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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN EXTRA : IMPRISONER OF MAGIC

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With Uhai's dying words still sounding in their ears, we venture deep into the forest's heart. Lyn moves in utmost silence, cautious not to alert any hidden enemy. However, following on her path, a new Black Fang shadow appears.

We walked again later that day, and it was not so hard as there was no sun. It was hard, on my part, as I felt my entire body feel…heavy. My mind was craving things I can't have as well—Anko's tarts, Sir Alecto's lap, Xarin's stew, Mark's arms. I just wanted to go home.

Lord Hector was right, and Matt was right. I was just a kid. But I couldn't just leave them—I had to look out for them. I had to grow up for them, and I had to look ahead. We were at Valor. Lord Eliwood's father is here. Everything ends with Lord Elbert—then we can all go home and I'll go back to Bern and stay there while I can. I had no formal study, but I'm educated—I can read and I can write. I'm sure I can find a living somewhere… and hope Sir Alecto doesn't think me a burden and marry me off to some random stranger.

I penned a letter to Mark during our break, though I knew it'd take a while before I could send it. And as he was wandering around Bern looking for a way to practice tactics, I don't even know where I should send it. I wrote it in hopes that he'd magically hear it if I did, but that's just stupid.

We walked ahead—we did not look back. Matt was trying to be his normal self—I noticed he's keeping himself busier than usual. He talks with almost everyone and tugs on Guy's braids and Serra's ponytails when he's bored, constantly sending the latter two in a frenzy. Guy tries to ignore it first, but then Serra causes an uproar, and Matt laughs. I didn't understand what he was doing. Why doesn't he just cry? I had a feeling he was going to be out for revenge, trying to avenge Leila. Hopefully I'm wrong…

Lyn was in the lead, looking for the site we needed. "Turn west from the great rotted tree," Uhai said before he died. The fog has thinned, so we didn't have to walk with torches.

I felt a tap on my shoulder, and I turned around. It was Erk. "Are you… alright now?" he asked.

"Oh, I was well to begin with!" I told him. Agh, just why was I lying? It's pointless.

"You're not doing a good job acting," he told me. See? It was pointless.

I sighed, and took a deep breath. I was depressed to the core, but something inside me screamed to be like Matt—I can't be like this forever. I forced on a smile and said, "This is… it just happens, and I just didn't know how to react. But we have to go on, right?"

He only nodded. "Well… I'm glad to hear that you're fine now."

And then he trudged off.

Gods! Erk, were you dense! I wasn't well at all!

I felt as if a thorn had been pulled from my heart when he went away. I could not take acting at all—I can't! It killed me from inside. Though I may have done it well, it just hurt me. I can't bear with not being real at all. If I'm hurt I have to cry, and if I'm stabbed I had to scream. How can Matt last doing this? Laughing when he's hurt, smiling when he's pained?

Then again he was a thief. I know a lot about them from Anko—they acted, lied, and snuck around for a living. Anko smiled and laughed even if there was nothing funny. Anko could stab herself and keep her mouth shut. It amazed me how silent she could be when she wanted to be—I've seen stitches sewn into her skin (by her collarbone, out of some accident) and she didn't mouth a single word. In fact, she was laughing as if the needles tickled her. And she would later say "It didn't hurt at all!" even if in the recesses of her mind she thought it hurt like hell.

Why did they have to hide their feelings so much?

The group stopped, and I found before us a tall tree, probably centuries old. The leaves were all withered and there were small holes in the trunks, with some worms protruding from them. The roots were thick, a lot of them raised from the ground. I felt a chill creep my spine—I have never seen a tree like this before. It was so huge, and it stank of… death.

"A great, rotted tree," Lord Eliwood began. I had noticed that Canas kept on walking, eyes glued to his book. Lord Eliwood continued, "This would appear to be—"

A sudden scream surprised us—Canas tripped over a root! He fell face-first into the soil, and… we laughed. It just seemed like the right thing to do!

And so there went the chill on my spine. Poof. It was gone.

Bartre helped the shaman up, and then gave him a slap on the back—to which Canas coughed and muttered a nearly incorrigible 'thank you'. When the shaman bent down to pick up his books and assured us he was alright, Lord Eliwood cleared his throat, as if to say, "Where were we?"

That was just so priceless. The eerie aura of the tree faded in a snap. Rather we'd all remember it as the tree that Canas tripped over.

"So," Lyn said with a smile, "if we move west from here, we'll reach the Dragon's Gate, right?"

"OK, let's go!" Lord Hector said, and almost enthusiastically he and Lyn set off.

I went over to Sir Canas, and picked up a book he left on the ground. I studied it first—it was a rather new volume, which was odd. Upon closer examination, it was of Bernese make. How can I tell? My people have an odd habit of binding things in metal rather than in leather. It's a tedious work, but we have mines in the southeast that have loads of metal, so we don't use them conservatively.

"Oh, thank you, young lady," Canas said as I handed the book to him. When I faced him, he brightened up as if he remembered something. "Oh yes!" he said. "I remembered!" I gave him a puzzled look.

"Your mentor," he said. "He's the greatest strategist ever known to Elibe, and he had worked for Bern."

Well, that's not surprising news now. "I guess he was. He is sort of popular and influential with the people…" Such as, he got me into the Military Academy even if I was no noble, and even if I was a girl. No girl studies warfare in Bern—but Sir Alecto was able to pull some strings. So it's either he's really well-known, or he's just really scheming, like Anko. (I still wasn't able to graduate and get my license, though!)

"I can't believe it!" he shrieked. "I'm fighting under the student of the great Alecto! My wife won't believe this—we had thought he was dead! …He's still well, isn't he?"

"As well as well can be," I told him.

And so I walked along with Sir Canas, telling him of my life with Sir Alecto. Well, I was dead tired, and I longed for my family, so why not talk about them instead, since I can't go home?

Maybe Matt wasn't hiding his feelings—maybe he just knew that Leila would want him to move on and 'not shirk his duties', as he said.

Maybe I had to do the same.

-----

I was telling my stories to Sir Canas, and Fiora walked along us, too. "Father—I mean, Sir Alecto is a very, very kind man. But very mysterious," I said. I showed them the pendant Sir Alecto gave me, and held it up to the sky. It very nicely reflected what light was there in Valor. "We've always sort of guessed he was affiliated with Bern a lot, but there's not a word of confirmation of this from his mouth. I think he thinks that it's best it was kept secret."

Fiora examined the pendant. "The design looks familiar…"

Canas then looked at it, and nearly jumped when he recognized the pattern. "Oh my goodness, Kumiko!" he said. "This is one of Bern's royal jewels! Only a member of the royal family has this!"

"W-What?" I knew it had the royal insignia, but I didn't know it was a royal jewel! "…Sir Alecto couldn't have stolen it…"

"Then maybe someone gave it to him, because he gained their trust," said Fiora.

We settled at that. I started telling my stories again. "So, we have seven other members… Firstly, there's Anko. She's my bestfriend. She's no tactician, but she's a clever, scheming one. Sometimes I hate her and wonder why she's my best friend. Then there's Mark. He's like my older brother, and he's really wise. Then there's Xarin—she's serious and quiet most of the time, minding her work before anything else, but that aside she makes killer stews. And Nerisa—she's got a job on Ilia now. She's also very mischievous, so when she and Anko are together, it's bound to be a mess. There's Jenro, and he's supposedly in Lycia now, finishing his book about the mysteries of Elibe. And Knarrd… he's quieter than Xarin, and wiser than Mark. He's a shaman like you, Sir Canas. But he's very young. And he doesn't seem to age at all. Then there's Miguel. He's actually a cavalier and is training now in Etruria as a knight."

Ah, I miss my family… It's been a long while since we all sat down and were together…

------

We had continued to walk on, and I decided to take a breather and sit under a tree, even for a few seconds. Luckily the tree was not dead, so it offered shade. But I may have wanted sun. The fog may have thinned out, but the air was cool of fine mist and the sky was cloudy. As if to say that the sun does not shine brightly in the Dread Isle. That just made it even more dreadful.

I wrapped my arms tightly around myself. Ugh, was it cold. My hands were all chilly as well.

I felt something tap my shoulder, and turned around to face Erk. He didn't speak—he was handing out a Fire Tome for me.

"What's this for?" I asked.

"I bought a new one at Badon. I gave this one to you, didn't I?"

"That's thoughtful, but I think it'd have more use in your hands, Erk," I said.

He shrugged, as if to say, "maybe".

"You look like you can use it, though. Open a page, you'll know what I mean."

And he left the tome at my lap, and then walked on. Is it just me, or is he avoiding me as if I'm a plague again?

I was puzzled, but I opened the tome midway. There was a bunch of gibberish written that made my head ache for a while—and then relieved me. I stared at the odd letters carefully—I could not understand them, but why was it that I felt that with every letter, my mind was being opened to something?

I traced the letters with my fingers. And oddly, the pages were warm.

Wait—did I just say 'warm'?! Whoohoo!! I planted my hands on the pages. It was warm! It was a Fire tome, wasn't it? Made sense!

I was enjoying that, and it seemed that a warm wind also took me, embracing me. Oh, gosh, that is so comforting. I don't ever need a cloak if I have something like this. Oh, I do love you, Erk.

-----

I have to recover. I have to recover. I was repeating the words like some magic chant as I caught up to the group, trying to balance the Fire tome on my head as walked. I was doing a pretty successful job. For some reason the tome actually kept me warm when it was near me. How come I never noticed it before?

I was walking around, mind on the tome on my head, when I suddenly heard voices. In screams. Screams loud enough for the whole world to hear.

It was Lord Hector and Lyn.

"Stop yelling at me!" Lyn told the other lord, and she looked very distressed as she pointed a finger to lord Hector and stomped her feet to the ground. "It's because of that clattering armor you're wearing! I'm just saying we have to move cautiously. Nothing more!"

"I know!" Lord Hector screamed back. "And I'm saying that I'm doing my best!"

I saw Lord Eliwood rush off towards the two to break of their argument. "Quiet, both of you!" Lord Eliwood said. "Armor or no, if you two keep shouting like that, every enemy from here to Pherae itself will hear us!"

The two looked apologetic, but to Lord Eliwood, and not to each other. Oh boy. I remembered that scene in Fargus' ship—seems like friction between Lyn and Lord Hector was meant to be. And I remembered Matt's tiny advice—we had to do something to make them get along.

I walked back to the group—and guess what greeted me. Chaos.

"MATTHEW!!! STOP PULLING MY HAIR!! I've had enough of it and I don't care if Leila just died—just stop messing my ponytails or I'll tell on Lord Hector!! So stop!!"

"Hah! Make me!"

"Sain, you incorrigible lout! Must you truly hit on every woman you come across?! I swear you would hit on my horse if I put a skirt on it!"

"Kent, hear me! You'll grow old fast because you're so stiff and you barely take time to relax! When you're old and you're regretting things, you'll remember my words--!"

"Erk!! Help me!! Make Matthew stop pulling my hair!!"

"Serra, why must you always see me?! Can't you leave me alone to read in peace?!"

"You just left home with brother without saying anything!! Not a thing!! You didn't even send a letter!! I bet you and brother forgot all about me, never thinking of what I felt, alone at home and missing you both!"

"Rebecca, why won't you just listen to me?!"

Chaos.

I trudged off to Fiora, Priscilla and Florina, who were standing there, dumbfounded. Lucius was away a safe distance, hands clasped together in what was probably a prayer to stop this nonsense. I couldn't find the rest.

I groaned. "What has come into these people?"

"W-Well," Florina spoke, voice tense and shaking. All the shouting must be scaring her. "We were just walking and they all started arguing…"

I rolled my eyes, and then turned to Fiora. "They're not like this all the time. I hope this doesn't scare you."

"Not at all," she said. "But it's just… odd."

Matt kept teasing Serra and Serra kept bugging Erk. Sain and Kent were in a heated debate and Wil and Rebecca were having some misunderstanding. Rebecca even kicked Wil. Argh! The noise! The last thing we need is Bartre coming around and declaring world domination. My head hurts. My head hurts…

The unwanted happened—I made out Bartre's voice in the middle of the noise (not hard) as he screamed, "Aaargh!!! Do you think it's my fault?! Are you calling me stupid?!"

Then came Merlinus' sharp shriek from his tent. "Aaaaaaaah!!! No!! Don't touch that!! You'll break it!! Get your hands off--!!"

That was just what I needed. Ugh.

I took a deep breath, and then opened my mouth to scream at the top of my lungs---"SHUT UP, FOR ELIMINE'S SAKE!!!"

They all fell silent. That did it.

They all stared at me, dumbfounded. And a hand held me on the shoulder. "Kumiko…"

It was Guy. I turned to him and snapped, "What?! I knew that was loud and I knew that was rude, but for crying out loud these people don't even know how to feel!! Someone had just died and they're fighting and they could die next, but they can bother to scream and tease and drive my head insane!! Or are you going to tell me that I'm highly useless and uncompetitive, too, like Lord Hector tells me?! Or you going to tell me, too, that I'm too young to be trusted in this sort of mission and should be left home to rot and wait for a cursed man to marry me as if that was all a girl's life was about?! What?! What are you going to tell me?!"

Guy was shocked, and he backed away. I was breathless. Everyone was silent.

Marcus then rode into the scene, Lowen not far from him. The paladin was a little baffled by our state, but then he just said, "Enemy troops ahead. We have to fight, Lady Tactician."

I groaned. Just what I needed. Another fight. I screamed my orders and everyone stirred to action.

-----

"That was not very nice."

The comment was from Raven, and he spoke it very plaintively, as we marched towards the enemies. His sword was in his hand, ready to go cutting up people anytime.

He must mean my emotional outburst of rage earlier on. I didn't know that he was there. I rolled my eyes. "Well, who are you for me to listen to?"

For some reason I couldn't help but act like a brat.

"You struck me more as the… compassionate kind of tactician. I just found out that you were like the lot of them who only care about winning."

"Least I didn't care for revenge." Like Lyn fought to avenge her family and now her grandfather, like Hector and Matt fought to avenge Leila.

Raven threw me a sharp, killer look, as if I had said something that offended him. During normal circumstances his look would scare me, but now was not a normal case. I threw the look he gave me back at him, and he walked off. Well, that was odd.

------

We were fighting a horde of enemies and our group was fending off wave after wave. We left Merlinus alone as to charge at the enemies, because Lord Eliwood, too, was growing impatient. He just wanted to get this over and done with, so we launched a full attack. Those Black Fang won't know what hit them.

We were evenly matched, I say. The enemies have a balanced horde—a decent number of fighters and archers and mages and flyers. Whoever leading them must have decent brains, if not good.

"Kumiko!!" I saw Sain riding towards me, carrying… something in his hands. He stopped before me, and got off his horse. I rolled my eyes. I still wasn't feeling well, and here was Sain, grinning like nothing happened. Sometimes ignorance is wonderful. And I have just found out from Lucius, much to my relief, that no, Sain did not use the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation thing on me. What a relief.

"Sain, if this is not a matter of supreme importance, please, spare me."

"I think it is!" he said. I still can't believe him. He held out an item to me—some small stone figurine of some woman.

"What is that supposed to be?"

"Can't you recognize it?! It's a statuette of the goddess of Luck!"

I blinked at the figurine. It didn't do anything, because I can't even differentiate the goddess of Life from the goddess of Death. The only deity I knew of was the god of war, and his wife—and that's a demand of the job, really.

"How are you sure that that is the goddess of Luck?"

"Of course I'm sure! I know all of the beautiful goddesses by their names!"

What else would one expect from Sain?

"Here, keep it," he said. "It'll bring you good luck. Maybe your bad luck will end with this!"

"I don't have bad luck!" I said. "If I have bad luck, may lightning strike me where I stand now!"

And so Sain looked up to the skies, as if waiting for the lightning to come. Stupid.

"See, Sain? It's not going to happen—I do not have bad luck."

"Look out!"

Sain seized me and we crashed to the ground… and lightning struck. Right where I was standing a while ago. It was one huge flash, with a following thunder. The grass it hit was charred black.

I blinked in disbelief. "…What was that?"

"Lightning, I think," Sain said. We got up, and he said, "See, you do have bad luck. You should take the charm!"

I dusted my robes and said, "Look, Sain. I don't believe in luck. And I don't believe in lucky charms either! Look!" I rummaged through my bag and took out a smaller pouch, and showed its contents to Sain—a massive amount of small "lucky" trinkets and such. There was one or two from Anko, three from Jenro, one from Mark, two from Nerisa, four from Miguel—I couldn't keep count. Everyone it seems at the Tactician Guild loves giving these things to me just to tease me. "I have lucky wyvern scales, Pegasus feathers, wyvern tooth, lucky knots, lucky lock of hair, lucky everything! And they don't change a thing—they just make my bag heavier."

"Of course they don't change a thing!" Sain said. "Because none of them are really of the goddess of Luck! You must have this, Kumi! It'll keep you safe!"

"Yeah, right," I said. I pulled out my very heavy logbook to put back all my trinkets. I wiped my forehead with the same hand that was holding up my logbook—it certainly was getting hot here.

And then it happened—some force hit me, and I nearly fell over, but Sain held me. I had no idea what just happened—until I looked at my logbook, with a silver arrow stuck through it. And I had been holding it up to my forehead. I could have died.

Sain held up the statuette to me. "I guess that tells you to keep it."

I groaned and took it. "What harm can it possibly do?"

----

Later I ordered Sain to attack someone, and then it happened. I didn't know what it was, but it happened.

I wave of red rushed over all of us. The skies turned red, the fields turned red, the trees turned red—everything was bathed in reddish light. I blinked and clutched my head, thinking that this was a hallucination of some sort. Maybe I was nearing insanity, as I was insane to talk to cats and such anyway.

But Sain said, "What's going on?!" and a few others echoed his question. So I was not the only one seeing it. I noted that the enemies were surprised, too.

And then I heard a scream.

It was Lucius, not a great distance from me, who screamed as he buried his hands in hair and crumpled to the floor. He screamed as if something tore the life out of him from inside—this isn't good!

"Lucius!" I ran to him, and I was dead worried. I took him in my arms and his Light tome fell to the floor—and he screamed again as if he didn't recognize me, and then he fainted.

"What's wrong?!" I asked. I was nearing panic. The world has turned red and Lucius had acted like never before.

"Wake up! Wake up!" I heard Dorcas speaking. I turned to face him and found him lightly shaking a fainted Canas who was as limp as an old vegetable.

"What's wrong with him?!" I asked.

Wil was around to answer. "We have no idea! He just fell down on his own!"

First Lucius, and now Canas?! What was going on?!

"What's—What's--?!" That was Erk. He was not far from me—he was holding his tome, looking at it desperately. "Who won't it--?!" He began shaking the book, and then resorting to chanting a really lengthy incantation, then declaring "thunder". Nothing happened.

"W-What's the big idea?!" Serra spoke now. Great. What was the issue here?! I turned to her direction and found her holding her staff over one of Lowen's wounds—but oddly the staff wasn't glowing radiant white. "W-What's going on?! My staff's not working! Blessed Elimine, help me! What's going on?!"

By gut feel I turned to search for Priscilla and found her trying to heal a bleeding Dart. Trying. Her staff wasn't working as well. "I—I—", she stuttered as she stared at Dart's wound, and unable to do anything, she rummaged in her small bag for a vulnerary.

I literally felt my breathing become difficult. Things were scaring me—the red surroundings, staves not working, our allies fainting out of the blue. Canas and Lucius were not really made of tough material, but I knew they took their rests and were not tolerant of pain or martyrdom whatsoever. What was going on?!

I was still holding onto Lucius when I felt a hand grip my shoulder, as if leaning for support. I turned to see Erk, who was clutching his chest as if it hurt horribly, as if he couldn't breathe. He fell kneeling to the ground, to my level, and he said, in barely a whisper, "There's… something… odd…"

And then he fell to the ground, unconscious, his tome left lying open beside him.

"E-Erk!" I was shocked. Panicked, even. There was definitely something odd here at work—as I said with Lucius and Canas, Erk was not made of tough material, but he definitely won't faint just like that!

My eyes caught his open Thunder tome on the ground—I saw some light, some sort of aura emerge from it and then dissolve into thin air. As if something sucked the life out of it. As if something sucked the magic out of it. I glanced at my hip pouch—the same thing happened. I put the Fire tome I had in there.

I knew what it was.

And then I felt my breathing stop—literally.

I gasped, and clutched my chest, forcing myself to breathe but I can't. The world was still red and Lucius and Erk were still at my feet. I could barely move. And then I heard it—a thin, piercing sound that wouldn't leave me. It drove me mad—it would not leave. I buried my hands in my head, thinking that I should shake it badly and pull on my hair badly to get rid of this scene. I screamed and screamed and screamed, but I couldn't hear my voice. And then everything was black.

----

I opened my eyes, and could feel myself sweating hard. I looked around—the world was in many colors again. I could breathe. It all seemed like a dream, and this moment an escape from a nightmare.

But it wasn't. I turned to find Erk, Canas, and Lucius lying on the carpet, beside me. Where were we? I recognized the place to be Merlinus' tent.

"Oh, thank the gods!" That was Merlinus' voice. I found him sitting on a stool, looking below us, fanning us with a slice of wood. "You're finally awake!"

I clutched my head. Ugh. I could still hear that awful, thin sound in my head. ""What happened?"

"They say you passed out in the middle of battle!" Merlinus said. "They rushed all of you back here!"

"The entire place was red," I said. Merlinus didn't understand me at all.

In a few seconds, Erk, Canas and Lucius were all up. I watched them as they first opened their eyes to the brown of the shelves and the blue of Merlinus' tent. I swear all of them looked like they felt as I did—as if we woke up from a horrible nightmare.

"…What was that?" Lucius asked.

"It seemed as if it disabled magic," Erk said. "Priscilla and Serra couldn't use their staves. The enemy mages fell as well."

"It was a Magic Seal," Canas said.

"What's that?" I asked.

He explained. "It is something or someone whose presence nullifies magic. All magic."

"Then why did you guys---"

"Magic casters invite much of the magical forces into their own selves." Erk said. Lucius was about to speak something, but Erk sort of knew what, so he said, "That includes even monks and Light Magic users. Staff-users don't do this, though."

"Then that explains things," I said.

Erk looked up to me. "But why did you faint? You're not a mage."

I didn't know. We all exchanged glances. We didn't know.

I scratched my head. My brownish-yellow hair was practically ripped out of the neat braids I wore them in. My scalp hurt. I hadn't imagined things. I had tried to rip off my hair earlier. It was no illusion.

"Maybe because I was panicked?" I offered. But we really didn't know.

And then we heard Merlinus' scream. "Oh my!! Enemies!! Ahhh!! Enemies!!"

We all ran out to find enemy Pegasus Knights heading for us. Florina and Fiora were already engaging them, and Rebecca was shooting them with her bow. The mages beside me began casting spells to support the two. Their magic worked.

But I was puzzled.

------

"It seems that the staves don't work in that red area…" Priscilla told me as she healed something on Raven with her staff. We were standing by some trees, which were green and brown as they should be, but ahead of us, everything was shaded red, bathed by that reproachful red light. Even the skies. "It was… most uncomforting," said Priscilla. "I felt weak…"

"You are well now?" Raven asked her.

"Yes, Ra---Raven." Priscilla seemed to speak the name with some difficulty.

"Lucius is well?" Raven asked me.

"He's stayed with the other mages at camp, sir. He's regained consciousness."

He just gave a nod of some sort. Then he said, "The red field doesn't seem to affect non-mages. We can fight still. But it's odd—the enemy mages fell as well, and they were surprised of this as well."

Most odd. It bugged me. If Jenro, my friend from the Tactician Guild, were here, he wouldn't let go of this mystery until he finds answers. But I was not as good as him when it comes to making up theories…

What was this all about?

----

Oddly, the leader of the enemies was a sage, and he could not use his magic, too. He made easy prey for Lord Hector's axe. The red field had not vanished with him. We moved along to find what the heck caused it.

"That's him," Lord Hector said as a group of fighters surrounding a cloaked, hooded figure came into view.

"How do you know it's him?" I asked.

"You know it's him."

And oddly, Lord Hector was right. I couldn't tell why, but inside me, I felt that that man was the cause of this red field. I could just tell it.

"What do we do?"

"Strike him down, of course!" Lord Hector said.

We marched towards that group—and had barely engaged the enemies when they had vanished, as if teleporting out of the place.

The red field lifted. Color aside from red returned to the forest.

But… who was that?

"That was odd," Lord Hector said.

Odd. Definitely odd.

I looked around—almost everyone was rubbing their eyes, as if delighted to see all the green and brown and blue. I myself was delighted. I lived around dense forests in Bern, and travelled through trees all the time that I thought I'd be sick of them—but now they're a relief to the eyes. But… what was that magic seal?

Lord Eliwood and Lyn eventually walked towards me and Lord Hector. "Is everyone well?" Lord Eliwood asked.

"Yes, somehow," the blue-haired lord responded.

"Eliwood," Lyn turned to the said lord, "I'm sorry. I said things I shouldn't have."

"No, I was shouting without thinking," Lord Hector said. "I was wrong. Forgive me."

"No, it was my fault," Lyn insisted. "If I hadn't—"

"It's no one's fault," Lord Eliwood said. "There's an eerie power here."

"…Eerie power?" I repeated, curiously.

Lord Eliwood nodded "I don't feel it any longer, but... It was meant to make us uneasy. Was it connected to that area where magic was nullified?"

Lyn looked thoughtful, and then she said, "Now that you mention it, I was so irritable... I couldn't let even the smallest thing go by without complaining. ...What could that have been? The Black Fang couldn't use magic either. So it wasn't an ally of theirs..."

I was so irritable.

Ugh. That force… whatever it was, it affected me, too…

And I realized I had some apologizing to do.

I ran off and left the three lords, and pushed on through our group who were settling their things, resting, or getting healed. I had found some of them laughing again—those who had been arguing were starting to get together again now. I had one particular person in mind.

"Guy!" I exclaimed as I tapped the Sacaean on his shoulder. He turned to face me—blood was smeared on a side of his face, some at his neck. I felt myself gasp.

He must've seen it. "Oh, this is nothing," he said, with an almost-innocent smile. "I was sweating, so I wiped my face and my neck with my hand—didn't notice my hand was stained with blood."

I nodded—it seemed he wasn't lying. There wasn't a wound anywhere. It still looked a little frightening, though. I rummaged in my bag for something to clean him up with—no luck.

"W-Wait a second," I said as I rummaged some more, "I'll get something…"

"Don't mind," he said. And then he wiped his face with his sleeve.

"That'll be a pain to wash," I remarked, staring at the blood stains on his shirt.

He just shrugged.

"Listen, Guy…"

He looked down to me, and then blinked. He was curious.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier. You were only concerned for me, right?"

His expression softened into a smile, as he scratched his head. His braids were starting to loosen, too. "Well, that's fine now," he said. "Can't blame you, though. We've been through a lot. That makes it hard to keep cool!"

He was right. I told myself that I'll keep my temper in check from now on, and I won't let my emotions get the better of me. I had work to do.

End of Chapter.

A/N:

About the Matt VS Legault matter…

At level 20 thief, my Matt has 9 STR, 10 SKL, 20 SPD, 16 LCK, 9 DEF, 5 RES. In comparison Legault has 12 STR, 19 SKL, 20 SPD, 17 LCK, 10 DEF and 6 RES. That's Legault beating Matt on every stat (and that's Matt with the stat+ items). And add to the fact that Guy maxes speed before Matt does. So when it's time to give off that Fell Contract, I tend to give it to Legault. He just outshines my Matt on all my games as a thief. 'Course, he has the hard mode bonus, and the tactician bonus (since he's the same affinity as my tactician, Kumi) So I almost always give it to Legault. I'll give Matt a shot again this time… Maybe it's just my games that are all Matt-RNG-screwed. His level-ups hate me!

Yeah, you get a goddess icon on this stage from Renault, and I was wondering who to give it to… so I gave it to Kumi. Let's assume the Lightning that hit Kumi was from a Bolting Tome.

Sain: tugs on kageshoujo's sleeve Ehh, lovely writer or our fates, I should tell you something! Well, no one uses the Bolting tome on this stage. Not even the boss on Hard mode!

Me: What?! No one has a Bolting tome here?? Ehehe… let's just say I gave them one. Or it's that lucky goddess intervening for Kumi's sake.

For some blessed reason I'm too bored yawn to continue to the next chapter. Right now I'm working on a story in a fandom that's probably foreign to you all guys. I might not finish this fic. *shudders* I can't find it in me to continue the next chapter!! Rargh!! I need motivation!! Mo-ti-va-tion!! That's it, I'll go take a hike and wait 'til Kumi tells me what to do next. She hasn't been speaking to me lately (I mean that in the most normal way possible), so I can't quite get the Kumi voice to pop out and I can't keep writing. I think I've been cursed. Or now that Leila's gone, I don't have something to look forward to to write. Or just that I'm really, really bored with my life. Okay, I'll shut up. I'll go take that hike.

Thanks to: FireEmblem MewMew, Xirysa, Derra, Terran34, and DarkBlaziken. I think you guys are the only ones reading me right now. O_O So I love you all. Thanks in advance to whoever will drop a review. Kageshoujo out.