Here, everybody take a virtual hammer and hit me on the head with it. I deserve it for taking so damn long. I, in turn, am hitting CERTAIN DISAGREEABLE CHARACTERS on the heads with virtual hammers and Mario bomb-ombs for not cooperating sooner.

...SORRY I'VE BEEN TAKING SO DAMN LONG! D:

Really, I'm very very sorry. I was having trouble, not just with this chapter, but with deciding what CERTAIN CHARACTERS who are about to make some big waves are thinking, and therefor how they'd pull off their goals. Had to resort to very rough and poorly written things where I just talked on in on in their thought patterns. None of them are going to be published on fanfiction, so that plus parts of this chapter I kept rewriting wholesale equals about half of this month's writing you will never see.

Did some story skimming and simple math, Letha has been on Terca Lumireis for about 56 days (give or take a few). Just shy of two months. Then I tried to figure ahead a bit, and there's gonna be a lot of time skipping due to travel and riding on boats and chasing people around... I think we can place the story's timeline at being somewhere in the Terca Lumireis equivalent for mid to late July. Maybe early August. I'm not entirely sure though. There's only a single instance, that I remember at least, when the season is veeery indirectly referenced in a way that implies it's colder in one area than before. For the sake of plot, of course.

More arts from me in my DA account (like I promised last time...) and another fanart from Natsuki Ayaka (I'm so sorry it always takes me so long to credit you for those!) http: / natsuki ayaka. deviantart .com/ gallery/#/d49s1fd

Anonymous (I feel like I should be able to guess who you are, but it escapes me...Sorry?):

SYMPHONIA SECTION REFERENCE, WHERE? Oh, heheh. ;p You'll see~

Letha doesn't exactly think of Lloyd as a Gary Stu (though the ending of the game has a bit too much of a tendency in that direction =_=;), more it irritates her that he fits the generic profile of any hero in the majority of games targeted to the young adult. Not that she has anything against him in particular, just a sense of SEEN THIS ALREADY. She's too genre savy.

Sorry there's no freebie giveaways, but the big 50 snuck up on me and this part is a tad too complicated for me to spare time to work on side stories right now. But hey, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are coming up. The holiday spirit usually puts me in a giving mood. ;)

Angelic:

Well, you'll either cringe or actually really want to see it. The craziest ones (that I'm actually willing to mention)? ZagixLetha and YeagerxLetha. I ACTUALLY THINK I COULD MAKE WORKABLE PLOTS FOR THOSE, WTF? Further example? Letha teaching Yeager about Russian Roulette. Yes, I very much want to explore that. Blame Lady Gaga's song Poker Face for playing on the radio at work.

Lllllooooooyd. He hogs the spotlight. Seriously, I was like "Go away already, Lloyd! I already gave you your moment of awesome!"

bright night:

Everyone's gonna be on the edges of their seats once that part comes. I'll strive not to disappoint! Oh, wait...other than...taking a big chunk of time to get to that?

Kyushen:

This part with Lloyd is rather fillerish, and a bit of unexplored territory for me. His cameo is AccessBlade's prize, but I wanted to work it into events in a way that would advance, if not the main plot, then at least Letha's current emotional state and where she's standing with the rest of the group (specifically Yuri). Either way, his time with us is brief, though longer than I thought it would be, and he's moving on~

x x x

Chapter 51: Finding Resolve

x x x

"And that's where we're at so far," I concluded my report. Estelle and Karol were nodding while Rita stood off to the side waiting impatiently. Raven, to all appearances, had fallen asleep while sitting on the steps outside the Coliseum.

It had been about two hours since the guild had split up to search for information on Lloyd's swords. Though I'd say we'd done better on that score than one could realistically hope, we didn't actually have the swords back yet. And, as it had dawned on Yuri and he pointed out to me (while he and Lloyd were still dragging along a whimpering, cringing Dedecchi), if the three of us (plus Repede) went to fetch the swords on our own without even telling the others, Judith would never forgive us. She'd probably start complaining that every time we came to Nordopolica Yuri and I took all the fun work for ourselves.

Which was why I'd made a run back to our agreed meeting point to direct the others down to the docks. I sprinted all out so hard for awhile that I think I barely avoided running over some old lady carrying a basket of flowers.

Judith was probably well on her way already. She'd been the first to arrive, before me even, and had chosen to go on ahead while I waited for the others. The excited look in her eyes had brought to mind a child that had been promised that, if she was a good girl, mommy and daddy would buy her an ice cream cone. Yeah, she was totally spoiling for a fight. Maybe secretly hoping that Dedecchi would be stupid enough to try and make a break for it.

Then Karol and Raven had come along, the older man ambling along at his own pace and the boy looking crestfallen. Which made it no surprise to hear that they'd had no luck with their search. I had ruffled the Ace's swooshy rooster hair while telling him to cheer up, because I had a story about Yuri kicking ass and getting info. I'm a bit sorry to say that those were my exact words. ...What does it say about me and my usual behavior when they took my words in stride?

Well, before I got very far in the quick rundown of recent events (with absolutely no intention of mentioning how Earth had come up as a conversation topic) Estelle and Rita arrived. So I'd started over again and now everybody was happily on the same page. More or less.

"What are we waiting for?" Karol asked our group as a whole, "Let's go meet up with them!"

"I'm so happy for you, Karol," Estelle was saying, "This is really good for the guild!"

Rita made a noise of mildly irritated dismissal. Or pffssh, as I for some reason mentally spelled it. "So we found the idiot's swords," she grumbled while crossing her arms, "I'm more interested in getting some payback on that Dedecchi creep for using my name!"

"Sounds to me like you'll hafta get in line behind Yuri fer that," Raven said, proving that he was, in fact, awake and paying some attention. Though he still sat with his back against one of the broken remains of a stone pillar (wonder how long ago this place was constructed, and why there are broken columns and stuff nobody's bothered to fix), arms folded behind his head and eyes closed. I dunno, I could never sleep comfortably like that, but Raven had a cat's tendency to sleep anywhere.

Wanting to head off any more spat fests or distractions, I thumped a fist against my chest and snapped it out straight in front of me again. "Dockward, ho!"

There was the expected moment of silence and awkward 'let's all stare at Letha' before Rita just snorted a "weirdo" and we finally started dragging our butts into gear. Eager guild boss Karol led the way, and I found myself walking next to Estelle. The princess had her hands folded in front of her and kept glancing at me as if she had something she wanted to say.

"Letha," she finally nerved herself up to it, "Can I ask you something?" I hummed a questioning note. The girl looked down at her interlaced fingers, pink hair swinging forward to cover her eyes. "I was just wondering...how do you always manage to stay so confident in yourself?"

Moment for a classic spit take or fall over comically scene right there. Fortunately I lacked a drink and there were no loose stones in the street we were taking so all I responded with was a clever, "You think I'm whut now?" Shaking my head a bit in disbelief, I had to say, "Really, I can see how you'd think that about Rita," the mage, who'd been listening in (they all were), looked away and mumbled something that sounded embarrassed, "Judith, or Yuri. But how does silly old me figure in there?"

Raven whined, "Hey, how come ya didn't mention us?"

"Yeah!" Karol chimed in.

Rita made a disgusted noise, "Because you're a wimp and he's an old pervert."

The bickering and bemoaning that started actually provided a distraction so the princess could quietly say to me, "Because it never bothers you what other people might think about the things you do. Like just a little while ago, you say the oddest things and just laugh everything else off."

I tilted my head a bit, finding an angle that let me look into her greenish blue eyes (I couldn't decide if I thought they seemed closer to green or blue). Though it forced me to walk a bit sideways (and it would be just my luck if that were to trip me up instead). "I still don't get it Estelle. I always thought you were the one who's nice and open about who she really is and wants to do. I'm just being the class clown.

"Or one of them," I amended, nodding in the direction of Raven as the archer (very stupidly) had tried to ruffle Rita's hair and got his foot stomped on in retaliation. That got Estelle to giggle a bit, and I smiled at the sound. We passed from the stone streets and merchandise filled windows to the elevated wooden boardwalks that bridged the water. Not much further before we were in the harbor proper. "Besides, you've totally got me beat. You ran away from a castle and legion of knights, who are still trying to catch up to you, to do what you thought was right. That totally puts anything I've done to shame." The princess blushed slightly at the reminder of her past headstrong antics.

"I wouldn't say that exactly," Rita piped up, having apparently caught up the thread of our conversation once again. "What about that time you told Alexei to take a hike?"

"Woah," Raven looked at me with mixed respect and shock, "You've got guts if ya said that to the head honcho of the Imperial Knights."

I flushed, "Th-that's not what I said!"

Estelle, though, was nodding vigorously, "That's what I mean! I've never seen someone just turn him down like that before, but you did like it was nothing!" I was scared shitless...

And Karol saw fit to add, "He really didn't seem happy about it either."

"Why, looky there!" I exclaimed loudly, "We're already at the docks! Come on, everyone, let's go find the others!"

"Heh, look at her gettin' all embarrassed," Raven teased.

I clapped my hands over my ears. "Not listening anymore!" A quick glance in Estelle's direction and I saw that I'd gotten her laughing again, hand covering her mouth politely but doing nothing to hide the sparkle in her eye. Then I was powerwalking ahead of the group and the smile fell away from my own face. How wrong you are, Estelle. I'm not like this because I don't care what people think, I'm like this because I do care and don't want to be hated. I'd rather have everyone laughing with me.

God, on top of being paranoid I'm insecure.

My internal monologue of angst was derailed when a nearby crash actually made me jump a bit. All of us looked around to see what had happened. "I think it came from over there!" Karol pointed out a seedy looking building with paint peeling from the walls and the door half hanging off its hinges. Another crash shook the building, the door sagging just a little bit more. What looked like a giant nickel the size of a dinner plate rolled out, turning an arc as gravity tried pull it down, and toppled over with a clatter.

"Huh," I said, debating whether I should pick it up. "Hope that wasn't important."

Yet another crash inside (and a muffled "ooow") almost drowned out Raven saying, "I'm guessin' this is the place."

Estelle was alarmed by the commotion inside the building. "Are they fighting someone?"

"That or they're really getting into cleaning house," I quipped, stepping over the jumbo nickel on my way to the door. I took in the tableau inside and decided that I couldn't have been more wrong. Obviously the place was used as storage, there were crates, chests, and boxes stacked everywhere, carpets and rugs rolled up or that had been knocked over and started to unroll, tables laden with odd bric a brac of all natures, weapons held in barrels and wooden racks, and sheet covered shapes that might have hidden furniture. Everything was covered by a fluffy coating of dust that had been stirred up in clouds by the people moving inside and tickled at my nose, making me fight back the urge to sneeze.

Lloyd was on the floor lifting an upturned box off of his head with several others scattered around him, spilling a miscellaneous collection of items on the ground. Similar messes surrounded other opened boxes and chests, indicating that the twinswordsman had been going through them all in the search for his swords. And that more than one stack of boxes had been completely knocked over in the process. Yuri and Judith were both elbows deep in other piles of clutter doing their part to add to the mess.

Last and least, Dedecchi had been tied to a chair in the middle of the room with some rope they had evidently found. He was placed so that it was easy enough for any of them to keep an eye on him while they worked just by looking up or over a shoulder. Repede sat nearby him as extra insurance, curling a lip back to show fang and growling whenever the thief began wriggling too much for the warrior dog's liking.

I stepped inside so that I wasn't blocking the others while asking, "So how goes the scavenger hunt?"

"There's too much junk here!" Lloyd complained as he tossed the box he'd taken off back onto the pile. Then, oddly, he shuddered and looked around wildly. "I almost expected the professor to show up and hit me again..." he muttered.

"Be careful with that 'junk'!" Dedecchi berated him. "There are irreplaceable artifacts the stupid nobles would pay through the nose to get their hands on!" Judith gave him a significant look while fingering a stiletto knife she'd found, making him shut his mouth in a hurry.

"Our 'friend' with the sticky fingers," Yuri tilted his head in Dedecchi's direction, "has pretty bad habit of forgetting where he leaves other people's things."

"Is it really necessary to tie him up?" Estelle asked, looking at Dedecchi. However, despite her concerns, she made no movements to suggest she was thinking of untying him.

"Safer than letting him be," Judith remarked as she dropped the stiletto on a small antique looking table and picked up a small glass figurine to examine curiously. "Otherwise he might find a chance to pull some trick to escape."

Yuri tossed aside a funky looking statue of a monkey holding a staff and picked up the thought from there, "With all the junk lying around," ("It's not junk!") "it'd be real easy for him to throw something dangerous at us before we could stop him."

Lloyd had started in on a pile of chests in a corner, removing the ones from the top of the stacks to make them easier to check through. And Karol had crossed the room to help him out. "There really is a lot of stuff in here," the Ace commented, "It's going to take awhile to find just a pair of swords in all this."

It seems to me you're all getting distracted from the swords and are just looking at anything that seems interesting. I couldn't help but sigh as Karol and Lloyd both began exclaiming in excitement as the first chest they opened was filled with masks that looked like they'd been made for Mardi Gras. Estelle and Rita had gotten into a box of books, and apparently they'd both found something interesting as they were paging through a couple of parchment brittle texts rather than looking at anything else.

Realizing I'd lost track of Raven, I looked around and almost immediately found him standing by another open chest with folds of garishly colored clothes spilling over the sides. He was grinning at me from under a gold and jewel encrusted crown perched lopsidedly on his head, a heavy looking gold and ruby scepter in hand.

"All hail the king of the perverted old fools," I said sardonically.

He held out another crown, which I'd guess were probably counterfeits or gold painted stage props. "Here's one fer the queen of the singin' drunks!" Solemnly he dropped the ridiculous thing on my head.

My face flamed hot for a few seconds before I regained my composure and smiled graciously at him. "If his majesty brings that incident up again, he'll become the king of the eunuchs."

"Righto, queen of the forgiving and merciful!" Raven easily caught my crown when I plucked it off and tossed it at him, dumping both fake headpieces back into the chest. He kicked it back out of the way, causing it to bump into another one that shuddered a bit from the impact.

Lloyd whooped and lifted a pair of swords into the air over his head. "Found them!"

"Awesome!" Karol cheered. Seeing the real things, I had to admit they did look cool. The red and blue were both vivid in color to the point that they seemed to shine with their own internal light. The blue Vorpal sword had a watery transparency, and seemed to even have bubbles trapped inside that moved in a small current. The red Flamberge was no less impressive, the red shifting in vibrancy like tongues of flame were dancing inside.

"Neat," I understated. How I wished there was someone present who would get if it I did the Zelda da da da daaa~ music for when you find a key item. Lloyd found the Material Blades! Set them to A in your menu and press A to use them!

"So, Lloyd, what are you going to do now?" Yuri was asking while I continued telling myself about using the toggle stick for a spin attack, and making the attack even stronger with a magic meter. How fortunate that these people couldn't read minds.

"Well, I-" despite my nostalgic inside jokes I was still paying enough attention to catch the shift in Lloyd's expression from elation to alarm when he did something of a double take in my direction, "Look out!"

Alerted by the look in his eyes I was already turning to look behind me, falling back into a more defensible stance. I'd thought that by this point I was ready for whatever surprise Terca Lumireis would throw at me, but I was proven wrong when I could only gawk as the fanged treasure chest threw itself at me with its mouth, er, its lid agape. Mimic? was the only clear, though still confused, thought in my head. Rather than drawing Oberon or Gemini to defend myself, I backpedaled while trying to make sense of having a box trying to gnaw my face off.

"Raging Tiger Blade!" A red blur rocketed past me, and gleaming red and blue blades stabbed into the fake chest repeatedly. The fierce onslaught stopped the chest in its tracks, and Lloyd (who had already shocked me with his speed in executing that maneuver) used the opening he'd made to slash both swords upwards and lift it into the air. It was airborne for less than a second before the Flamberge and Vorpal smashed it back down to the floor.

An admiring whistle and someone clapping punctuated the show. Lloyd grinned cheekily, "How's that? Really cool, huh?" Then he beamed down at the swords in his hands. "It really does feel best to have these back!"

My eyes dropped to the floor. The mimic, or that's what it would have been called in Final Fantasy, had been sliced into three nearly even pieces, smaller chunks and slivers splintering off. Saliva dripped from its 'mouth' to pool on the floor, but it was irrefutably dead. This... I thought, This is someone who saved an entire, no, who saved two worlds. This was just a warm up exercise to him.

But when I looked up again, what I saw was Lloyd standing by Karol, showing the Ace how to properly hold the two swords, laughing and giving encouragement when the boy flailed them around in a poor imitation of the Raging Tiger Blade we'd just seen. No, not an exercise, I smiled, just him trying to keep the people around him safe. That's how he ended up saving his world in the first place.

Funny thing, that. Just how many RPGs start the adventure with the main hero(es) just trying to protect the people closest to them? And then in turn it becomes a journey to protect the world itself?

Heh, even this. Yuri left Zaphias to get the aque blastia back for the people of the lower quarter, and Estelle wanted to warn Flynn of danger. In that case... I clenched my left hand into a fist, In that case, just what am I doing?

"The question is," I blinked and looked up as Raven spoke, "jus' how did a Fake get in here?"

"That's right," Estelle realized, "It shouldn't be possible for monsters to be inside the barrier like this."

Judith lifted a hand and pensively tapped a finger against her pursed lips. "Well, there is one way it's possible," she looked sidelong at the bound Dedecchi as she said this.

Yuri had come right to the same conclusion as her, "Yeah, something tells me our 'friend' here might even know something about it." The black haired swordsman clapped a hand on the thief's shoulder and leaned over to smile menacingly at him. "Or did you forget about that too?" Dedecchi was shaking so badly there were little scraping noises from the chair legs moving across the floor by miniscule amounts.

"Huh?" both Lloyd and Karol appeared confused.

Rita shook her head and made a tsk sound. "Isn't it obvious? He brought that thing in here to chase off anyone who tried to steal from him."

"No one is more likely to have precautions against thieves in place than a thief," I commented. One recurring trend in human nature; we expect others to be as ourselves. An honest person, even a realistic one, expects a certain level of honesty from others. But if we're dishonest what we expect is fraud and trickery. I glanced at Lloyd, who was making an 'oh, I think I get it' face, case in point.

"So what're we supposed to do with this guy now?" Lloyd asked as he returned Flamberge and Vorpal to their rightful homes in the sheaths hung from his crisscrossed belts.

"I demand that you let me go this instant!" Dedecchi blustered. It was spoiled when he cringed away from the threat of the fist Yuri raised as if about to sock the rat in the face.

Estelle folded her hands and said firmly, "We should take him to the authorities to be properly punished." Ah, so much more civilized than, say, beating him black and blue. Not as much fun though.

Raven scratched at his chin and shrugged, "I guess that'd mean handin' him over ta Palastralle for judgement."

A shadow of a grimace passed across Yuri's face, the swordsman shutting his eyes briefly. But when they opened again they were as clear as ever as he smirked. "Yeah, and I bet they'll be real happy if we tell them about this pack rat's nest." Dedecchi groaned but made no other protest.

x x x

We handed Dedecchi over to the first group of Palestralle guards we found. Once they heard the story they immediately sent runners ahead to make sure there was a secure place where thief could be kept until they decided what to do with him. Give him to the empire to deal with, or administer his punishment according to guild laws? I wasn't sure which seemed more likely, but I was certain that they'd see that he was punished accordingly.

And without more blood being spilled.

"I'm glad you were able to find your fathers' swords again," Estelle was saying. We were in the middle of saying our goodbyes to Lloyd, who wanted to be on his way as soon as possible. Not that he actually told us where he was going.

Lloyd patted one of the hilts fondly. "I really can't thank you guys enough for helping me get them back. I owe you guys!"

"Nah, don't worry about it," Yuri waved it off. "We were able to finally catch Dedecchi thanks to this." Yeah, and Lloyd actually paid more gald than he agreed on before with Karol. Huzzah! We're not totally flat broke! It would have been rude of me to say that out loud.

Raven lowered his arms from behind his head and pushed off from the wall he'd borrowed to lean against. "Not ta be the wet blanket here, but don't we all have places ta go?"

"That's right," Judith folded her arms over her middle, "We need to go meet with Belius tonight, and I'm sure Lloyd has somewhere he's supposed to be."

"Oh right," the twinswordsman realized suddenly, "I didn't even tell anyone that I was leaving!" He rubbed his head, mussing up his brown hair further. "They're definitely not gonna be happy with me for disappearing again..."

"Sounds like you should be going home," I said softly.

Yes, it had long since occurred to me that if Lloyd got to Terca Lumireis with the Eternal Sword then it should be well within its abilities to send me home. Yet without a word I watched Lloyd Irving turn his back and start walking away from us, my mouth setting into a firm line when he looked back for a final wave when Karol shouted, "See you again sometime!" That he was following the road that would get him out of Nordopolica the fastest did not escaped my notice.

Yuri placed his off hand on his hip and got back to business. "We should take the chance to get anything else we need before going to see Belius," the swordsman told the group as a whole. "Whatever the Knights are up to, we need to be ready for trouble any minute."

Everyone nodded in agreement as Judith suggested, "We can all meet up at the inn and go see her from there."

As the group split up I watched Karol leave with Repede listing aloud the supplies he could stock up on, Judith went off on her own, and Rita standing by as Estelle admired the flowers in the basket an old woman wrapped in a shawl was showing her. Unnoticed I slipped away on my own.

x x x

"Lloyd!" The brunet turned at my call. He'd been just about to leave the city and looked restless as he waited for me to catch up.

"What is it? Something wrong?"

Looking around quickly, I pointed out a somewhat more private spot that was a small alcove in a building's outer wall. "Let's talk there, so no one should overhear too easily."

The twinswordsman seemed mystified but complied. "What'd you want to talk about?" he asked again as he leaned back against the innermost part of the stone wall.

"I..." Fidgeting with my braid in my hands, I wondered just what it was I hoped to learn. "You said before that you knew someone who came from Earth. Who was that?"

"Huh? You mean Allie?" My stomach made a weird flip flop. Allie wasn't a familiar name, not from the meager memories of my personal life or from any of the (legion) of Self Insert fanfictions I'd looked into as a guilty pleasure. Could this mean that this other person was spirited into Symphonia by fairies?

Lloyd continued speaking to fill the silence. "Allie's one of my friends from the journey of regeneration. She also helped a lot when there was the trouble with the Vanguard and Niflheim." Placing this Lloyd as coming from after both the original game and its sequel, Dawn of the New World.

Which would explain why I'd had that feeling of offness before about his appearance. He had to be at least nineteen, if not older, while I'd always imagined him being seventeen (as most fans probably did). It might not seem like a big deal, but it was like the difference between guessing someone was a high school student or a college student based on appearance alone.

No, poor analogy, I corrected my thought, anything involving school is automatically a bad example when it comes to Lloyd. Who'd been babbling on while trying to fill the uncomfortable silence by trying to explain about the journey of regeneration and the Vanguard and so on, doing a marginally better job than Karol would have. To be fair, he was probably muddled by trying to remember that (supposedly) I had no idea what he was talking about and kept backtracking to better explain something earlier.

"And..." I forestalled his explanation of how his world was really two worlds that were one again, "This Allie... How did you feel when you found out she was from another world entirely?" This was what I wanted to know the most. "Did she...tell you from the start?"

Lloyd blinked at me for a moment with his head tilting, then slowly said, "So...they don't know you're from Earth?"

My head jerked back as that startled me, "Eh?"

"Well, one of you guys had to be from Earth or you wouldn't know about it," the twinswordsman shrugged, "But just now it sounded like the rest of your friends don't know." Ah, I slipped up. Lloyd isn't book smart, but that doesn't make him an idiot either. In fact, that makes him more dangerous than someone like, say, Yuri, who just so matter of course is watching and making connections all the time.

I let out a slow exhalation while running the fingers of one hand through my hair. "Yes," I admitted, "I'm from Earth. And no, I haven't told anyone but Yuri and Raven. I didn't even mean for them to find out."

Lloyd folded his arms over his chest and furrowed his brown in a bothered expression. "I don't get it," he told me in clear annoyance, "What's so bad about this Earth that you guys don't want to talk about it?"

"That's a real good question." Yuri ninja'd up from around the corner. Ha. Well, my private out of the way spot for a chat wasn't so private. If I hadn't been so stunned by Lloyd's question I probably would have been ticked with myself for that.

But...What's so bad about Earth? Didn't that question brush against something I'd thought of before? What's so bad about them finding out I'm from Earth?

The last time we were in Nordopolica, the realization had come that I'd accepted the possibility that I might never see Earth again. An acceptance that wasn't as painful as it should've been, likely due to the progressive loss of memories of my personal life creating a cushion of detachment. And not much later I'd had that enlightened moment when I realized that, if not for the issue of the video game, my origins would mean very little in the overall scheme of things.

"I...don't even know why I don't want to talk about it..." I murmured, eyes dropping to stare without seeing at my feet. "Talking about it just...hurts..." What's so bad about Earth? What's so bad is that it won't ever truly be my home again.

"Letha..." Yuri stopped, hesitating to say what could be the wrong words. "If you miss Earth so much, why aren't you trying to find a way back?"

"Um," Lloyd drew the other man's attention, but I very reluctantly dragged my gaze back up from the dust and mud stained toes of my boots, "If you want to go to another world, I can help."

"You can?" The revelation didn't surprise me as it had Yuri.

"Yeah, now that I've got these back," Lloyd patted the hilts of his paired swords again. "I was actually trying to go see Earth in the first place, I was curious about the world Allie came from."

Yuri placed a fist on one hip while eying the swords with new appraisal, "No wonder you didn't want to give them up and get new ones.

"So, what are you going to do?" Yuri turned back to me with a neutral expression. At my questioning look he shrugged indifferently, "We'll just tell the others that you needed to go home. After all, you might not get another chance." There was a small pang of pain in my chest at how uncaring he seemed about me leaving, but I ignored it. In my mind's eye I replayed images of Tales of Vesperia, when Yuri would put up a similar front when leaving a decision to Estelle for the princess to make for herself. The swordsman wasn't the type to let his own emotions get in the way of what was best for others.

Wearily, I shook my head and smiled at Lloyd, "Thank you, but no. Before I can even consider going home, I need to finish what I've started here." It had never been my intention to ask the brunet to send me home, though I was touched that he offered. But there was no going home for me until Nevi decided he was done with my help. Not to mention my unwillingness to burden my family with an amnesiac daughter.

Lloyd met my look with a measuring stare of his own that gave me the uncomfortable feeling that he not only understood, but understood more than I was saying... A grin split his face and he laced the fingers of his hands behind his head while saying, "If that's what you want. Though if I'm ever in this world again I'll drop by and see if you need a trip back."

My smile warmed a bit, feeling more genuine. "Thanks, I appreciate it."

"And," Lloyd stopped and shot a look at Yuri before huddling over next to me and speaking in a whisper behind a raised hand, like we were conspiring school children scheming under the teacher's nose, "Though I don't really get what's up with those fairy guys Allie told me about, and you probably have your own reasons, but I really think it'd help if you just told your friends everything." I gaped at him in shock and Lloyd laughed, "Dwarven vow number forty one: It's better to begin in the evening than not at all."

The corner of my mouth quirked up wryly, "Those vows cover nearly everything, don't they? But I'm surprised you know about...that."

Lloyd straightened spoke clearly again, "Like I said, I don't really get it much. But won't you feel better once you've told them?" He stepped out of the cubby in the wall and said, "But I've really gotta go now, if I take any longer they'll be mad at me back home!" With one last wave he jogged off out of the Nordopolica gate, probably to find a place to use the eternal sword without being noticed.

Yuri and I watched until we could no longer see the bright red smear of his jacket against the surrounding grass plains. "Are you really okay with this?" Yuri asked.

"Sorry, did you want me to leave with him?" I asked dryly.

"Nah, then I'd have to put up with Karol and Estelle complaining about how you never finished telling that story. But," the brief moment of levity passed quickly, "what was that about...fairies, did he say?"

"Snoop," I scolded, "I already promised I'd tell you guys. But that particular story's a long one, so it needs to wait til we're not in such a rush."

He gave in at that, "Right, so I guess we should get back to the others." We both left the alcove in the wall and turned back to go deeper into the city and the crowds that accompanied city life.

We'd only gotten to the boardwalk bridges again (in a silence just shy of being awkward) when I felt a sense of deja vu.

"'Scuse me, but can I ask you something?" There was a girl stopping passerbys in the crowd, asking them each some question I couldn't really hear clearly. As I watched, the women in leather and a witch hat (the one I had stopped Lloyd from bothering earlier?) turned and pointed in Yuri's and my direction. The girl, a strawberry blonde in blue and black nodded at the woman before dashing across the road to us.

"Hey, sorry, but have you..." she trailed off and stared at Yuri dazedly.

The black haired swordsman raised an inquiring eyebrow, "What, there something stuck on my face?" I rolled my eyes in amusement. Charming face, not so charming personality. Though if Yuri knew how to use his looks to his advantage, he'd probably become a menace to women everywhere.

The girl shook her head, "Sorry, I was just a little surprised. You look like someone I wasn't expecting to see." For some reason she glanced at me a bit curiously while saying that. "I'm trying to find a friend of mine, and somebody said they saw you with a person that matches his description." She was about to say more when there was a commotion from in the crowd. "Oh right," raising two fingers to her lips, she blew a piercing whistle and yelled, "Noishe! Over here!"

"Noishe...?" You have got to be...

Sure enough the pony sized green and white protozoan that only vaguely resembled a canine came bounding out of the crowd, people nearly jumping aside or pushing each other to get out of his way. Following him were a pair of Palestralle peace keeping guards who gave the girl an earful while she patted Noishe on the head. She apologized on her "dog's" behalf and promised she'd keep a closer eye on him.

"That's a...dog?" Yuri sceptically looked over the protozoan sitting at the girl's feet.

She shrugged it off, "Close enough. Like I was about to ask," she snapped right back full circle to where we'd started, "have you guys seen a guy dressed in red with white ribbons, spikey swooshy hair like this," she made some gesture with her hands that could be mistaken for interpretive dance (...), "and uses two swords?"

I could have just said "yes" but my mischievous streak insisted I dig the wanted poster I was still carrying out of its pocket. "You mean this guy?"

She snatched the drawing from my hands and needed only a quick glance at it, "DAMMIT LLOYD, AGAIN?" Seething, she crumpled the poster up into a small wad and tossed it away. "How does he keep getting those?" Noishe whined in concern for his human friend.

Yuri muttered something that sounded like, "He wasn't kidding about that?" Then more loudly, "I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that you're Allie," he tossed out in the face of her simmering murderous intent directed at the absent twinswordsman.

While that didn't precisely calm her down it did bring her back to the conversation at hand so she tried to get a reign on her temper. "Yes, I'm Allie, but how did you know my name?"

"From Lloyd," while Yuri briefly recounted the meeting with the brunet and the recovery of the swords (Allie's eye twitched when she heard that Lloyd lost the Eternal Sword) I looked her over a bit more carefully.

Round about Estelle or Judith's age, an inch or so shorter than me, shoulder length hair decorated by winged hairclips (though lacking the blastia that mine sported), and green eyes. Black shorts...blue tank top...crossed belts...exsphere on her chest... Exspere? I hoped the red stone displayed on her chest in a golden setting was just a regular exspere, I wouldn't envy her if it were a cruxis crystal. But the sight of it still irritated me because the gold setting, a keycrest meant to make using the stone safer, was molded in a shape like an abstract fairy. Or maybe a dragonfly with oddly shaped wings.

...So far, I'm not liking the fae folks' sense of humor, I thought with a certain grim displeasure, tracing a thumb over the hidden lines of my own tattoo that resembled either a butterfly or strangely petaled flower.

"So...are you really from Earth?" Yuri asked her bluntly. She spluttered, caught between denial and confusion (and I imagine Lloyd was going to get a stern talking to about sharing other people's secrets) while I facepalmed. "If I didn't know better I'd say you guys are starting an invasion."

"Pfft," I rolled my eyes and threw up my hands ostentatiously, "Didn't you know, Yuri? About a quarter of your population has already been brainwashed to serve as our minions when we conquer this unsuspecting planet."

"Really?" he deadpanned, "Guess that explains why so many of the nobles act like brainless asses."

I nodded seriously, "Of course. And now that you've uncovered our diabolical plan, I'm afraid we can't let you live."

"You guys are weird," Allie informed us. Noise barked as if in agreement. "So where's Lloyd now?"

"Uhh," I grinned a bit sheepishly, "You actually just missed him. He used the sword to leave just, I dunno, five minutes ago? Hopefully he'll end up in Sylvarant this time..."

"Great, just great," she grumbled. "Come on, Noishe, let's get Ariel to send us after him again." She absentmindedly touched her hand to the exsphere on her chest, or rather the crest it was in, giving me an interesting guess as to who Ariel was.

"Wait, before you go-" the strawberry blonde looked back to me, stopping from following the road outside of Nordipolica, "I just wanted to ask..." I glanced at Yuri, reluctant to voice my question while he was there.

He took the hint. "Don't take too long, we don't want to wait for the next new moon to talk to Belius," he reminded me as he headed back for the inn on his own.

"Belius?" Allie repeated, then looked at me sympathetically. "I think I remember about that part. Will you be alright?"

I nodded, "I refuse to just stand back and let her die. I'll do something. But what I wanted to ask..." I nervously rubbed the back of my left hand through the glove. "Lloyd looked about twenty, he was talking about the vanguard, and he said you'd been with them since the regeneration journey. So you've lived out two full games now, and then some." I looked up and into her green eyes. "Why haven't the fairies let you go home yet?" No, there's something that bothers me even more than that...

Allie shrugged, "To be honest? I don't really want to go home. My parents didn't...well, let's just say they didn't get what it means to love your kid." For a moment her jaw clenched, as if striving to hold back a flood of choice words on the subject. Though all she added was, "The less said about them, the better. And I didn't have any real friends on Earth, definitely not like I have now. Actually, if I didn't have to track down Lloyd, I'd never let Ariel send me somewhere other than Sylvarant or Tethe'ella anymore. That's where I really feel at home now."

So this other helper of the fairies didn't have strong attachments to Earth? Was that on purpose when they chose her? For that matter...what about Chase? What were his reasons? But, again, what I really want to ask right now...

"What about your memories? Have you...been forgetting what your life on Earth was like?" I dreaded the answer, everything she had already told me hinted at a prospect I didn't like, but I still needed to hear...

Allie blinked in confusion at me, "What do you mean? It's been over two years, but I haven't forgotten all that much."

Dammit, Nevys.

x x x

We had to part after that. I would've liked the chance to ask if Allie knew what the full story behind the heirloom pieces was, but my half baked plan to save Belius didn't leave me any time for a Q and A. Allie and Noishe were also in a hurry to follow after Lloyd, and needed to leave before they could get Ariel to help them. Ariel, I gathered, was a fairy with more than enough attitude, but it also seemed she was perfectly willing to give her helper the occasional helping hand or trump card for rough situations.

Unlike some narcistic fairies I could name.

Save it, try to figure this out later, and maybe you'll get a chance to have a nice, long chat with Nevi soon. Just be sure he can't get away til he finally gives the real deal.

I had taken the quickest route I knew of back to the coliseum, slipping past the area set aside for the inn and to the stairway that was supposed to lead to Belius' chambers in back. On the way I'd been cautious so as not to be spotted by the others, if they stayed at the inn to wait for me then I'd have more time to work with. Instinctively I disliked risking the timing of their meeting being thrown off, but hopefully we'd have plenty of time to chat with Belius afterward.

No, not hopefully, I'd make sure we did.

The door was guarded by a tall man burly with muscle and scar tissue. Seriously, he was bare chested excepting the large crisscrossing belts that supported the hefty axe on his back, leaving all his old battle wounds in the open. Not a bad deterrent, I suppose, to not so subtly warn off troublemakers. And of course the eye patch of rugged badassness was a badge of office declaring he didn't need depth perception to win a fight!

Gyah, nervous jitters, must be careful I don't say any of these crazy things out loud.

"Good evening, Natz sir!" said cheerily and respectfully. He gave me a quick yet probably thorough assessment with his single eye, lingering a touch longer on the triad of weapons displayed on my belts.

"Do you have business with the Duce?" he demanded, not in the least bothered that I'd called him by name. Well, duh, authority figures would be used to complete strangers calling them by name...

"Yeah, actually," I shifted my weight nervously from one foot to the other, which he watched me do warily. Better not make any sudden moves around this guy. "I have something to talk with her about. It's a life and death issue."

Natz tried to stare me down, but I matched his glower with a serious look of my own. Finally he said, "I'll pass the message on to Lord Belius."

"No," I gritted, "I really need to be the one to talk with her about this." Because you'd probably think it was a prank and wouldn't bother. "And I really need to talk with her now."

He was as unaffected as a brick wall, "I'm sorry, but I can't let just anyone in to see the Duce."

Exasperated, I whipped out my trump card. "Because you don't want people to know your Duce is an Entelexeia, right? No worries there, that's old news to me."

"What? Impossible-How do you know about-"

"And SO," I loudly bulled over Natz's words, "I haven't ever told anyone, and never plan to, and I really. Need. To talk with her. NOW."

He wavered between acceding and rejecting me again. Arguably he had even more reason to send me away now, since if I knew so much about Belius I could conceivably be a greater threat to her. But I'd gotten Belius' attention, and that was what I had really been aiming for.

"I will speak with her." The voice was a resonant low alto, barely hindered by the heavy door and roughened with age. Involuntarily I swallowed, nervous as a new employee about to get chewed out by the demonic CEO.

"Duce-" he began to protest.

"Natz. Let her pass." Defeated, Natz stepped aside from the door.

"Never speak of this to others," he warned me. I simply nodded and pushed through the door.

Beyond was a corridor with several staircases leading one forward and upwards. The steps, which I had never acknowledged before, were shallower than humans typically designed them, and leveled out into landings more frequently than I'd think necessary. Small blastias set in the walls provided dim lighting that was almost too dim for a human to see by, though perhaps all that an Entelexeia needed?

Studying the architecture allowed me to distract myself as I followed the corridor to its end, trying all the way to find a tapestry close enough to the light for me to make out what the sigil on it was, but all too soon I was standing in front of another door. A statue of a winged creature perched above it, easily three times my size. Perhaps the image of the Entelexeia that founded this city? Now there was a thought. I didn't really know how long Belius had supposedly been around.

Taking a deep breath first to prepare myself, I knocked on the door. "Belius? I'm here."

"Come in."

The door was easier to push open than the one Natz had been standing guard at, but beyond was pitch black darkness. Belius isn't going to hurt me, I chastised myself. I stepped through and let the door swing closed behind me.

A moment of silent stillness...and then purple fire sprang into life. Reminding me of stories about will o' the wisps and fox fire, four separate flames burned in midair. They framed the looming figure of Belius, the monstrous appearing Duce of Nordipolica. Describing her was...there was no easy way to truly describe her. In simplest terms one could say she looked like a vulpine version of a centaur.

What would be a human torso was more foxlike than human, perhaps I dare describe its structure as being like an anthropomorphic fox? Her head and face were indisputably that of a fox, though. But never, not back when it was only a game to me and not now, could I figure out what to call those appendages that extended from the back of her shoulders. Extra arms? Some seemed to have hands... Antennae? What?

If I hadn't already known what to expect, I would have been perfectly at a loss for what to do next. Instead I took only a brief moment to take in that yes, that is what Belius looks like, before bowing as respectfully to her as to any of my senseis.

"Duce Belius of Nordopolica, I'm called Letha Vitae, of the guild Brave Vesperia." I hesitated for a heartbeat before blurting, "I don't think you're going to like what I have to tell you."

x x x

Raven and I both looked at Yuri in surprise. Accidentallly missed capitalizing the Y on that one. My mind totally went straight to the gutter after that. w

So, I suppoooose technically Access got...two cameos out of this? I allowed it because the idea seemed to work in so well with what I'm doing with the fairies, and I really wasn't expecting that when I said I'd give out this prize to the contest winner. But I don't want everyone to think it's easy to get your own OCs into this fic, if they don't naturally mesh with my planned plot, the best you'll get out of me is a brief meeting, odd conversation that Letha found memorable, or the like. And that would be if I feel you earned it (**)

So...cross your fingers and hope there'll be another contest and prizes, eh? Or just, you know, write me something for the hell of it.

Alastor: You are shameless.

Don't say that as if you don't approve. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go and gag down some cold medicine.