain quality that I possess."

"Raughhhhhhhhhhh!" She finally snapped and leapt at me.

Luckily, my reflexes had been honed by the battles we'd fought so far. I quickly used my pillow to ward her off, but I had miscalculated, at it hit her square in the face.

I froze and she stopped in her tracks, a mere foot away from the bed. "You…did not just do that."

"I did." That smirk slipped back onto my face as I braced myself.

However, I was simply a tactician—I had very little combat experience—whereas Jayna had been practicing fencing for years. When she moved, it was lightning fast, ripping the pillow out of my grip and sending it in an arc towards my face in a few short seconds.

"Nooo—!" I cried, but my voice was abruptly cut off as the pillow smacked me in the face. I was trying to kick her off the bed, but I just seemed to be hitting air. "St-op it!" She was hitting me repeatedly, while I tried to stifle my laughter.

Finally, she moved back. "You're never going to do that again, are you?"

I sat up, propping myself on my arms. "Well…it depends on the circumstances."

Her eyes narrowed. "Oh?"

"It depends on whether or not…I've got a pillow myself!" I had grabbed the other pillow while we'd been talking, and now swung it up and around to hit her in the side of the head.

"Hey!" She said as I leaped off the bed and backed to the other side of the room.

"You'll never get your revenge now!" I cackled, before running through the door into the other rooms as she gave chase.

"Come back here!"

"Catch me if you can!"

I heard Hector say, presumably to Eliwood, "Are those…pillows?"

A/N: Did anyone see the bit of a déjà vu moment there in the last line? And yes…the pillow fight was definitely not planned, but I think I like how it turned out.