Had Symphonia's song "Starry Heavens" on my playlist as I wrote this one~!

Oh my, what a fun chapter this was~ AccessBlade was given quite a few previews of various parts so she could advise me on whether Lloyd was in character.

...She is very happy.

Let's see, brief summary of what's important to know about Tales of Symphonia and Lloyd Irving for this chapter:

Lloyd was an orphan who was raised (by a dwarf) without knowing who his real parents were, just that his mother had been killed and that his father could be alive, but also might not be. From his mother he had an exsphere as a memento, typically red stones (though the one Lloyd has is blue) that work the same as bodhi blastia in battles (more or less), but the game later reveals that exspheres are made by feeding off of human lives.

He left his home on a journey to protect one of his best friends, in the process uncovered mega ultra conspiracies in his world, and yay! discovered who his real father was.

This should be all you need to know without spoiling the whole game itself for anyone who hasn't played it but is meaning to.

Thiiiiis iiiiis chapter 50! In honor of that, I've a few pictures that I'll upload onto deviant art soon (like, within the next day or two soon). And I can just see this chapter spawning an omake later. Well, if it does it does. And before I forget again, a while back Natsuki Ayaka made fanart of Letha. I mentioned it in the latest drabbles author's note, but kept forgetting to mention it in the main fic's author's notes for some reason. http: /natsuki ayaka. deviantart. com/#/ d46cclo

Angelic:

You think that's bad? You should hear the other crazy stuff that goes on in my head and I am oh, so tempted to try writing just to see if I can. Half of them are impossible pairings, all for the sake of making you shippers cringe. ;)

Lloyd is...well, being Lloyd. All will be explained, or at least just enough to keep Letha from going completely crazy.

bright night:

Yo! Hello again! Yeah, I love it when Raven does that too, and when you think about it it's such a dead giveaway! I mean, that sort of thing only works in cartoons, so that it worked on the Schwann brigade should be kind of telling. Then again, knowing them, maybe not. ;p

Nooope, not a wanted poster of Letha. She doesn't wear red, and I'd probably describe her picture as looking like a nest of brown snakes if it was of her. And not so much as a vow, as in it's harder to keep putting something off when there's somebody who knows you were going to do it to needle you along.

Kyushen:

Totally know the feeling.

Sorry, I should mention now that the suspense isn't going away yet. Lloyd being there is such a good opportunity for fun times. Those are some pretty badly drawn wanted posters... I compared the one of Lloyd from Symphonia with the one of Yuri from Vesperia? I think they actually made the art worse for Yuri, so I tried to imagine Lloyd's poster as extra bad!

x x x

Chapter 50: Wrong Story, Hero!

x x x

A hand lightly touched my shoulder. I tore my disbelieving gaze from Lloyd Irving to see it was Judith. "Is something wrong?" she asked with concern.

"I think my brain just broke," I told her weakly.

"Really?" Karol squinted at Lloyd. "How come? I think he looks kind of cool." Brain died again!

"Hey! Can you guys help me with something?" Alert! Alert! Brain needs an emergency reboot! Somebody hit the big red button! Everyone (but me) had turned to the brunet in eye-catching red that jogged towards us.

Gods, fates, and the number forty two, why do you all mock me so?

"Depends," Yuri fielded for us, easily assuming the role of spokesperson. "What do you need help with?"

By this point in time I had finally turned to look at Lloyd straight on, instead of trying to pretend he didn't really exist. Get it together, girl. Really, haven't you figured out yet that nothing's entirely impossible? Looking him over more carefully...Huh? Something looks off... I couldn't put my finger on what exactly. The clothes, hair, voice and expressions all seemed right as best as I could remember.

"I accidentally lost something really important," Lloyd was saying. His arms made an odd motion at his sides, hands hovering over the two sheaths on his belts. Empty sheaths, I noticed. He cringed a bit when he caught himself grasping at air and then looked a bit sheepish. "Have any of you seen a red sword that burns things, or a blue one that freezes?" He looked at us hopefully, somehow making puppy eyes despite his age.

That's it! I almost snapped my fingers together once I figured out what was bothering me about Lloyd. He looks older than I thought he would! More like, he's around my age...

"I don't remember seeing anything like that," Yuri told him while giving the rest of us a questioning look. We all made similar negative responses, some verbal and some of us just shaking our heads.

Lloyd dejectedly hung his head and arms. "Aw man... Where could they be?"

"Well," Judith mused, "how did you lose them?"

"Did it have something to do with this?" I asked, holding up the wanted poster with the abysmal picture of Lloyd. Everyone crowded in closer to look at it as I passed it to the twinswordsman.

"Not again," he groaned. "This looks even less like me than the last one!"

"At least it's not as ugly as the one they did of Yuri," I smirked. "Maybe the poor quality reflects how much of a pain they think you are."

"Hmm," our black haired swordsman ignored me as he read over Lloyd's shoulder. "Four thousand gald reward... Not bad, but not as high as mine either," he boasted.

Lloyd blinked. "You too? How much is yours for?"

Smugly, "Ten thousand gald." The twinswordsman whistled.

"Well, not everyone can have a chance ta snatch a princess right out from under the empire's nose. That's a pretty tough act ta follow," Raven consoled him. Kinda. Estelle's cheeks pinked slightly, making the archer grin.

Karol looked up at Lloyd, "But what did you do?"

"Ah ha," the twinswordsman scratched the back of his head, "I don't really get why they're so angry about it. It was just a misunderstanding... I thought that guy was showing off an exsphere, and got a bit angry."

"Exsphere?" came the very predictable question from the others. Seriously, it was one of those almost rehearsed moments when they all spoke at once. It scares me when they do that...

Ah! That's not what I should be scared about! The dreaded word, 'exsphere,' an object that wasn't supposed to exist in Terca Lumireis anymore than Lloyd Irving or I were supposed to be there! My head snapped around and I stared at him intently, as if by sheer force of will I could prevent him from saying too much.

Maybe it actually worked, because all he said (with a laugh, like it wasn't important) was, "Well, it was my bad. I said I was sorry, but that guy still had some knights throw me in jail. I got out again all right," he frowned, a line forming in his forehead, "but they took my swords away and I'm having trouble finding them." By my guess, 'that guy' was probably one of the more stuck up members of the nobility. And Lloyd hadn't been released in any typical fashion...hence the wanted poster.

Rita crossed her arms and looked away a bit scornfully, probably having decided Lloyd was just another idiot. "So just get some new ones."

Lloyd shook his head emphatically. "No way! I got those from my dads!" A few raised eyebrows and shared looks as most of the group noted the plurality. "Anyway, somebody told me I'd be able to find them here."

"Who told you that?" I felt the need to ask. "Are you sure it's trustworthy and not a false trail?" The impression Tales of Symphonia had given me of Lloyd's intelligence...well, I wouldn't call him stupid, exactly (though definitely classroom and book challenged), but it wouldn't surprise me if he'd been gullible enough to chase a false trail all over the world.

Lloyd was scratching his head. "Uhh..." he shrugged. "Don't think I caught his name. He just told me that they'd probably be sold here in Nordee-poly-whatever."

Someone corrected him, "Nordopolica." Though otherwise the lapse wasn't payed any mind.

"Figures," I sighed. "The odds that he was lying to you are higher than I'd like." The brunet slumped a bit with a disappointed groan.

Estelle naturally tried to reassure him, "But that doesn't mean it was wrong!" She looked around hopefully, "Hey, what if the guild helped? We could find out if they're here a lot faster if we all looked."

"Guild?" Lloyd repeated inquiringly, hope kindling in his brown eyes again.

"Yeah!" Karol practically bounced with excited energy. "For a price we'll take on jobs to help other people! We're Brave Vesperia!" he announced proudly.

"And we also have an appointment with Belius later," Yuri reminded the boy and the princess, making both deflate a bit.

"Oh yeah..."

"I don't see why we can't look around a little first," Judith said gently. "After all, we have some free time before then." Yuri shrugged in response, which meant he was fine with whatever the rest of us decided as long as we didn't forget what we were in Nordopolica for.

I, meanwhile, felt a tickling thought at the back of my mind. Swords his dads, plural, gave him...one that burns and one that freezes... Oh dear. I had to resist the urge to facepalm as a few details about Symphonia came back to me. Leave it to Lloyd to lose track of the Material Blades. Though thinking about it, that explained how the hell he was on Terca Lumireis. As for the why? It was Lloyd, he probably did it by complete accident.

Together, the Flamberge (the red sword that burned things) and Vorpal (the blue, freezing one) would make the Eternal Sword (a big ass purple sword that's racist. Exclusive elven club use only. Lloyd gets to play with it because he's the hero, bitch, he can do what he wants and loopholes will be made and exploited to suit him). The Eternal Sword, which would allow the user to say nuts to the laws of time and space. Nobody seems to respect the laws of time and space anymore...

And Lloyd had gone and lost something that powerful.

It made me very glad, for once, that the others seemed really gung ho about getting sidetracked to help him. They hashed out the payment details and introductions ("Give me your name and I'll give you mine!" Even when I was pretty much expecting him to say it, the catchphrase made me roll my eyes). I'd been a bit uneasy about the matter of money, since it wouldn't do for our guild to have a reputation to work for zilch when we were just finding our feet, but by a pleasing coincidence it seemed there was no difference between our gald and what the twinswordsman had on him. Thank you...game designers? Better not to think about it too hard.

"It's settled then!" Karol pumped a fist in the air, "Let's all split up and ask around town!"

"Yeah!" Lloyd mimicked the Ace's pose. "Dwarven vow number one: Let's all work together for the sake of a peaceful world!" Oddly enough, at his words the group collectively looked to me. Seeing this Lloyd also gave me a puzzled look, though I'd guess his confusion was more akin to mine than whatever the others were thinking.

"What?" I asked a bit defensively.

Yuri smirked, "You're the dwarf expert of the group."

And Estelle murmured, "Dwarven...vow?" as if she was flipping through the pages of a mental library and coming up with zero entries.

I facepalmed for real. "One story. One. Fictional. Story. That does not an expert make." Raven laughed and I shook my head with a sigh. "Forget it. Let's go find those swords..."

The black haired swordsman nodded, "We'll all meet in front of the coliseum in two hours." And Yuri matched actions to words, being the first to turn away and enter the city proper with Repede at his heels. And while we were watching him leave, Judith slipped away unnoticed on her own.

"Good luck everyone!" Estelle chirped happily, while grabbing the considerably less enthusiastic mage by the arm and pulling her down another street. I had a feeling their search was going to resemble a female bonding shopping spree...

"Well," Raven drawled, "I'll poke around and see what a member of Altosk can turn up." As he started to saunter off, I tapped on Karol's shoulder.

"You should probably tag along with the old man," I told him, loudly enough that Raven could hear me. "We need someone to keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't just find a dark corner to take a nap in."

"Hey!" the archer spun in place to shoot me a wounded look. "Do ya really think I'd be that irresponsible?"

"Yes," both Karol and I replied. Raven made an indignant huffing sound that was just too contrived to be serious and grumbled to himself. "See you later, Letha!" Karol called back as he trotted after the waiting older man.

That's how I found myself standing alone just inside the entrance of Nordopolica with Lloyd Irving. 'Kay, that's starting to be less weird to think about. I looked over at him and discovered that he wasn't paying attention to me anymore, but was craning his neck around to try in take in all the sights at once.

"Wow, it's a port city just like Palmacosta, but it feels pretty different."

I winced, and then put on a laughing face. "What are you talking about, Lloyd? There's no place called Palmacosta."

He jerked visibly, then rubbed his head while laughing a little too loudly. "That so? Man, glad the professor's not here or she'd be nagging me to study more again." His mood perked up again, "Hey, maybe they've seen my swords!" and he dashed off towards a pair of newbie looking adventurers who'd just stepped out of shop door.

Eyes squeezed shut, I rubbed them both with thumb and forefinger until I saw sparks dancing across the backs of my eyelids. At this rate I'm gonna get either a migraine or gray hair.

x x x

Even though there was no spoken agreement to search as a team, Lloyd and I stuck together. Actually, that was more the result of some babysitter instinct in me not allowing me to let him out of my sight for more than five minutes. Seriously, for all I knew he could get the whole Palestralle guild clamoring after his blood if left on his own. Or, maybe, all pitching in to help their new best buddy. Hard to say with Lloyd...

His search methods weren't very efficient though. Mostly he kept running up to random people on the street and asking if they'd seen his swords. At least he's asking the adventurer types rather than the clearly normal civilians...though that doesn't narrow things down much in a coliseum city.

"Okay, stop there," I said finally, grabbing Lloyd's arm when he was about to dash off after a woman in leather and a witch's hat and a man in a penguin costume (what in the...?). "It's gonna take you forever to find anything like this."

He shrugged off my arm (not that I was gripping him very tightly), and said, "This way's always worked for me before."

"Oh, you'll find something eventually," I agreed, not wanting to start a fight, "I'm just saying there are other ways that'll be more efficient."

The brunet's eyes lit up in understanding, "Oh yeah, like when Sheena would ask the Mizuho ninjas for help..." I chose to ignore that slip of Symphonia detail.

"Yeah, well, I'm not a ninja nor do I know any real ninjas," though Yuri or Judith could probably make the cut with just a few ninjutsu lessons, "but I do think I know the right people to ask. C'mon." I started walking away, pausing at a street intersection to make sure I had my bearings and check to see if he was following.

I took a wrong street twice but eventually we found ourselves standing in front of a utilitarian looking shop. The sign had black silhouettes of a sword crossed over an ax over a shirt. And in the windows were displayed some expertly mantained weapons and durable looking travelers' clothes.

"What are we doing here?" Lloyd asked me. He was pretending that he wasn't eying the swords on display, and failing miserably. "I already said I'm not going to replace my swords."

"Wasn't going to say you should," Heaven forbid! I pushed the shop door open and a bell jingled above me head. "But asking the owners should be more informative than passing strangers on the street." Maybe it was still a long shot, maybe not. This was the store Kaufman had brought me to our first night here, and I figured that her recommendation of the shop should say something about the proprietors as well.

Both of which had looked up at the bell and were watching us with the intensity of lions about to pounce. The man grunted, "'S Kaufman's frien'," which must've meant they recognized me. And then in the blink of an eye the woman had me by the wrist and yanked me into the curtained off fitting area.

"Woah! NOT what I came here for!" I exclaimed in startlement. By then she'd already whipped my leather vest off and was trying to coax (force) my arms up so she could take off the turtleneck. She just muttered something about standard follow up service.

"L-Letha?" Lloyd's unsure query came from just outside the curtain.

"If you so much as stick a finger in here, Irving," I hissed, "you will forfeit the use of your eyes." Masculine laughter boomed from the other side of the store. The turtleneck cleared my head and I could see the woman's own broad smile. "Just go ask the nice, laughing man about your swords."

"R-right," he answered, and the floor creaked as he walked away, presumably to the store counter where the man had been.

"Don't buy anything!" I called out. And then I apologetically shrugged at the woman, who was examining the twin holes in the left shoulder of both vest and shirt. "Happened in Kogorh," I said with a bit of embarrassment. "It got me from behind." Damn those crustaceous cacti.

She hummed thougthfuly and rummaged in one of the many pockets of her apron, producing some patches and thread. Picking a thick looking needle from another pocket (it had an odd bulge, so I guessed there was a pin cushion in there) she started mending the vest first, sitting on one of the stools kept in the fitting area. I tentatively sat on the other.

"Better hurt than dead," she said brusquely.

"Maybe..." Jasper, lying on the cave floor with a frozen expression of pain and fear, not knowing what killed him. Cumore, covered in the smoking blood of a fairy dog with my dagger buried in his chest. The images that flashed through my mind felt like a palpable weight on my head and shoulders.

Light glinted off the needle as it flashed in and out of the leather. "Yes," she affirmed, "it is." Her confident tone and manner left no room for argument, and I found myself wondering what life she'd led before settling down in the shop. "Now what was that 'bout the young buck's swords?"

"Uhh," I was thrown of a moment by her manner of speech. I don't think I ever heard either of these people say more than a dozen words total the last time I was here... I summarized the situation with Lloyd's lost swords and how he'd come to Nordopolica on a rumor that they were in the city. "I thought that if someone was trying to sell them here, you'd know or be able to find out from the other stores." Another thought occurred to me, "Or maybe someone's heard about weapons like those being used in the fights, or needing to be repaired or something like that..."

The woman grunted and bit through the thread, finished patching the vest. "As expected of an acquaintance of the Madame President."

"Uh, no, Kaufman and I aren't really..." The leather vest was tossed into my arms. I squeaked and tried to cover myself with it as she suddenly threw the curtain open.

"BILL! You got the story from the lad?"

"Yeah, Gretch! Haven' seen any blades like that through 'ere, but Jack was braggin' a few nights back 'bout somethin' off the black market!"

The woman (Gretch?) snorted. "Braggin' to 'is ale cup, I reckon. Gossips worse than a bored fishwife when 'es in 'is cups."

"Ye'd reckon right. 'E didn't achu'lly say what 'es got, so I'll just pop by an' take a look fer meself." I heard the unpleasant sound of knuckles cracking. "Be back in a jiff." The bells at the door jingled and the hinges creaked as the man, Bill, left.

Gretch (maybe a short pet name for Gretchen?) sat back on her stool again and let the curtain fall back in place. She started on the shirt, needle flashing faster in and out of the thinner material.

"What was all that just now?" Lloyd's voice drifted over.

"That," I said, "was precisely why I said this would be faster than asking random people on the street." Though even I hadn't expected quite that little domestic show...

My turtleneck flew into my arms as Gretchen snorted again. "Been askin' people on the street? Half o' them were prolly tourists or travellers jus' passing on through for a spell. Iff'n you want information anywhere about anythin', you need to go to the locals." I hurried to pull the shirt and vest on properly, succeeding just in time so that I was decent when she threw the curtain fully back again. Standing with fists on hips, she gave a toothy grin and asked, "You didn't really mean that about not bein' here to buy anythin', now did you?"

x x x

Lucky that Lloyd apparently placed sentimental value on his red and black outfit, or else who knows what Gretchen would have bullied us into buying. She gave up on the twinswordsman easily enough, but seemed to find my resistance to clothes shopping as unnatural. After insisting for a half hour that the clothes I'd gotten during the last visit were perfectly satisfactory, I'd finally gotten her to stop saying, "But wouldn't you like to jus' try this'n on an' see?"

She'd finally given up on that and was eyeballing Bill's weapon displays as if she'd try pushing them on us next (I'd noticed the strange thing that looked like a tea kettle had been joined by a deck of cards...), when the bell rang again and announced his return. Lloyd leaped up from the stool he'd been fidgeting on (far too restless to call that sitting) and hopped across the floor to stand before him. "Well?" he asked anxiously, "Did he have them?"

A large and calloused hand fell on Lloyd's shoulder, easily moving him over to the side so that Bill could get past and into the store. "Nah, Jack didn' have 'em. An' I e'en checked 'is backroom to make sure 'e weren't tryin' to pull the wool over m'eyes." One of those work rough hands darted out surprisingly fast and pulled a Gemini from my belt. Belatedly I grabbed at the now empty dagger sheath as Bill held the small blade up to the light to inspect its edge.

He grunted, handing back the dagger and jerking his fingers in a way that demanded I fork over the other one, so I meekly did. "But after I shook 'im down a bit, I got the name o' the rat 'e get's 'is under the counter shipments from. Some bloke called Dedecchi. An' word is 'es also tryin' to sell some swords, though 'is askin' price was a bit out o' Jake's reach."

Dedecchi...I feel like I've heard that name before... Bill returned the second dagger, "Passable, but I still think ye should be gettin' new 'nes."

"Thanks, but I don't have the gald to spare right now," I replaced both daggers. "So we need to look for Dedecchi?"

He nodded once, "That'd be me guess. I can't be fer guessin' where ye'd find 'im, though askin' around a pub might'n be a good way to start."

Thanking them again, Lloyd and I left to resume the footwork part of tracking down his swords. As the door closed behind us the twinswordsman was giving me an odd look that seemed to be...admiration?

"What?" I asked, uncomfortable.

"That was amazing! You found out more than I did in a week of searching!"

I shrugged and started walking, taking the lead so he couldn't see how pleased yet embarrassed the praise made me. "It pays to have connections. Or for people to perceive you as having connections. And I think they like me for one: being polite to them and two: threatening you."

"What? Why would they..?" I shrugged again in the face of his bewildered indignation.

"Beats me, people just seem to think it's funny whenever I do that."

Together we wandered down the streets while I tried to remember which ones had bars and taverns on them. My knowledge of the city was far from complete, but it was better than Lloyd's. Who was no longer rubbernecking and trying to look at everything but starting to drag his feet and complain. He wanted his swords, he was bored, he wanted his swords, he was hungry, he wanted his swords, bored and hungry and wanted his swords... I tried to tune him out the way we all tuned out Raven going on about his age.

"Look!" I pointed out a sign with a fork and knife picture, "We can eat here and ask about Dedecchi. Two birds, one stone, 'kay?" And if you stop complaining, well then that's three birds. Despite the snail's pace he'd been imitating just seconds before Lloyd beat me in through the door.

Once inside I grabbed Lloyd (who'd started in on his ask-everyone-in-sight strategy again) and sat him down at an empty table in the corner where we could see everyone else. Before long a cute waitress who looked a bit like a blonde Rita gave us each a menu. I glanced over mine quickly, it only had a few simple but filling meals listed like roast and soup. Probably stuff that was served everyday and served mostly to guild or dock workers. Who probably already knew the daily menu by heart. I looked up, ready to tell the not so patiently waiting waitress what I wanted, and noticed the furrow in Lloyd's brow as he stared hard at his menu.

"Uh, could you come back in a minute?" I asked the waitress. "We've got a friend coming." She rolled her eyes and moved on to clear off a recently vacated table. Looking back at Lloyd, the brunet hadn't noticed me sending her away. Sighing, I reached out and placed one finger on the edge of the menu, pressing down until it was resting on the table and Lloyd was blinking at me. "Something wrong there, champ?"

"This place is weird," he complained. "What's with these scribbles all over everything?" So that's what it is... Watching him carefully, I pulled out the folded wanted poster I'd picked up earlier and spread it on the table.

"Lloyd? What does this say?"

"It doesn't say anything," Lloyd said as if it were obvious and I was being slow, "It just has more of those weird scribbles on it." I stared at him, and could swear I saw gears turning in his head. "Wait, didn't that guy, Yuri, say there was a four thousand gald reward? How did he know...?" I kept staring at him. A gloved fist smacked into a hand as he sat up straighter, "Ah! I must be famous here already!"

The table shook as I dropped my head down onto the wooden boards with a small thump. Wearily I raised it back up to see he was leaning across the table and watching me with concern and confusion.

"You okay?"

"Yes," I sighed. "So I guess you really can't read."

"Of course I can read!" he almost sounded insulted. "The professor would have killed me if I couldn't do that much!" She probably would.

"No, I mean," I jabbed a finger at the menus and wanted poster in heap on our table, "you can't read these."

He looked at them, "You mean those funny scribbles are words?"

"Yep," I sat up again and started reading off first the wanted poster to him, and then the menu. He sat and listened with an expression that looked like a silent 'Ooooh!' as if I was doing a neat trick. Maybe I was, since I'd taught myself to read the letters almost as naturally as the Earth alphabet by that point. But it was a bigger trick for Lloyd to have not realized the writing system was different here yet.

I was about to wave over the waitress again, maybe give her the excuse that I'd just remembered our friend had had something important come up, when who else should come in through the front door but Yuri and Repede? The black haired swordsman gave the room a once over, spying us in the corner at the end of his visual sweep. I saw his eyebrows raise and then he came over to our table.

"Didn't expect you guys to be in here," he greeted us.

"Same here," I returned, scooting my chair over so there was room for him in a spot where his back would be defensively to the wall. He nodded his thanks as he pulled a chair over and sat down. Yup, you don't travel with a notoriously wanted man like Yuri Lowell without picking up some basic fugitive etiquette for public places. "Though it seemed like you were looking for someone just now."

The blonde Rita lookalike came back, depositing another menu in front of Yuri and making doe eyes at him. He didn't act like he noticed, just ordering some curry for himself and meat for Repede before handing it back. She pouted at him, not bothering to look at us as Lloyd asked for roast meat and I asked for some bread and soup. I nearly had to shove the superfluous menus at her before she took the hint and left.

I looked at Yuri pointedly, so he'd know I hadn't forgotten my question. One of his shoulders raised and dropped as he leaned forward and propped one elbow on the table and rested his chin in his hand. "Sorry, but I got a bit sidetracked from looking for your swords," he apologized to Lloyd. And it was less sarcastic than his apologies normally were, so I guessed he meant it. "But while I was asking around the docks I heard that someone had seen Dedecchi recently. I still haven't paid that bastard back for stealing the lower quarter's blastia core," his expression turned ugly at that last part, and Repede growled under the table.

I snapped my fingers, "Ah! I knew the name was familiar!" Dedecchi the loose end! "Lloyd and I heard that he's here selling stuff on the black market, and might have his swords!"

"Well then," a slow and definitely villainous smile spread across Yuri's face, "I've heard he likes this place for the food and the girls," the blonde Rita came back with our food, "though they don't necessarily like him back." As she was moving the curry from her tray to the table before Yuri, he smiled charmingly at her (woah! Where'd that come from?) and asked, "Excuse me, has a creep named Dedecchi been here yet tonight?"

Red bloomed across her cheeks as she realized Yuri was smiling at her. "N-no, but he'll prolly be here an minute. He's normally in here getting drunk and hittin' on us girls around now." The blushing maid expression was spoiled a bit as she sneered a bit when talking about the thief. "We all be wishing someone'd just get him out of our hair once and for all."

"Something tells me he won't be bothering you for much longer," I mumbled, worried about this exchange. Yuri wouldn't...would he?

Lloyd had been surprisingly quiet up until this point, but as the (still blushing) waitress reluctantly left to get back to work he leaned forward and looked from Yuri to me and back again. "Hey, so you guys already know this Dedeck guy?"

"You could say that," was all Yuri said, picking up his spoon to start helping himself to his curry.

"Dedecchi," I enunciated the name clearly, despite not really caring if Lloyd had it right, "stole something important from Yuri's hometown. We got it back, but never actually caught him." I started buttering one of the thick slices of bread I'd been given (Bread~), "You know, I don't think I ever actually saw the guy...only heard about him from you," I mentioned to Yuri.

"None of the others ever met him, actually," Yuri said absently. "I only saw him once, and I didn't get a good look because his face was covered by a hood. He was also impersonating Rita, saying his name was Mordio."

"Aww right," I remembered that from the game...and then remembered how our first real life encounter had gone. "You two really weren't getting along when I first met you. In fact, you thought I was thief too."

"Why's that?" Lloyd asked. Or, I think that's what he asked. His mouth was a bit full...

"Yeah, Yuri," I turned to the other swordsman. "Why is that?"

"What?" he was the one put on the defensive this time, "Rita said there'd been thieves looting the ruins. And you were just sitting there on the secret entrance, and even told us the knights were already gone." It was probably the first time he'd thought back on that meeting in a long time. I could tell, because I saw him chewing more slowly, and slowly looking away from his food towards me with narrowing eyes. Ahhh, that look always means he's caught on to another snag in my story.

Sure enough, he swallowed and asked me, "That reminds me, why were you there anyway?" Because, of course, my explanation at the time would be called into question now.

I looked away, since it reeeally wasn't the best time to talk about it. "Uh, well, I certainly wasn't being a thief or anything."

"Good!" Lloyd said emphatically. "Dwarven vow eleven: Lying is the first step to the path of thievery! And thievery would be the next step doing other things that are wrong!"

Yuri and I both stared at Lloyd for a moment, who had the light of morality and peach pie shining in his eye (I swear, it was there), then shared a look that asked, 'is this guy for real?' I started to giggle, though muffled it quickly behind a hand, and Yuri was grinning when he turned back to the brunet.

"So, Lloyd," he said casually, "Where are you getting these Dwarven Vows from?" I tensed before I could catch myself, and worried that Yuri might have caught it too.

"From my dad, he was a dwarf after all," Lloyd answered. Oooooh boy...

"Funny," Yuri continued, as nonchalant as ever. It's not fair when he does that. "You don't look like the dwarves I've heard of." By which he meant the fictional dwarves from my fictional story The Hobbit. I had yet to hear any mention of a living, breathing dwarf race on Terca Lumireis. And haven't heard any other stories about them either.

"That's because I was adopted. I still think of him as my dad, though, even though I've found out who my real father is."

My forehead met my palm, and I could almost feel Yuri watching me out of the corner of his eyes as he asked, "So where does he live?"

"Dirk lives just outside Iselia, he's still there even though I left on a journey about two years ago." Ah, no wonder Raine hits Lloyd in the head so much. If I were his teacher I'd probably be smacking the back of his head every day.

"Iselia, huh?" Yuri chewed silently for a few veeery long seconds. "So where is that?" Lloyd stammered incoherently for a bit, finally cluing in that, just as there was no city called Palmacosta here, there was no Iselia. But it was the next part of the question that really got me. "Would it happen to be on Earth?"

Thump. My head hit the table again.

"You know about Earth?" Lloyd asked in surprise.

My head shot upwards and I stared at him. "YOU know about Earth?"

"So you are from Earth," Yuri concluded smugly.

"No," Lloyd objected, "I'm from Sylvarant. But does that mean you're...?"

"No," Yuri answered the unfinished question, "I'm from this world, Terca Lumireis. But if you're not from Earth, then how do you know about it?"

"I know someone who said she was from Earth," what the FLIPPIN' CRAP? "But how do-"

"Stop, stop, everybody STOP." Both men looked at me in surprise. I dropped my face into both palms, rubbing at my eyes and the building headache while I tried to gather my thoughts together. Feeling a bit more stable again, I raised my head from my hands to look at them both, all seriousness, and opened my mouth to speak-

"Dedecchi just came in the door, hun," the blonde Rita waitress told Yuri as she walked past our table with a full tray of food bound somewhere else.

There was a moment of perfect still silence around the table, then the meaning of her words clicked. Lloyd practically knocked his chair over as he stood up, though I grabbed him by the sleeve and yanked him back down without looking. Instead I was looking over in the direction of the door, as was Yuri, both of us trying to appear as if we just happened to be looking that way, and not trying to find anyone specific. It was easier for Yuri, since he was already facing the right direction and didn't have the awkwardness of trying to hold the overeager and very noticeable person in bright red in place.

Dedecchi was a shorter than average and spindly man. He had a gray mustache that turned upwards at the ends and overlarge front teeth that stuck out in a bit of an overbite, giving him a rodent like appearance. Repede had started growling low in his throat when the thief had come in the door.

"He's right there!" Lloyd hissed at me as I fastened my grip around his arm even more securely. He winced a bit as I squeezed tightly for a second when he tried to pull away (have I mentioned that I have a pretty good grip?).

"And if we just charge at him now he'll get away," Yuri explained, calmly drinking from his glass of water, though his gaze never wavered from where Dedecchi was weaving through the full tables to an empty one. "We have to get closer without him realizing we're after him."

"Geez, Yuri," I said lightly, "I'm surprised someone like that gave you such a hard time."

He grimaced, "He used a smoke bomb!" And then grumbled, "If it hadn't been for the tweedles, I could have caught him anyway." I snickered at his peeved expression.

"Guuuys..." Lloyd whined.

"Patience, champ," I reminded him before letting go. Standing up, I stretched, hands on waist and bracing the small of my back as I leaned back. Not a full back stretch, but it helped me feel more limbered up and energized. "I'm going out for a walk," I told them, speaking clear enough that the tables around us could hear but without making it obvious that I wanted my intentions to be telegraphed. "Meet you guys in a bit."

"What?" Lloyd looked flabbergasted, but Yuri just continued eating his curry normally.

"Nice, leaving us to pick up the tab," he observed wryly. "We'll be along soon."

I threw a wink at the still oh so confused Lloyd before turning away and walking out the front door. And then stood just off to the side, where anyone trying to escape would have to go through me. Looking in through a window, I watched as Yuri pointed Lloyd towards a back door, no doubt telling him to cover that one the same way I had the front.

With us both in place, the black haired swordsman finally approached the table where Dedecchi was sitting. From behind the rat thief. He reached out and grabbed the thief by the shoulder, leaning over to say something up close. The little creep jumped a bit, I judged he definitely would have cleared his seat if Yuri hadn't been holding him down.

The little man was shaking in place, but I still noticed when something small and round fell out of his sleeve. It hit the ground and burst into a cloud of smoke.

"Fire! There's a fire!" a man screamed, and panic broke out. I jumped in front of the door and it swung open. People were stumbling out, I had to stand like a rock in a stream to keep my place without getting shoved aside. My eyes darted over each one and dismissed them as soon as I saw none of them was Dedecchi. Then the window I'd been looking in through before opened from the inside and Yuri hopped out (...).

He looked at me, and I shook my head, so he spun away and dashed for the alley the back door would lead out into. I wanted to follow, but stayed at my post watching the front door just in case. It wasn't much longer before the pushing and shoving to get out the door ended, everyone out and safe from the 'fire', and there'd still been no Dedecchi. I stood in the doorway and looked around.

The smoke had mostly cleared, what was left all collected at the ceiling. No one was inside. Mm'kay, he took the back way! I ran through the abandoned room, skipping over chairs that had been knocked to the floor during the great exodus.

The back door was hanging wide open. Sticking my head outside, I saw...Holy crap, I saw Yuri pinning Dedecchi to the ground in the aikido move I'd shown him what felt like ages ago. And Lloyd was picking himself up out of an upset corner of trash cans, scowling.

"What happened here?" I asked.

The brunet ducked his head, "I forgot I didn't have my swords again." I tried not to laugh as I took his hand to help him up. His left hand, and I got a good look for first time at the blue gem in a gold setting on his hand. There was even a hole cut into the back of his glove to keep it uncovered. Most people here would think it was a blastia...

"Well then, Dedecchi," Yuri said in a friendly tone, "That didn't work this time. So are you gonna give up? Or am I gonna have to get rough with you?" It was clear to anyone listening that Yuri really really would like the excuse to rough up Dedecchi some more.

"Pl-please don't!" the man sniveled into the street. "I give up! I-I'll tell you what I did with the blastia core!"

"Old news," Yuri told him, disgust clear in his eyes, "The aque blastia's already back where it belongs."

I knelt down next to them so I could look Dedecchi in the face. "What we're after now is that guy's swords," I jerked my head in Lloyd's direction. He looked uncertain about the situation, but didn't voice any objections. His hands had tightened into fists at his sides. I looked away and back down to Dedecchi. "You wouldn't happen to have a red sword that burns and a blue sword that freezes, would you?" my voice was falsely sweet. "It'd be a shame if you don't, my friend here," Yuri grinned, "would be very disappointed if that were the case."

Dedecchi paled, "I know where they are! I mean, I have them! They're-they're in a warehouse down by the docks!" I sighed. While Dedecchi could be lying for the sake of saving his own skin, I had a hunch that he did have them.

Yuri rose up to his feet, jerking the thief up in the process. Lloyd came over and they both took a firm grip of the man's shoulders to keep him from making another run for it. "Let's go then," Yuri said, still sounding friendly. Dedecchi whimpered.

"I've really missed my swords," Lloyd told him with a smile. "I just don't feel right without them, you know?" Dedecchi started mumbling what I thought might be prayers for his life.

I followed them out of the alley, glancing over in the direction of the crowd still hanging around the front door. It seemed the employees and other customers were figuring out that there'd never been a fire in the first place. The blonde Rita waiter happened to look in our direction, eyes going wide as she saw Yuri and Lloyd forcefully escorting Dedecchi away.

I caught her eye with a wave and put a finger to my lips. Staring at me, I saw the moment comprehension entered her eyes. She smiled and nodded to me, then started heckling and shooing the other waitresses back inside to clean up.

Sucking in a deep breath of air, I blew it out as I looked towards the horizon. The sky was turning red...it would start getting dark before long, and once it was night we could all go talk to Belius.

There was movement out of the corner of my eye, and when I looked I thought I saw the trailing hem of a green dress slipping around the corner. Someone wearing a dress in a rough place like this? Maybe it's a noble on vacation... I shrugged, picking up the pace to close the distance that had been growing between the guys and me. There was more important business to take care of yet.

x x x

Okay! Chapter needs to end somewhere! So, boys and girls, Lloyd's cameo will continue into the next chapter before I send him on his way. Then we'll hustle him out the door so the show will get back on the road and I'll finally get to the part with Belius!

Had fun playing around with how the minor characters talked in this one. I need more practice at giving people more lower class diction, or accents, or pretty much anything besides what I've stuck to so far.

I found something pretty in a youtube comment.

(¯`v´¯)

(¸.·´ (¸.·´ .·´ ¸¸.·¨ `*~*~*