Looong author's note this time.

Technical stuff I fumbled and was brought to my attention by The Fool Arcana, there's more to Star Stroke than I thought, apparently it involves creating a spark when you drag it across the ground initially, so it wouldn't work with the daggers. Whoops. So, sooner or later I'll go back and change the "Double Star Stroke" to something that makes more sense, and I'll start randomly calling that move something else with a different explanation. Just so you know what that's all about...

Anything else important...ah, someone was a little confused why Letha had an attack of aer sickness. Here's my simple explanation: aer is kinda accumulating in her system (or constantly wearing at her, you could say) because her body's not used to it. She's developed higher tolerance than when she first arrived, so the attacks become less frequent. But cases like being near an aer krene, or using more artes than usual, or something that severely weakens her (like having to recover from nasty wounds) will result in aer sickness. How bad that'll be depends on the circumstances.

There are more omakes up~! Anyone who hasn't noticed the updates, mosey on over and look for Rita's Little Accident, Good Deed, and Talk With a Sleep Walker. That nearly covers all the requests I got over the holiday season. Umm, there is one more, but it'll take a little while.

Also another poll in my profile, this one was just made on a whim for some giggles. *sweat* Made a few changes to it after finishing this chapter.

So, I've noticed another bandwagon trundling along through town to join the SI fanfiction one I jumped on. I'm talking about the latest trend of SI OCs getting their own formsprings. Are you guys interested in that? Given, I'm not saying I'll actually make one for Letha or it wouldn't just die if I did, but I'm curious on your opinions.

Angelic:

Heheheh, for once Letha is being the corruptive influence...though probably not the most shocking thing Raven has heard before.

ImpishInfamous:

Aww, Yeager's off? I shall have to work on that, I shall... He's a very complicated personality, even knowing his background it's still kinda hard to figure out what's going through his mind. On the other hand, if after twenty-eight chapters that's your only major criticism then I'm doing pretty well (unless you're being nice and not pointing out dozens of other problems? Oh dear...). I'll try to do even better for all of my readers!

x x x

Chapter 29: I'm More a Thinker Than a Diver

x x x

"This thing all things devours; birds, beasts, trees, flowers. Gnaws iron, bites steel, grinds hard stone to meal, slays king, ruins town, and beats high mountain down!"

I paused again, giving my audience a chance to try guessing this one.

Karol furrowed his brow, and started asking the names of various monsters I'd never heard of before, and didn't bother trying to remember.

Rita was rattling off different theorized formulas she claimed could achieve all, or most, of those results, and I had to head her off and remind her there were no blastia in this story.

Yuri was just listening, walking ahead a little bit with Repede. I'd been wondering if he'd been able to figure out any of the riddles on his own and just didn't answer so he could watch the others struggle.

I didn't think Raven was really trying, he was just saying whatever first came to his head as being "funny." Or complaining that the one about eggs made him hungrier. I had noticed that the fish riddle, the one that starts with, "Alive without breath, as cold as death," made him pale a bit. He had covered by loudly declaring it must be his ex-girlfriend, and that he'd always suspected she was cold blooded.

But between them, Estelle and Judith managed to guess most of the riddles. Estelle had apparently read similar ones in a book somewhere (go figure) and Judith "just had a hunch" about the ones the princess didn't understand.

"Oh!" Estelle's eyes lit up with anticipation. "Is it-"

"Time to wrap it up," Yuri told us. "We're nearly there."

"Aaand, Yuri wins! The answer is 'time'!" I announce, pointing at the swordsman. "Bravo, your prize is an angry Gollum!"

He brushed it off with a shrug, "I've dealt with worse."

"He will stalk you for seventy years and then switch to target your yet unborn progeny." Well, not like Yuri has any siblings to provide him with a great nephew to leave his "inheritance" to. ...Geez, I just realized that made Gollum sound a bit like a child molester or something.

"...Okay, that's kinda freaky."

"I've had nightmares of him trying to strangle me in my sleep."

"Never fear, no matter how late at night it is, old Raven's always ready ta comfort a lady!" I gave Raven a light shove to the shoulder.

We'd been in sight of Torim Harbor for awhile, but there's a deceptively long stretch of time between first seeing a place and actually arriving there when you're walking cross country. Since I'd reached the part of the story where Bilbo plays a riddle game with Gollum, I tried to make the last stretch of monotonous walking a bit more interesting by encouraging everyone to interact with the story more.

Karol beamed around the port town as we entered inside the barrier. "I know we haven't been gone for long...but I have to say, it still feels good to be back."

"Should I get you pansies some tissues? Or can we go to the inn now? I'm soo hungry!" The older man rubbed his stomach and gave us a pathetic look.

"All right, all right," Yuri sighed.

Off in search of the inn! Which when thinking about it I realized we never actually spent the night in when we were last here. Right, Raven gave us his "tip" about the Blood Alliance, and we ran right back out of town.

...If memory serves, we'll get to take our time leaving this time. Yeees, and we'll be on a boat! Yay!

I also remembered that the game had a scene where the group finds a woman who tells them her flowers were blooming out of season, Rita theorizes it was a higher level of aer causing it, and Judith sneaks away to destroy the blastia causing it. The scene was humorous when you didn't know what was up, and sobering once you did.

But that flower bed wasn't on the way to the Polux I inn, so I guessed it wouldn't happen quite that way. Everyone was too hungry to put off our late lunch any longer, and there was some important planning to be done.

Our meal was pretty simple, composed of sandwiches made from the inn's leftovers since we'd arrived after the standard lunch hours. I made my own, afraid that if I left it to someone else it wouldn't match my simple but precise sandwich requirements.

What? So I can be picky about my food, who cares?

But we didn't talk about anything important until we'd retreated to a room. It wasn't exactly a great idea to casually discuss in the open that Estelle was a princess wandering around with a ragtag band of adventurers as her only protection.

"Huh. So even the Union can't sit still when it knows a princess of the empire is out on the loose." Yuri leaned against the wall next to slightly ornate dresser and table, crossing his arms as he looked to Raven for confirmation.

Estelle looked at her hands, folded neatly in her lap. "Then the Don knows that I'm a candidate for the imperial throne too."

"Yup. That's why he told me ta come keep an eye on ya." Raven sat down on one of the beds, pulling his legs up so he was sitting almost Indian style (Or pretzel, if that's how you want to call it. Since his legs weren't actually crossed I mentally categorized it as "meditative" or "butterfly").

Karol dropped down to sit on the floor, in the way that only children and very unselfconscious people do. "So you're here to observe her? That's kind of creepy." I seriously love him for saying that. Too often game characters just accept something like this without question.

"Really?" Estelle asked him with unfeigned surprise. See?

"What...? Is it just me?" Karol asked with some confusion.

"Nah, I agree with you," I assured him. "But you've probably already gotten used to being watched by people because of your position, right Estelle?"

"I suppose I have."

"Anyway," Raven continued, drawing attention back to himself, "here I finally catch up with ya and I wind up stickin' my foot in that mess back there. It hasn't been easy for old Raven," he bemoaned.

"...But why worry so much about Estelle?" Karol still questioned.

"It's only natural considering the state of things between the empire and the Union," Rita told him from her seat on the other bed. I let the others take charge of the conversation so it followed the game's pattern while I thought to myself.

Raven was ordered to watch Estelle. Raven also had been ordered to got to Nordopolica to give a letter from the Don to Belius. Now, it seemed to me it would be contradictory for the Don to not only tell a very important member of his guild to follow a princess God knew where, but also give him a very urgent note to pass onto someone he might never meet if said princess never dropped by the area. This reasoning had always made me suspect (even before I had confirmation that Raven was leading a double life) that the order to watch her actually came from Alexei.

Then again, the Don never seemed to question why Raven was following the group around, so maybe he did order it? Pretty coincidental though, that he sends the man who'd be watching us anyway. And doesn't it ever occur to anyone that it's a bit odd that the Empire doesn't also arrange for some type of observer? Given, a lot of their attempts to bring Estelle back are foiled by this group, but wouldn't they at least try to make her agree to one or two knights as an escort on her journey? Hmm, wait, Flynn's supposed to join at some point in the PS3 version...but that's like really late in the game, right?

Well, so the empire actually did have an escort provided for Estelle in the form of Raven, but then only Raven and Alexei were supposed to know about that.

While I mentally chased my tail around in circles, getting nowhere I hadn't been before when everything was just a game, Raven was filling in the details about his orders (sans the important double agent side to them). And Rita was telling us that we were idiots for planning to go find a giant bird in a desert.

I really couldn't blame Rita for thinking we were crazy. Estelle's "go there and ask around" plan was even less than half baked. If I didn't know it was going to work out, I'd be throwing my own piece in with the mage.

Yuri was looking over the envelope the letter was in, but fortunately wasn't rude enough to open other people's mail. Judith was asking Raven something, I tuned in about half way through. "-what's written in the letter?"

"Hm. It's got somethin' ta do with those monsters that attacked Dahngrest. In particular about that Phaeroh chap you all are followin'." ...Wait... "The Don thinks Belius will know somethin' about that monster."

Now why hadn't I thought of that particular detail yet? The Don knew Belius, and he knew she was an Entelexeia. That's why he'd ask her, so that lead me to the conclusion that he'd also realized that Phaeroh was an Entelexeia and not the average giant monster. And if he realized Estelle had something to do with Phaeroh's appearance...well that's another reason for the argument that he actually did order Raven to watch her.

Ahh, I was getting myself lost in my own mental labyrinth!

"Looks like it just became worth our while to pay this Belius a visit too," Yuri mused, turning the letter over once more (what, is he trying to read it through the envelope?) before passing it back to the archer.

I sighed to myself and tuned out again, as the rest was just minor details part of wrapping up the conversation. Everything important had already been said.

"Does this mean we're on our own until we leave tomorrow?" I blinked at Judith's question, and realized that with my repeated zoning out I had missed Rita leaving.

Karol nodded, "Yeah. We'll all meet down at the harbor then." Taking this as a dismissal, everyone stood up from the spots they had settled into to take advantage of the free night in town.

"Letha, are you feeling okay? You've been kind of quiet." I looked up and found that rather than leaving, Estelle was examining me with concern.

"Uh, nothing's wrong. I was just thinking." I tried smiling brightly at her, and though she didn't really seem convinced she nodded. I stood up from the corner I'd been sitting in (on the floor. Like Karol. Yep.) and brushed my coat so that it was hanging straight in the back. "I'm gonna go take a walk, finish turning a few things over in my mind. See ya later tonight."

"Alright," she nodded and stepped aside so I could leave the room. Sweet girl really. Though not so much so that I found her sickening. Of course, that type of personality didn't bother me as much in real life since it was a refreshing change from how most people act like idiots. Such purely nice people were only annoying in stories and games because they were, well, too good to be true.

I'd more or less dropped the mobius loop that was me trying to figure out who told Raven to do what. The purpose behind wandering the harbor aimlessly was to see if I'd get a reaction from my tattoo. We hadn't seen more than a small portion last time, so maybe I had missed it...

It was only about mid afternoon, so even though towns and cities were larger than their game counterparts I had a large chunk of time to search with. Hoping it was the most efficient method, I started at one end of the city and took a meandering route through the main and back streets. If you had a map of the city, you could probably trace my route as a rough zigzag or squiggle.

At some point I passed by the flower bed that was supposed to be affected by aer, and noticed a thinning stream of smoke rising from the nearby warehouse. There were workers standing nearby, shaking their heads and wondering loudly how someone managed to break the aero blastia and get away without anyone seeing anything. Go Judith.

Despite my hopes, I'd covered pretty much every corner without turning anything up. At the end I was standing down by the docks, and it looked like there was little more than a half hour left before sunset. Sighing over a wasted afternoon, I found a dock with no boat attached and took a seat with my legs hanging off the end.

Swinging my legs, I began humming some half remembered melody while I watched the waves surge in and out again under my feet. Eventually I swung my legs back up so that I was lying on my stomach, and reached a hand down to trail my fingers through the water. I froze instantly, "You've gotta be kidding me..."

Quickly I drew my hand back, pulled the glove off, and stuck my fingers back in the water. Sure enough, I could feel a warmth in my hand and a glimmer of orange light shone from the tattoo.

Some days I just hate life.

I sat up again, and while I glowered at the water, debating whether I should just jump in and get it over with, footsteps coming down the stone dock behind me (yes, docks made of stone, not the wooden ones I normally picture in a fantasy themed world). Looking back I saw someone with a jumble of easel, canvas, and boxes holding what I inferred to be paints held haphazardly in his arms.

While I watched, he somehow managed to get his leg tangled in one of the easel's legs and tripped himself, armful flying wide as he flailed his hands out to catch himself. I winced as man and painting tools all crashed down.

Not being totally heartless (as some would maintain I am) I hopped up and started gathering up the loose jars that had come out of the boxes and were about to roll off the dock edge. Opening the lid of one, I saw richly pigmented red paint, with a smell that had me wrinkling my nose. Even back home some paints had a funny odor when you opened them, and here it was likely an artist would make his own paints out of raw materials.

After screwing the lid back on, I brought them back over to the clumsy man. He was sitting up and frantically looking over the taut canvas on its wooden frame for any signs of damage. "You okay?" Now that he wasn't hidden behind a mountain of stuff, I saw he was relatively young (maybe a few years older than Yuri and me? Not as old as Raven though), had curly brown hair, and a darker skin tone that looked natural rather than tanned by the sun. There were paint stains on his hands, sleeves, the front of his shirt, and even a few smeared across his face.

"Fine, fine, happens all the time," he said cheerily, and sighed with relief once satisfied that the canvas hadn't torn. He looked up at me, and noticed my armful of jars. "Oh, thank you for your help!" He jumped up and shook my hand enthusiastically, causing me to drop several jars again. We both scrambled to pick them up before they could roll into the ocean.

He introduced himself as Vincent Russo while I helped him set up his easel. He'd come from Dahngrest to visit his older sister, and had wanted to paint the sunset from the docks while here. I could see that he'd already started, the canvas entirely filled with rough shapes and base colors.

"Would you mind if I watched?" I asked shyly. It was always a pleasure to see someone better than me work, and sometimes I even came away with some ideas of how to improve my own painting.

"Not at all, feel free!" Vincent chirped as he arranged a few dollops of paint on his pallet. Once he put brush to paint, though, his peppy personality abruptly calmed. His expression while stroking paint across canvas was so intent that I'd bet he even forgot that I was there. Occasionally he'd tuck the brush behind an ear and fumble through the jars of paint without looking, yet somehow draw out apparently the exact color he'd been looking for.

The painting was lovely, exactly the sort of sunset I'd always been meaning to try my hand at. A beautiful melding of warm oranges and reds with hints of yellow and pink splashing across wisps of clouds. Dark waves of the ocean grabbed these colors and reflected them again, creating a unity between sea and sky. The very bottom and right corner had the ends of the docks, a muted piece of humanity reaching out to touch nature's display.

"Are you almost done for the day?" A woman's voice from behind made us both jump in surprise. I turned around a found a young woman with the same dark coloring as Vincent, meaning she was probably his older sister. She grinned broadly and looked sidelong at me as she added, "Ohh, I see. You're showing off for a new girlfriend."

Gyaah! What is it about Vesperia that every man I associate with seems to automatically become a potential boyfriend? I blushed with embarrassment like I had all those other times. She laughed at my expression (apparently it wasn't quite dark enough to hid my blush) and slapped me on the shoulder. "I'm just pullin' your leg! My brother's too dorky to get a girlfriend!" Her personality...it's what you'd call "one of the guys," right?

"Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black, sis? It's not like you've had a boyfriend in years!" Vincent jabbed back.

"My own baby brother! You wound me!" she cried and threw her arms up in the air. I was a bit nervous that this would turn into a shouting match, until they couldn't fight down their grins any longer. I relaxed as the sister leaned over and gave her brother a quick hug, heedless of the new wet paint stains on his shirt. Then she turned to me and held out a hand, "My name is Grace Russo, and you've already met my brother Vinny."

"Letha Vitae," I shook hands with her. Then noticed for the first time the battered black instrument case lying on the dock next to her. "So the brother's an artist, and the sister's a musician?"

"My brother thinks he's an artist, though he just doodles all day," Grace said fondly, "but I actually have a job. The violin is just a hobby."

"Just a hobby my foot," Vincent snorted. Then he told me in a loud whisper clearly meant to be heard by Grace, "She's always playing during her free time. When we were kids she even bragged that someday she'd go to Zaphias and play for the emperor." He shrugged, "But now there's no emperor to play for, and times are tough."

"That's a shame," I murmured sympathetically. It really sucked when reality brought you crashing down.

Reality's been pretty weird for me lately, though.

Grace's eyes brightened, "Wanna hear a song?" Vincent groaned and she shot a quick glare at him. "I've been working on composing a new one!"

"Sure, I'd love to." She gestured for me to take a seat on the dock as she opened her case and tested to make sure the violin was tuned. It looked chipped and worn in several places, so I guessed she'd probably gotten it second hand, but the sound it made when she drew her bow across it was clear and striking. I grinned, excited to hear a well played violin in person. Middle school orchestras playing in annual concerts had taught me to have a healthy respect for someone who knew how to work a string instrument.

If she had played any other song, I could have smiled and complimented her honestly before returning to the inn.

Any other song.

But she played "Ring a Bell."

Hearing the opening song of Tales of Vesperia, a video game that shouldn't have more than a passing interest in my life, being played by a native of Terca Lumireis was overwhelming. It was like the impossibility of everything that had happened to me, that I had tried to brush off and act as if it were no big deal, it all suddenly came crashing down at once.

And on the violin the recognizable chorus acquired a quality that struck right to my heart.

Why were we there back to back?

Why were we there face to face?

I must be the light when you're in the dark.

If you lose me somewhere

and your tears are in the air

I will ring a bell until you feel me by your side.

I barely even noticed when the violin stopped playing, and only heard the concerned tone of Grace and Vincent's questions as they hovered over me. But I had curled up, clasping my legs in close so my face was buried in my knees and arms.

My body shook as I tried to hold in the sobs that wanted to come out with the tears burning my eyes, but I blinked them away furiously and just gripped myself tighter. I'm not sure how long I stayed that way, heedless of the siblings fluttering around me, when I heard another familiar voice.

"What's goin' on here then?"

"We don't know! I was playing and she seemed fine. Then she suddenly started crying and won't tell us what's wrong!"

"'M not cryin'," I mumbled, sounding more like a petulant child than I would have liked. I don't think they heard me anyway.

"Let old Raven handle it, comfortin' beautiful women is my specialty!"

I laughed weakly. "Sure it is. And mine is walking on water." Random, but it would be interesting. Rubbing my arm across my eyes briskly, I finally tried looking up at the (now three) people hovering over me.

"Letha?" Raven was startled to recognize me. "Hey, whadda coincidence! What are ya doin' mopin' out here?"

"Not moping, just appreciating the fine arts."

"If sis' playing was that bad, you don't have to be nice," Vincent piped up, trying to lighten the atmosphere, "I have to put up with that screeching all the time!"

"Oh, buzz off you tone deaf scribbler," Grace gave him a shove before returning her concern to me. "Are you really all right? It wasn't my playing, was it?"

"No, no, if anything your music was beautiful enough to move someone to tears of appreciation!" I smiled and let her help me back up to my feet. "I'm sure someday you'll play for a much more distinguished audience, be it an emperor or an empress!" The violinist glowed at the praise.

"Alrighty, if we're all done talkin' about music an' what makes ladies cry, we should be gettin' back to the inn before we miss dinner!" Raven threw an arm around my shoulders and saluted the siblings as he started leading me away. I waved goodbye to them and let myself be carried along by Raven's good humor.

"It's all about food with you lately, isn't it?" I said playfully, resisting the urge to sniffle, or take a deep shuddering breath of air, or any of my other habits when fighting back tears. "If you're not careful, you're gonna end up getting fat."

"We can't have that, my fans would be devastated! You'll have to help me eat it all," I shoved Raven a bit.

"Smooth way to ask a girl out to dinner. Bet you wanted to use that one on Judith."

"Alas, I couldn't find Judith darlin'," he sighed dramatically. "You'll comfort this old man's broken heart, won't ya Letha honey?" Whoops, weird associations with ZELOS now!

"Why, Raven dear, I've never been one to give out pity dates. I'd hate to be leading you on."

"Ah, fallin' for the out o' reach ladies must be my curse! How cruel is life!" Raven mimed clutching at his heart with an agonized grimace, letting me go in order to do so to greatest melodramatic effect. The sight made me burst out in laughter, unable to stop and form an appropriate comeback. Raven returned to walking normally again and gave me a crooked grin.

"Well, glad yer back to normal. It's weird seein' ya all depressed like that."

"It's not something I like doing often," I said softly.

"But sometimes ya do?" He crossed his arms behind his head. "What was that about anyway?"

"...Nothing much..." I wasn't even going to bother trying to explain my breakdown. Very little of it was anything I even felt safe sharing with anyone, much less a man who may or may not relay all of it to one of the most dangerous people I could meet in this world.

Though thinking that way made me feel guilty. Putting the possibility he was trying to learn something about me for Alexei aside, I was sure at least that Raven was honest in his attempt to cheer me up. He was a gentleman and a good guy when he wanted to be. Normally he just chose to be a clownish old pervert.

"'Nothin' doesn't give ya red eyes from cryin'."

"Dangit, they're red?" I rubbed at them with a hand, as if that would return them to normal. Wait, I don't think I actually cried enough for them to turn red yet, or at least they'd be fine by now. I frowned at him accusingly. "...They're fine, aren't they."

"Can't tell, too dark," he said easily. "But now ya can't say ya weren't cryin' before." He got me.

"...I just felt kinda homesick for a minute there." I smiled so that I wouldn't cry. "There was always someone who really loved me nearby while I grew up. It's...kinda sad to think of how I left that behind."

"Then why'd ya leave?" He must be digging now...or am I paranoid? "Sounds like ya didn't have ta."

"I kinda did. It's...complicated." Major understatement.

"Gotcha." Raven leaned in a bit, and grinned at me. "Yer family didn't like the books, did they? The ones 'without female characters'?"

"Pffft-!" I let out a fresh wave of laughter as we entered Polux I.

x x x

It might not be quite as bad as sneaking into Ragou's mansion on my own, but it was still near the top of the list of "Most Stupid Things I Have Ever Done."

I sneaked out of the inn in the middle of the night to get the heirloom piece my tattoo had indicated was near the docks. More specifically, under water near the docks. Brilliant idea.

At least I thought ahead a little bit. I wore my black Vesperia leggings and black Earth tank top, reasoning that those were least likely to get in my way and would absorb less water. Also borrowed a towel from the shared shower rooms. I had every intention of returning it! ...It and the rope I borrowed from another boat at a neighboring dock.

I spent some very miserable, cold hours (well they felt like hours, but I'd probably have gotten hypothermia if it were that long) repeatedly diving at the end of the dock. The rope was tied around my waist and the dock, just as a precaution. I couldn't see (because of an...incident when I was a child, I'm practically incapable of opening my eyes underwater, and it was dark) so I had to rely on the warmth from my left hand to try and feel for the heirloom piece.

My right hand brushed against something that felt like a thin rod with a marble on the end on the fourth dive. On the sixth I managed to find and wrap my right hand around it and pull it out from the rocks it was wedged into. I consciously avoided touching it with my left hand because I was positive Nevi wouldn't take to kindly to being summoned underwater. Amusing as I would personally find it.

Once I'd pulled myself back up on the dock, I sprawled out to just enjoy breathing and shiver in peace. Eventually I lifted the piece up before my eyes to study it in the faint light from the street lamps and my still glowing left hand. It looked pretty much just like the first one I'd found, polygonal ruby on one end, marble like sapphire on the other. Thin silver rod with vines etched into it. Though if I remembered right, some of the three Alastor had waved at me had different jewels on them. Wonder what that's about...

I considered the thin rod I held in my right hand for another moment, then tucked it safely into the secret pocket of my bag. Nevi could wait, and I didn't want to risk having some random passerby see him when he showed up with an unnecessarily flashy entrance. I'd wait until we were in a less populated area, and the others weren't likely to walk in on the meeting.

Though this meant I had to deal with my left hand glowing in the meantime. Fortunately, the light didn't shine through the material of my glove (or else why would I have bought them in the first place?) so I'd have to be careful not to take it off again when someone could notice. Uhh, actually, the others know about the whole random glowing thing already, right? Except for Judith and Raven? I doubted the others would have brought it up, if they even still remembered that conversation. Let's not bring it up. Better safe than sorry.

I toweled off, slipped my green coat, socks, and boots back on (Oh God, warmth!) and quietly made my way back to the inn.

x x x

"What, did Rita cast magic in her sleep again?"

"I only did that once! Just let it go already!"

"She can cast in her sleep? Scary!"

I had hung my wet clothes on a line by the fireplace so they'd be dry by the next morning. Unfortunately the fire had died overnight and my clothes were still damp when the others got up for breakfast. I heard them talking as I came down the stairs feeling particularly zombie like. Not enough sleep before Judith woke me up, and the muscles in my arms and legs still felt fatigued from the swim.

"We didn't even share a room, how could I have possibly cast anything at her?" I had to pause and listen in on this. What would they all decide happened during the night?

"Maybe one of you was sleepwalking?"

"Hmm, now that you mention it, I recall that she left our room for awhile during the night. I'm not sure when she came back."

"So Letha was sleepwalking, went into Rita and Estelle's room, and Rita cast Splash at her?"

"But there wasn't anything wet in our room this morning..."

"That's why I keep telling you, I didn't have anything to do with it!"

"How else could she have gotten her things wet?"

"Maybe she went for a swim."

"In the middle of the night?"

"Why not? It's the perfect time ta have some fun away from pryin' eyes."

"Or you could all just ask her, right Letha?"

"You caught me, Yuri." I came down the last few steps and joined them in the common room. "Actually, I was having trouble getting to sleep, so I went down to the docks to look at the stars." Yep, I had prepared a story. "But I tripped on something and fell in." The brief moment of silence that followed would totally have everyone sweatdropping if it were an anime. Well, maybe not Judith. I have trouble imagining her sweatdropping.

Rita threw her hands up in the air, muttering something that sounded like, "I can't believe her!" as she stalked off past me back up to her room again. The stairs creaked as she climbed up them. Oh, that's how Yuri figured out someone, namely me, was on the stairs.

"Moving on," said Yuri (Uh huh, ignore me, why don't you all?), "Everyone ready to go?"

"What should we do about Rita?" Estelle asked, looking in concern towards the stairs.

"That one has her own matters to attend to," Judith stated calmly.

"That sounds about right," our swordsman agreed. I simply waited...

The stairs behind me creaked again, "So, first to the harbor and then find a boat?" Rita came back down, her own small traveling bag in hand and a few books under her arm.

"Huh?" Karol blinked at her owlishly. "You mean..."

Yuri tilted his head a bit, "Are you coming too?"

"Yeah."

"Wasn't there somethin' you had to go do?" Raven reminded her.

"You were going to investigate the aer krene, weren't you?" Estelle looked perplexed, but not at all unhappy by the development.

"It turns out the one at Keiv Moc the Commandant asked me to look into has already been researched. I hadn't really made up my mind about which route to take to research the others."

"So you'll be using us to help with your investigations?" Judith inquired, and I couldn't help but remember her little rebuke of Estelle for using the guild for her own personal crusades. Hey hey, aren't we turning into an escort service?

Rita smiled at us, looking sweet and winning as a normal fifteen year old girl. Weeeird. "Well, there's no guarantee I won't run into trouble like back at Heliord." Admitting it might be too much for her? Where's the real Rita? "Anyway it'll be safer for me this way than going alone." The last part was delivered with the logic of a scientist, and she looked around to see if how we took it. Fortunately, she had no way of knowing my weird mental rantings...

Estelle was nearly bubbling over with relief and joy. "This means we'll be able to travel together again. I'm so happy!"

"Yeah," Rita agreed enthusiastically, then blushed a bit as she said, "I...um. You know, it's no big deal." Heheheh, forgot yourself for a moment? "A-anyway, we were going to the harbor, right?"

"Ah, ta be young again, I tell ya," Raven sighed.

"What are you talking about?" I asked him dryly, inwardly cackling since I'd been waiting to make a comment like this for ages. "My uncle has at least ten years on you and could take us all in a fight at once!"

"Seriously?" Karol asked, wide eyed in amazement.

"Well, maybe not all of us," I conceded, "but the man is pretty damn fit."

"I think I hope I never meet the guy," Raven observed.

"He's a former guild member, right?" I nodded to Estelle. "What was his name again?"

"Ludwig. Ludwig Vitae."

"Really," Raven scratched his chin, "I've been in the guilds awhile, but I can't say I've heard of him."

"Apparently he was a member of the Protectors," Karol felt the need to tell him.

"Huh, now that name sounds a little familiar." Really? I think it was before your time in the guilds, though. Raven couldn't have joined Altosk anymore than ten years ago... Well, if Karol had heard about the disbanded guild, than why not Raven?

"We were going to the harbor?" Yuri reminded us. Sheepishly we all went out through the door. Wait, why am I the only one who didn't get to eat breakfast? Stupid fairy heirloom, making me stay up late and sleep in...

x x x

Ahhhh...I could have made this longer, but I wanted to save the next parts for the next chapter...

Violin version of Ring a Bell – you tube .com/ watch?v=3ZSOdpQuSUg

Or look up Unexchanged Feelings on youtube.

Raise of hands, how many people thought it was Yuri come to comfort little depressed Letha on the docks? Come on, I know some of you thought that for at least a moment!

A little background to clarify that part, Torim Harbor is one of those places where the player has Yuri have little one on one talks with everyone in the party. Raven, when you talk to him, is on the docks. So, the way I have it we can say Yuri had his talk with Raven (which was basically "I don't really trust you, and wish we didn't have to bring you along"), Raven ends it by saying he's heading back to the inn, then after he leaves he passes by another dock (maybe heard a bit of violin before) and there's two people fussing over what appears to be a young woman curled up in pain (that's what it probably looked like to the observer). And we know how it goes from there.

I would have really liked to have some monster names to throw out there for Karol's guesses at the Hobbit riddle, perhaps one of those Gigantos or whatever they were called, but yeah. I don't really know the names of any likely generic Vesperia monsters. Same for Rita's formula guesses, but I don't know any "theorized" ones (you know, like the Rhizomata one?). I could have just made whatever up for either of them, but didn't feel quite right doing that. Not a big thing, but something I may edit someday...