Passing Silhouettes

by Intrepid Daydreamer

"Come with us or stay here. It's your choice." People had never held much significance for me; just passing silhouettes in the night, gone by morning light. But the way he held my gaze was inviting, and I found myself at a crossroads. A promise of adventure and discovery awaited me. I felt something inside shift. I nodded and he smiled. My choice was made and my fate sealed.

20. Chapter 20

My blade rang out harmlessly against his own, and our eyes locked for the briefest of seconds. There was almost a flash of an emotion that I couldn't quite place before they darkened. He suddenly whirled around, throwing me off with more force than I was expecting.

I flew back a few feet, but managed to land on my feet, skidding to an eventual stop in the mud as Yeager twirled his scythe around in his hands like it was a toy. Lightning streaked across the sky, flashing angrily in the reflection of the blade.

"Nothing personal, you see," he called. "Just business!"

---

With that, it was on.

"Oh, Enduring Protection," I heard Estelle say as I rolled my wrist, "Barrier!"

A wall of blue, translucent hexagons wove together out of the aer in front of me, shimmered for a moment, then disappeared. She was learning more support spells as the days went on, something I was becoming more and more grateful for. Part of it, I think, might be because they were all she could do to help me out in a fight. Short of fighting herself, that is.

But even with the Barrier fortifying my defenses for a while, I was wary to attack Yeager head on. I wanted to see at least a little of what he could do first.

Which meant that Judith took initiative and struck out with her halberd, jumping gracefully into the air and attacking in a vicious downward arc. He rolled easily out of the way, and Judith's weapon sliced harmlessly at the space his head had occupied but a moment before. She let out a puff of air, a faint smirk on her lips as she assessed his skill.

He was quick, I'd give him that much. As he and Judith danced around one another, I circled them slowly, setting an unspoken boundary between the space they were claiming and the other little skirmishes going on around us. The last thing I wanted was for someone to sneak in and land a cheap shot on Judith while her attention was occupied, or for Yeager to do the same to one of our other companions.

So for now, I was the gatekeeper; keeping a careful eye on everything.

I did switch in for Judith after a hefty strike arte left her looking a bit shakier on her feet than either of us were comfortable with. She nodded her thanks sharply, then danced out of reach of Yeager's scythe to let me handle things up close and personal for a while.

And for a while, it was underwhelming. We went back and forth, just sort of testing one another. Neither of us were really aiming to injure yet, or to end the fight quickly. Just testing defenses, poking at holes, and seeing the response. Gauging the danger presented. As if I couldn't already tell that the man in front of me, strange as he may be, was deadly. His scythe sang as it twisted and cut through the air with ease, and I eyed its curved blade warily. Not something I was keen on getting sliced up by.

I grit my teeth and started the process of channeling a bit of aer into the stones of my sword. Playing around like this was all well and good, but it was expending unnecessary energy. I wasn't sure if I could outlast him in a fight of attrition, and I didn't want to find out the hard way. If I was going to gain ground, I'd have to do it fast.

It was a half formed plan, really - just channel the aer and make my strikes land a bit harder. I wanted space to breathe so I could actually come up with a plan that would work. The stones glowed faintly in response - not enough to be a danger, but enough to catch my opponent's eye.

Yeager grinned and I felt the aer twist as he started channeling the aer out of my blade and toward his scythe for a strike arte of his own.

I made an undignified noise in the back of my throat.

Well shit. I didn't know you could literally steal aer like that and fuck, I hadn't wanted him to do that, I just wanted to -

My thoughts ground to a halt as I threw up my blade in a hasty guard against his charged attack. Even with the Barrier Estelle had given me, I felt the impact rattle my bones. Yeager had followed through all the way, which gave me a split second to wonder whether it had shattered the Barrier outright before he would be ready to attack with it again. I could barely make out a few spiderweb splinters running the length of the translucent blue hexagons when - crack!

"Fucking hell," I coughed and backstepped quickly, cradling my left cheek. There was a sound like breaking glass as the rest of the Barrier shattered. Fuck.

I had been so worried about keeping Yeager's damn scythe away from me that I'd failed to acknowledge that his entire body was a weapon. He'd planted the butt of his scythe into the ground and used it as a lever to propel himself up and aim a kick at my face.

I shook my head at my own stupidity. The world swam in and out of focus before righting itself once more.

That was just sloppy. Ugh.

There was a bit of distance between us now - and wasn't that what I was going for all along? I could count that as a successful plan. Point for me. Could do with less pain in my face, but whatever. Either way, I could see it clearly when Yeager shook his weapon once, hard, and it folded in on itself with a snap. It was all I could do to stare as it whirred mechanically, metallic parts sliding against one another until it finished with a small hiss of steam.

Yeager was holding a rifle.

What the fuck.

He held it up with a grin, spinning on a dime to fire a shot of swirling black and purple energy at one of the other sparring pairs. I saw his lips form something like the words Trans Wakening, but it was so quick and sudden that I wasn't sure that it had really happened.

And just as soon as his weapon was a rifle, it was a scythe again, and he was swinging it viciously at Judith, who had tried to capitalize on his sudden lack of a close range weapon.

What the fuck. What the fuck even was that thing. Who was this guy?

But play time was apparently over. Yeager and Judith both upped their intensity, flying in and out, clashing briefly before pulling apart again. I slashed a few Vibrances at him from afar, trying to keep him on his toes and keep his attention occupied so he couldn't pull that rifle thing out again.

I guess I hadn't noticed before that the scythe wasn't normal. Looking closer now, I could see that its staff was segmented metal, with a hinge in the middle and at the connection to the blade. I still didn't understand how that thing could become a gun of all things, but whatever. Not that it surprised me, in hindsight. Nothing about this guy screamed 'normal.'

From that point on, I took my double-teaming duties more seriously. I ghosted into close combat range with Judith and Yeager, entering their deadly dance and striking when I could. It was an interesting sort of experiment for the krytian and I - we had never fought this close before, and were learning on the fly how to read the other's body language and attack patterns.

And how to stay out of each other's way. We made the mistake of both trying to close in on the same opening a total of one time, and neither of us were keen to let it happen again.

It may have taken a bit, but we eventually found a steady rhythm, and were soon unleashing twin havoc on our opponent.

But Yeager kept up admirably well. Judith was an exceptionally brutal fighter, and I was no slouch myself. To go up against the two of us at the same time with the composure and poise that he did was unnerving. He was weaving in and out of our attacks with ease, dodging what he could, parrying what he couldn't, and attacking with bone-jarring force when he felt like it, and doing it all with a stupid little smirk on his face. It was almost as if he was used to this sort of fight, going up against two skilled opponents at once. He almost looked like he was enjoying himself.

He was so toying with us. Great.

Well. Toying with us, sure, but definitely not playing around. Yeager suddenly launched himself into the air as the scythe transformed into the rifle again, and he called out "Aer Light!" as he fired off an explosive round of blue aer at our mages. Who had been stupid enough to stand right next to each other while casting. Unprotected.

Stupid.

Rita had been between castings, and was able to dive out of the way in time. Estelle, who had just finished casting Sharpness on Judith, hadn't been so lucky. The attack didn't hit her directly, thank goodness, but the shot detonated when it impacted the ground at her feet. The princess got caught in the blast radius and was thrown from her feet with a squeal. She landed, arms outstretched, in the mud, and skidded to a slow stop ten feet from where she started. She looked dazed, but otherwise unhurt.

Even 15 feet in the air, Judith was immediately in Yeager's face, sending him back to the ground with a Luna Fang. I followed up with Vibrance, trying to keep him from getting his bearings. It didn't work. He shrugged off both of our attacks like they were nothing.

He flipped his hair out of his eyes and placed a hand on his hip as Judith landed. "Come now, this is truly the best you can do?" He sounded … almost disappointed.

"Nah, we're just getting warmed up," came Yuri's casual reply. I spared a glance in his direction to see him turning from where Estelle and Rita were picking themselves off the ground. He was protective of the girls, especially Estelle, and the fact that they'd been targeted meant Yeager was in for a beating.

"Good, good, yes, good!" Yeager twirled his scythe around his body like it weighed nothing. "Come!"

Yuri took the invitation for what it was and launched into a string of artes. He rattled off a couple that I recognized, then dipped into his Over Limit. Interesting. I'd only seen him try this out in practice a couple of times, and it was always fascinating.

The idea was to draw aer into your bodhi blastia constantly, but to not channel all of it into your weapon for artes. Sort of store half of it for later. Then, when you were ready, you could channel all of the aer in reserve at once, and it would make your attacks stronger. There were certain artes that worked better like this, and combinations were easier to pull off, but for the more powerful and lucrative artes, like Burst and Mystic Artes, Over Limit was a prerequisite.

Over Limit on its own was an advanced technique - challenging to do well, especially in a real fight like this. I could do it, sure, but not for long and it always left me feeling drained afterward. The risks still outweighed the rewards, so I wasn't confident enough to use it in a real fight.

But Yuri seemed to be handling it just fine. He sank the first few inches of his katana into the ground for Crushing Eagle, then - "Divine Wolf!" - oh nice - then transitioned flawlessly into a Burst Arte that I'd heard him talk about. He managed to drive Yeager back, though I couldn't tell if any of the hits were really landing. They were both moving so fast.

I could tell that Yuri's Over Limit was nearing its end, and figured it would be a good time to stop spectating. There were still a couple of random Red- Eyes hanging around, so I decided to let Yuri keep playing with Yeager for a while and take up his job on grunt duty.

The first guy didn't put up much of a fight, and fell to a Vibrance before I even got close. Didn't even dodge or anything. Just took it and crumpled. Ah, well. Yuri had probably done the heavy lifting on that one. Still a win for me, though.

The second one was a bit more of a back and forth, and we traded blows pretty evenly until Delta crept up behind him and tore out his right achilles tendon with her teeth. I knocked him out almost as an apology with a sharp left hook to his jaw.

"You good?" I asked my partner as I took a moment to catch my breath. I shook my hand out. I don't care how easy Yuri made it look, punching people in the face still hurt.

Delta whined and tossed her head. She sat for a moment, scratching at her ear with her back paw. I huffed out a laugh. Yeah, she was fine.

"Pierce Barret!"

Something warm and sharp rocketed into the back of my right shoulder, and I yelped in pain, clutching at it with my other hand. I turned back toward the main fight to see Yeager's weapon reverting to its scythe form. The man was smirking at me and winked before dodging a Spread Zero from Rita and focusing back on Judith's offensive.

I didn't have time to process what that meant, as Delta growled suddenly before tearing across the battlefield in the opposite direction of the man who'd just hit me. I followed her path, confused, because wouldn't she want to go after ..? But no, she was sprinting toward our mages again because fuck, the Red-Eye goons for going after our casters. Again. There were two more sneaking up behind them, and both were too engrossed in their spells to notice.

My partner almost ran into Yuri, weaving masterfully around his long legs, even as he staggered to try and avoid her. He spared a glance in the direction she was heading and I could almost hear the curses he let loose as he turned to follow. Good, he was closer anyway.

Great. Awesome. I guess I'll just trade spots with him and tag-team Yeager with Judith again. Because that had gone so well the first time.

It didn't go much better the second time.

Judith did manage to score a couple of hits with her halberd, though. Her weapon had the longer reach, which meant she didn't have to get as close to the swirling vortex of death that Yeager had transformed into. Lucky her.

That didn't mean she didn't get hit in return though. A particularly quick slice from the scythe caught her in the upper arm, and Judith hissed in pain as the blade tore itself from her flesh.

The comforting green glow of a First Aide enveloped my fighting partner, and she flit back a few paces to collect herself and to allow the arte to finish its work. I could hear a sigh escape her lips as it worked its magic. Yeager and I continued the brutal business of beating each other up.

Well. That was generous. Yeager was the one doing the beating - I was doing everything I could to not get sliced in half. Parrying, dodging, blocking as best I could, but Yeager was a machine. Even in the rain and under our assault, he wasn't slowing down like the rest of us were. I knew I was in for it when his easy grin shifted, suddenly all sharp teeth and jagged angles, and the aer around us seemed to gravitate toward him.

"Plural Edge!"

The first swing was heavy, coming up from below. I fumbled my parry because of the awkward angle and curve of the blade, and my sword was wrenched out of my grasp. Which would have been fine if Yeager had intended to just disarm me. Since he hadn't, I didn't have anything to defend myself with when he followed through.

I didn't feel pain when the sharp edge of his scythe cut into my hip. I didn't feel it when it dragged its way up my torso. I didn't feel it as it scraped against my ribs. I didn't even feel it as it tore out of my flesh.

I wish I had.

Or, rather, I wish I had felt it in those small doses. Neat little moments where it slowly grew in its intensity, bit by bit by bit by bit by bit. Instead, I felt it all at once, and had to drop to my knees with a gasp because holy fucking shit, what the hell. It burned, a groove gouged into my body that seared like fire and wept red water.

My hands were twitching, trembling as they were torn between wanting to press into the pulsing at my stomach, as if it would make it less, somehow, and reaching to a pocket at my waist for a gel that would hopefully do the same thing. One did one and the other did the other, and the taste of lemon was on my tongue before my brain even registered that it would be a good move.

Good move. Move. Move. I should move.

It was a good thing that I'd dropped like a stone as soon as I'd taken the first hit. I could feel the whoosh of displaced air above my head as Yeager's next two strikes suddenly lacked a viable target, even as I was fumbling around trying to not bleed everywhere. He let out a frustrated breath as he tried to compensate for the missing resistance.

Yeager. Right. Fighting.

I pushed myself away from where I'd been kneeling, staring stupidly for a second at the red stain that was spreading across my shirt - ugh, if I got blood on my cloak I was going to be so mad. It would take forever to clean out. Good timing too, as Yeager decided that that exact spot on the ground was going to be a great resting place for the first six inches of his scythe.

Better the ground than my head, though. Lightning flashed overhead, reflected in the polished steel of the blade.

Blade. I had one of those. A sword. I clenched my fist. My hand was empty. It shouldn't be empty. I was fighting. Where was it?

I dragged my gaze away from the colors on my stomach - itchy, why was it so itchy? - and tried to find my jian in the mud. Lightning flashed again - hey, light, thanks! - and I saw something bright stand out against the dark mud from the corner of my eye. I slid over and scooped it up with one hand and wiped some of the yuck from it with the other.

Good. Need sword to not die. Have sword. Less likely to die now.

I patted at the wound in my torso. My hand came away wet and red, but the pain had died down from searing and throbbing and gushing to a sluggish weep and dull ache. I could handle a dull ache.

I popped another lemon gel, just to be safe.

My mind cleared as another bit of pain filtered away under the medicinal effects of the gel, and I stood, taking a deep breath before turning to see what, exactly, I had missed.

Yuri was still fighting off the remainder of the Red-Eye grunts, and he and Karol were keeping Estelle and Rita safe. Repede and Delta were who the fuck knows where, and Judith was circling Yeager. The tails of his blue coat looked a little more scorched than I last remembered, which meant that Rita had been busy.

"Alright?" Judith asked quickly, eyes never leaving Yeager's.

"Peachy," I bit out. She'd seen me go down, but it would take more than that to keep me there. Even if I wasn't at 100% right now, I'd be fine. Half of me was better than nothing. "You?"

"I'll live." Good. That was good. Not great, but good was going to have to be good enough.

We needed to end this, one way or another.

I took a step forward and winced hard as it pulled at my side. Fuck. Maybe I wasn't as good as I thought I was. Took a breath to let the black spots clear from my vision. Took another step. I had to keep pushing, regardless of what I was going through. The sooner this was over, the better.

Call it haste to have the whole thing done, call it pride, call it stupidity - whatever. Call it whatever, but I started channeling aer into my sword. If I could pull off Fluorescent Drive, Yeager might get caught on his heels and Judith could take the opportunity to swoop in and knock him down a peg or two.

Fluorescent Drive was one of the fancier artes I knew, and it would take a lot for me to get it right. Especially right now. It took a lot out of me when I was operating at full strength. This would be interesting.

I channeled the aer anyway. It would be worth it to give Judith an opening.

I reached, trying to find enough light-based aer to power the arte. There wasn't much around - it was still dark and cloudy and miserable because of the storm. It was all I could do to snatch up the remnants from a random lightning strike. It would have to do.

But even as I was pouring what aer I could into my blade, the glowing of the stones sputtered, then began to die.

I looked stupidly down at my jian, then at the steadily growing glow at Yeager's chest. It must have been where his bodhi blastia was. I kept mine hidden too.

My slow brain struggled to keep pace with what was happening. But where had..?

Oh. He'd stolen my aer again. That was so rude. I was going to have a chat with Rita about how that was even possible, because it was starting to get annoying.

Yeager grinned. "Show time!"

Oh, fu-

Aer suddenly flared outward from his chest in a burst of red light. The shockwave it produced blew me back several feet, and since it caught me off guard, my landing was anything but graceful.

It knocked me to the ground hard, and I skidded through the mud a ways before rolling over a couple of times until I finally came to a rest on my stomach. A few seconds went by where I just stayed there, trying to catch my breath. Shit had winded me, and getting air into my lungs required deep, heaving breaths that made my vision go white at the edges as the expanding of my chest tugged at the nice line Yeager had carved into me.

When I could finally breathe again some long moments later, I pushed myself onto my forearms and warily looked around to see where the fucker had gotten off to.

Because he'd just entered his own Over Limit and fuck if I was going to let him hit either of our mages with a Burst Arte.

But he didn't seem to be targeting any one person. Just dicking around and diving his attention equally among us. He was darting around a little bit faster. His strikes were landing a little bit harder.

Once second he was parrying a Moonlight Havoc from Judith, the next he was firing a Core Triple Shot at Rita and Estelle, and then in a flash, he was across the field, swinging his scythe at Yuri's hip.

At Yuri, who had hit him with a Burst Arte earlier. At Yuri, who had since been on clean up duty for the random Red-Eye assassins that had been littering the battlefield. At Yuri, who had finally knocked the last of his opponents out with a well-executed Fang Strike, then startled at the sudden invasion of his space. He raised his sword defensively on instinct and, in a clash of steel, barely managed to protect himself from being cleaved in half. A thin trail of red followed the arc of Yeager's blade, and I knew that he'd been hit.

My own ribs ached in sympathy. That couldn't feel good.

The follow up attack happened much quicker than it should have, and the curved point of the blade dug cleanly into the flesh of Yuri's torso. Yuri let out a grunt of pain, eyes widening as Yeager pulled the scythe clear in a spray of blood. It poured down, mixing with the rain and the mud.

It was almost mesmerizing. I'd never seen Yuri bleed.

For a moment, it seemed like the guild leader - because honestly, how could he be anything but the leader of Leviathan's Claw - was going to leave the man alone after those attacks and go after someone else. He'd paused, a wild grin pulled tightly across his lips, as Yuri placed a hand on his wound.

But no. That would have been playing nice. And Leviathan's Claw was not in the business of playing nice.

"Time to say bye-bye!" I barely heard that stupid accent above the rain and the roar in my ears.

In the time he'd given Yuri to figure out that he'd been hit not once, but twice, and that it hurt, he'd also transformed his scythe back into that rifle. His stupid lock of hair flopped into his eyes, soaked from the rain, and he flicked it aside with a toss of his head. He exhaled suddenly, sharply, as he turned, and the glow that had been covering his body suddenly seeped into his weapon, coating the entirety of the barrel in a sort of translucent red flame.

I realized, all too late, what was happening. All of that aer. The enhancements to speed and power. He'd activated Over Limit, sure, but Yeager? Use something as mundane as a Burst Arte? No. Not him.

No. He was charging up for a fucking Mystic Arte.

Someone was going to die.

Yuri was -

I paled. No. He had to get out of there -

Yeager pressed the barrel of the rifle to Yuri's exposed chest with a half-crazed grin.

No.

He pulled the trigger.

"Caress of Death!"

There was a bang as Yeager released his attack, loud enough to make the storm overhead seem quiet, and flash of red burst through Yuri's chest and out his back - oh god, was that blood or aer, please, tell me that was aer, if that was blood -

Eyes wide, Yuri fell to his knees. His dark lashes fluttered, briefly, then he fell, face first, to the ground. He didn't get back up.

"No!"

I don't remember who screamed. It might have been me. It might have been Estelle. Or Karol. Or Rita. Or all of us. I don't remember. I didn't care.

All I was aware of in the next moments was the black lump, slumped and unmoving in the mud.

My friend.

I shoved myself to my feet and pushed as much aer into my blade as I could, and called on the first arte I could think of - one that I hardly had the stamina for, but the only one that might actually do something. Without waiting for it to finish charging, I grasped the hilt on my sword with both hands and launched myself at Yeager, letting the arte boost my speed so I could get there before he could make sure he was dead.

The stones in my jian glowed white, bright and sharp and angry, growing to coat the entirety of the blade. In a flash, there were two additional, spectral blades on either side of the one in my hands, and I swung all three of them down on Yeager's head with a shout.

"Radiant Harmony!"

He caught the real one on the neck of his rifle, parrying it smoothly to the side as his weapon transformed back to his scythe, but the other two passed through his shoulders. I barely registered the surprised grunt of pain before I was swinging again, up and across, all three blades making contact with his chest. He was reeling, which allowed me time to jump and finish my combo, a spinning roundhouse kick to the face, without much resistance.

I landed in a crouch with a sharp exhale, blade low and defensive in front of the fallen Yuri, and glared up at Yeager. Daring him to come closer. Daring him to try again.

I heard someone splashing their way through the puddles in a mad dash to get to us. I didn't break eye contact with Yeager and just hoped that it was Estelle getting her ass over here to get Yuri back up already. He'd been down, unmoving in the dirt, for too long. Judith appeared just to my left. I could hear Karol and Rita whispering frantically somewhere behind us. Out of range. Good.

Yeager rubbed his jaw and took a second to eye us warily. "I must admit, you're very strong."

Fucker was still just humoring us. That much was clear. Sure, we'd been trading blows the whole fight and I had just landed some meaningful hits, but he hardly even looked winded. We all looked spent. I was still fighting to catch my breath as I stood over Yuri's prone body, sword hand drooping toward the mud and trembling in the rain. Judith was quiet, as usual, but I could feel her gaze burning as we stared down the guild boss. It wasn't much, but he'd at least have to get through us to get to him again.

Assuming he wasn't already dead. Khana offered no comfort in trying to convince me otherwise - she had been resolutely silent since Cumore had shown up and ordered Yeager to kick the shit out of us. I tried not to think about what that meant.

All I could think about was the growing puddle underneath Yuri's body that was distinctly the wrong color for rain.

Get him up, Estelle. Get him up.

"Sir, the Flynn Brigade is here."

The battlefield had grown deathly - ugh, better word choice, Is, especially now - so I could hear it clearly when a random guard came up to warn Cumore. He'd been standing back, gleefully watching a bunch of kids get their asses kicked from the dry comfort of a random tent.

But I would think about punching his stupid face later. Right now, we were due to have company, and it was the best damn thing I'd heard all day.

Scratch that, second best. Estelle's casting of First Aide rang little bells in my ears, followed by a shaky sigh of relief. That meant that Yuri wasn't dead, and that was the best thing I'd heard all day.

"Well, send him away!" came Cumore's response.

I breathed out a laugh, a garbled, choked thing, and silently thanked Flynn for his Never-Say-No attitude. He'd get down here one way or another. Cumore didn't have a choice in that. I just hoped he'd figure out the how sooner rather than later. We needed help, and we needed it ten minutes ago. I wasn't sure how much longer we could stall them.

Yeager continued to stare silently at me, scythe held at the ready. Waiting. I did my best to look intimidating. Thunder rumbled in the distance, and the rain continued to fall.

"We tried," the knight said, "but he insists on coming down and performing an inspection."

Which meant he was already on his way down. Perfect. Amazing. Great job, Flynn. Top marks.

Cumore was suddenly not where he just was. A flash of purples and pinks informed my slow brain that he was bailing. Which didn't surprise me much. But the guild boss was a wild card. He didn't seem the type to run from a fight that he was clearly winning, and Cumore had set him on us. Maybe he would stay behind to finish the job.

"Hmm." Yeager seemed to consider his options. I felt his eyes rake over me slowly. I held my ground and tried to ignore the dull ache at my ribs. Eventually, he closed his eyes and nodded to himself a few times. "Gauche. Droite."

"Yes, Yeager," came two voices in harmony.

What.

Two little girls dropped down from out of view - had they seriously been hiding on the top of the tent? - and landed in graceful battle stances in front of Yeager. One was decked out in reds, the other in greens. They looked enough alike that the crazed part of my brain started to wonder if they were related. Maybe twins? Either way, they couldn't have been much older than Karol. Too young for this.

Even so. If they took even one step in this direction, I was going to absolutely freaking lose it. I didn't have a whole lot left, but I had enough to take at least one of these girls down with me. I rolled my wrist, and my jian sang sharply as it cut through the air in preparation.

"I think it is time we be making with the escape, ja?"

My eyes narrowed at that, more in confusion than anything. They were running. They were running? Why? He was dragging us through the mud in every literal sense of the word - he couldn't seriously be that worried about Flynn, could he?

Unless he was taking pity on us. Ha. Wouldn't that be something.

The girl in green nodded, then fished out a little grey ball, about the size of her small fist, from a pocket at her waist. She threw it down with a wink, then disappeared into the smoke that started billowing out from the point of impact.

I coughed as I breathed in the grey fumes, more from the suddenness of it all. It didn't burn my lungs like some others were designed to. Keeping my arm up to cover my face, I nodded in appreciation.

Smoke bomb. Nice. I needed to get a few of those.

It did its job though, and kept the rest of my group from following after their escape. Not that we would have followed anyway. We were a mess. By the time the smoke had dissipated, Cumore and Yeager were long gone. I didn't really understand why, but whatever. I wasn't in the mood to question Luck today.

Instead, I whirled around and knelt down next to a crying Estelle to place a shaky hand on Yuri's back. He groaned softly at the touch, and I let out a shuddering breath. She had gotten him back up after all. I rubbed his back slowly, then shucked my pack off my shoulders to retrieve a couple of gels for him. It wouldn't get him back up to full strength, not by a long shot, but between them and the healing artes, it would at least keep him stable until we could get back to the Inn and rest.

I pressed them into his hand and closed his twitching fingers around them, then shifted back and sat on my heels. Slipped my sword back into its sheath. Took a breath. Surveyed the damage.

Yuri was on his way to getting back up, which was the biggest relief. Mystic Artes didn't fuck around, and he had taken it point-blank. It was a miracle that it hadn't killed him outright. I didn't think Estelle was powerful enough, or, frankly, would ever be powerful enough, for a resurrection spell. If he'd died, he'd stay dead. And I didn't even want to think about that.

Speaking of Estelle, the poor girl looked worn out. She'd done nothing but run around, doing her best to keep everyone alive during that fight, not to mention trying to stay out of range of Yeager's attacks, and it had taken its toll on her. Her chest was still heaving as she listened to Karol and Rita go back and forth about something, but her eyes were alive and focused. She was fine.

Rita and Karol both seemed to be alright, too, though Rita looked a bit more out of sorts than usual. There were a couple areas of her red coat that looked a bit redder, but she was standing and she was talking, all attitude and sass. She didn't look too bothered by the small injuries. Maybe they'd already been healed.

And Judith was Judith. Even though I knew it wasn't true, couldn't be true, Judith looked like the fight had hardly even fazed her.

My own body was a different story. Maybe it was just because Estelle had done her job well and healed those of us who would actually respond well, or maybe I had just been more reckless in the fight than the others, but I was not in the best shape. I'd taken more than a few hits from Yeager's scythe, and that deep gouge across the length of my torso had split open and was still bleeding steadily again.

I pulled my cloak closed and wrapped my arms around it to try and hide the blood that I knew was seeping into my shirt.

I couldn't wait to get back to the Inn and rest.

"I don't know who's job is what," Rita snapped, drawing my attention away from my wounds, "but are we following them or not?"

Um. No. That was a terrible idea.

"Uh, guys," I held up a finger weakly in protest, "I don't want to be a downer here, but I don't know that we can."

Yuri was forcing his way to his feet, leaning heavily on the sword he'd planted firmly in the ground. He was trying to act tough, but he seriously needed to sleep that off. I couldn't be the only one who could see that.

Karol was taken aback. He'd been fumbling around for something in his bag, but stopped cold at my objection. "I know, our job was to find and rescue Teagle, but we could still track these guys down."

Wh- find who? I waved my hand. He was missing the point. "No, I mean - we can, sure - but we shouldn't."

"And why not?" argued Rita, arms crossed. "We won. Let's get a move on before they're gone for good!"

I made several botched attempts at - laughing? Speaking? There were weird, sputtering noises coming out of my mouth, because was she fucking serious?

"Rita, I don't know what fight you were part of, but we just got our asses kicked. We didn't win. They retreated. We stole a stalemate from the jaws of defeat." I shook my head. "We can't do that again. Not right now."

"But! But they'll get away! We have to go!" Estelle's face was doing an interesting dance between pouting and glaring. It was strange. I didn't like it.

But I put my foot down. "No, we need to take care of ourselves. Estelle, you're a great healer, sure, but you can't do everything. We need to rest and recover and regroup."

The sound of armor clattering and weapons being drawn behind us made us pause in our argument and warily look in the direction of the lift. My shoulders relaxed a fraction when I recognized the blues of the Flynn Brigade squaring off against what remained of Cumore's men.

"Everyone, freeze! That's enough." Thank goodness for that man. Flynn could handle things here, which meant we could go back to Heliord proper and rest. In fact, he'd probably insist on it. Which meant he'd be on my side, for once.

Thank goodness for little victories.

Yuri, who had finally found his feet, snapped his fingers once, then made a finger gun at his friend. "Hey. Just in time." He swayed a bit, and I felt some of my frustration evaporate. Wordlessly, I slid under his arm to steady him. Didn't want him falling face first into the mud after he'd finally stood up. He had an image to maintain.

"Yuri..?" There was concern in Flynn's voice as he took in our appearance. I didn't blame him. We looked like we'd gone 10 rounds with a Giganto Monster.

"So we are going after them," said Judith. She had read Yuri's response to Flynn's arrival much differently than I had. Flynn meant safety. Flynn meant our job was done. Flynn did not mean continue to risk our lives to catch some people who may or may not be above the law anyway.

"Yeah." Yuri's chest vibrated, and he stood up a bit straighter, leaned against me a little less. "I think Flynn has things under control here."

"Uh," I said intelligently as I tried to make my mouth catch up with my brain. Because my brain was screaming danger, no, bad idea, anything but this.

"Sound good, Karol?"

Yuri, no.

"Yeah, let's go!" He and Estelle took off after Repede, Rita close on their heels.

What the fuck.

I finally got my words to work as I watched half of our party go sprinting into the forest to the east. "Yuri, you just took a Mystic Arte point-blank to the chest." I was pretty sure he'd almost died. And now he wanted to just brush it off? "Estelle got you up, but you can't seriously think you're in any shape to chase them down right now."

"If we don't, nobody else is going to," he argued. He shifted his weight, like he was trying to move us after the others, but I put up a bit of resistance to keep us where we were. The fact that he was too weak to fight it showed just how out of our league we'd be if we continued.

Besides, that was absolutely not true. Especially with a certain blonde knight who was trying desperately to make his way through a stand-off to get over here. I gestured madly at him and tried not to sound like I was begging. "We can send Flynn! You know he'll be on our side with this."

And if he wasn't, he'd just need to take a closer look at Yuri. He looked beat to hell, and I knew enough about Flynn to know that he'd want to have words with whoever had done this to his friend.

But Yuri just huffed and tried to push forward again. "We don't have the time to explain it, Scout. We have to do this on our own."

Something inside me burst. I roughly shoved Yuri's arm off my shoulders, ignoring his pained exhale as it strained his chest. If he wanted to walk, fine, but he could damn well do it on his own.

Wildly, I searched his eyes, trying to understand what he was thinking.

"You can't be serious," I said flatly. I was almost pleading with him at this point, begging him to read between the lines for the words I would never say aloud.

I was hurting. I didn't want to go.

Please.

He closed his eyes. "If Captain Karol wants to go -"

I cut him off with a bark of a laugh. "Don't put this on him, Yuri. He is 12." Was I the only one who remembered that? Karol and Rtia, even Estelle - they were all still kids. "He's all about justice and honor. Of course he wants to chase them down. But he isn't thinking about the consequences. That's our job. We are the adults here."

And I, for one, was getting really sick of being the only one who acted like it.

Yuri only gave a one shouldered shrug. "Sure, but he's the boss, Scout."

I saw red.

That's it.

"You know what? Fine! Fucking - just - whatever. Fine. Hide behind Karol." I jabbed an accusatory finger into Yuri's chest so hard that he flinched at the contact. Shit, that was where the Caress of Death had gotten him, wasn't it. I hadn't meant to be that mean - just to get my point across. "But when one of us gets sloppy and ends up dead because we didn't take the time to take care of ourselves, it is your fault. Not his. Not mine. Yours."

For what it's worth, Yuri did hesitate. His dark eyes clouded over for a moment, and I could only imagine what scenarios were running through his head. I decided that I didn't care. I just wrapped an arm tightly around my wounded midsection and stalked off after everyone else. Delta hissed at Yuri as she trotted over to follow at my heels.

I heard Flynn faintly calling after us as we left, but the words were drowned out by the sound of blood rushing in my ears. A part of me felt bad for the guy - always trying to do the right thing, always trying to help us out, but always five minutes too late. But most of my energy was spent feeling bad for myself. Or just feeling feelings about my situation in general.

I was livid.

It was still raining, so I was able to hide in the hood of my cloak while I seethed to myself about the absolute and utter stupidity of the people I'd surrounded myself with. The edges of my vision blurred between black and red as I mechanically followed the others out of town.

Delta and Repede raced out in front, tracking Cumore and Yeager as best as they could through the pouring rain. It was slow going, and even though it eventually slowed to a light drizzle, the weather and the late hour got to be too much. We called it quits for the evening somewhere in the forests of central Tolbicya.

As if the day couldn't get any worse, Raven had caught up with us again. I was so busy being furious and in pain that I hadn't really gotten around to being annoyed about that one yet. I'd save it for the morning.

The others had finally picked out a campsite, and I breathed a soft sigh of relief that we were officially stopping. I'd been trying to move more carefully because of the wound on my torso and had fallen to the back of the group, which, thankfully, wasn't too out of the ordinary for me. I just had to get from point A to point B and then I could finally take care of myself.

"Hey, woah," Yuri said softly, catching my wrist gently as I tried to brush past. I blinked back at him as he slowly made his way around to face me. But his eyes weren't meeting mine. They were wide, fixed on something lower. My brain still hadn't caught up with what he was looking at - not until he lifted the edge of my cloak away and sucked in a sharp breath. "Shit, Scout."

My mind sharpened.

Oh. Right. That.

My shirt, which had been a very pretty shade of cream this morning, was very much not cream anymore. A quick glance down let me know that the entire front of the thing was soaked crimson, and that there was a large tear that started at the top of my right hip and dragged itself all the way across the ribs on the left side of my body, ending a few inches below my armpit.

It was a wonder he hadn't gutted me.

"Are you alright?"

… The fuck kind of question was that? I was clearly not alright.

I pulled my arm free and tried to glare back at him, but the pain made everything a bit hazy. I hoped I'd at least looked a little bit intimidating. The pitying look he gave me made me think I failed. "Fuck off, Yuri."

He sighed roughly and reached out to me again. "Damn it, Scout. Don't be stubborn. Why didn't you say something sooner?"

I jerked my shoulder away from his outstretched hand before he could touch me and had to bite back a hiss as my ribs protested. Heat flared in the wound again, sluggishly making its way down toward my hip. He didn't get to be frustrated with me about injuries. He had no room to talk.

"I did," I hissed through gritted teeth. "When we were leaving Heliord. But somebody didn't want to listen to me."

Okay. So maybe I hadn't expressly stated that Yeager's attacks had fucked me up pretty good. But, in my defense, I didn't realize it was as bad as it was until we were already gone. It didn't change the fact that I had been very vocal about wanting to stay the night in Heliord and recover before charging back off into the forest again. It hadn't just been for Yuri's sake.

"Izzy, come on." His voice sounded funny. Not his usual carefree lilt. "I'm trying to help."

But I wasn't having any of that. He was trying to make himself feel better by taking care of me. Trying to make me feel like I owed him. Like I needed to pay him back. Not today, bitch.

I clumsily warded off his outstretched hands. "Just leave me alone, alright? I'll deal with it."

And I'd deal with it on my own, fuck you very much.

I stalked away from him as best I could. The ground was a bit fuzzy and I know I stumbled a bit, but I think I did a great job on my own. At least, that's what I was going to tell myself. I popped another Apple Gel into my mouth and let it dissolve slowly on my tongue. Within a few seconds, I could feel the itch in my abdomen as my flesh continued the slow process of stitching itself back together. Again. The pain lessened a bit and my vision cleared.

"This is about as good a place to camp as any," Karol was saying as I limped closer. "Let's get set up!"

He was my new favorite person.

Yuri drew the short straw for cooking, which was awesome in my book. It made avoiding him that much easier. He'd also somehow managed to rope Raven into helping, which was also great. Rita and Judith took off in search of firewood, and Karol and Estelle went to go secure the perimeter. Or whatever. Everybody left to do their tasks, and I just sort of faded into the growing shadows of the forest. Gotta stay true to form.

I scoped out a few different trees, and found one that I liked about 15 yards from where the others were setting up the camp. It was close enough so I could still hear the others, but far enough away that I was on my own, and wouldn't be bothered. The tree was tall enough to have thick, knotted branches that could easily support me, giving Delta and I a high vantage point for the night. I just had to climb it. Without busting open the scabbing wound across my torso.

It took a lot longer than it should have. And my side was bleeding again. But I was in the relative safety of the tree for the night, which was a win in my book.

Delta chose to perch on a lower, thicher branch on the other side of the tree. I could just make out her dark form sprawled out across the wood, and she heaved a sigh before settling in. Tracking the runaway Captain and his lackeys through the rain hadn't been fun or easy for her. She was tired and wet and miserable, and I didn't blame her for wanting to fall asleep as soon as she could. I would be right behind her - just had to clean myself up first.

No big deal. I could take care of myself. I would take care of myself.

Shrugging out of my cloak wasn't an issue - undo the clasp and brush it from my shoulders to let it pool at my hips. Unhooking my scabbard was a bit trickier, if only for the way I had to maneuver my shoulders, pulling at my ribs, to get the straps untangled from my arms. My pack came with it, thankfully, and I didn't even black out once during the ordeal. I clipped the strap around the branch I was straddling so that the hilt of my sword was still within easy reach. I was hurt, but I wasn't defenseless.

The next bit was going to be a bitch and a half to try and do, though. I had to get my shirt off.

Considering the way my vision had gone a bit grey at the edges when I was climbing the tree to begin with, I wasn't too keen on raising my arms above my head again. Not any time soon. Not trying to fall 20 feet to the ground. That would hurt, and I'd have to get myself right back up if I wanted any privacy.

No, taking it off normally was out of the question. I did have some scissors in my pack though. I could just cut it off. Or, better yet, I could just cut the front and open it like a vest.

Yes. Good plan. I liked that plan. I could follow that plan.

Along with the scissors, I pulled out my little first aid kit and some bandages from my bag and balanced all of my supplies on the branch in front of me. My oil box stayed put away - I was out of the one thing that would help with a wound this deep. Had been for a while. I could remake it later, but I needed a few more ingredients before I could even think about distilling it. The oils I did have wouldn't do any good until the stitches were ready to come out. With some luck, I could keep it from scarring too badly.

In the meantime, I had a sewing project to get started on.

Poke. Poke. Pull. Tie. Cut. Repeat.

Over and over. Again and again. So many stitches, like little black spiders crawling up and across my torso. I'd never hated spiders more than I did at that moment. There were too many of them. They were getting closer to my neck, closer to my mouth. Soon, they'd find their way in, they'd march single file down my throat and drown me. I didn't want to drown in spiders.

With shaking hands, I carefully poked the curved needle through the skin where my next stitch would go, and left it there so I could take a few deep breaths. It was harder than it should have been to calm my heart rate down, but when I could finally look at the black thread that dotted my stomach without seeing a fucking army of spiders, I dragged a hand roughly across my face.

Shit. I needed to get this done so I could pass out.

I splashed some of the water from my canteen on my face, more on my hands, and kept at it. The sooner this was done, the sooner I could pass out. I was so close.

"Care for some company?" a voice cut through my haze.

I peered down at where Judith was looking up at me. She held a gently steaming bowl of something in one hand and a canteen in the other. My stomach rolled at the thought of food. Ugh. No thank you. Even if it was something Yuri made.

Especially if it was something Yuri made, corrected the bubbling anger in my mind.

Either way. Not in the mood.

But she was waiting for a response. "Not really," I said, going back to my work.

"Well, would you mind if I came up anyway?"

I blinked into the darkness. Why. Why was everyone in this group so damn persistent? I seriously needed to work on my 'fuck off' vibes.

But I just shrugged. I was too tired to fight. "Sure. Whatever." Someone was bound to check on me at some point anyway. Might as well be Judith. Might as well be now. She was the quietest of our little group. At least, she was the least intrusive. We could ignore each other pretty easily.

It didn't take her long to scale the tree, lithe limbs twining gracefully through the leaves and branches. I tried not to watch, instead focusing more intently on the needle and thread between my too-slick fingers.

"That looks painful," she said after a few minutes of silence. "Do you need a hand?"

I glared down at the bloody needle and shoved it through my skin with a bit more force than I'd meant to. The suddenness of the pain cleared my head, and I tried - failed - to keep the hostility out of my voice. "Did Yuri send you?" I wasn't down to beat around the bush. I just wanted to cut to the chase.

Judith hummed. "No, he's been talking with Estelle and Raven all evening. Why? Should he have?"

I tied off another stitch before I looked over my shoulder to meet her sharp red eyes. Her head was tilted to the side in that 'I already know the answer, but I'm curious to hear your side' way that she had. There was nothing in her posture that was inherently untrustworthy. Nothing that led me to believe that she was lying to me.

Well. Thank goodness for little miracles, I guess.

I sighed and continued to stitch myself back together. I needed to get over that stigma.

"No. I can take care of myself."

"I can see that," she said dryly, and I could feel her eyeing my patch job. "But you don't have to, you know."

That made me pause. I spared another glance up at her. Judith was perched gracefully on a branch just higher than my own, and had turned away to look up at the little pockets of sky that poked through the foliage. Close enough to hold a conversation, but still far enough away that she wasn't invading my personal space.

A small part of me appreciated the gesture.

Still, I wasn't particularly in the mood to talk. "What if I want to?"

"Then you can," she said smoothly - as if she'd expected that it would be my response. "But sometimes it's nice to know you have a friend."

I didn't know what to say to that. I went back to my stitching, focusing on the sting of the needle piercing my broken skin to avoid thinking about the silence stretching between us. If she came here to be entertained, she could fuck right off.

Some ten or twenty stitches later I was finally done with my patch job. Just had to dress it and cover it and I could sleep. My first aid kit went back into my bag with considerably less suture material than it had started with - I'd need to grab more the next time we were in a town - and I was left with a medicated slave and some bandages.

The salve went on a strip of gauze that I pressed lightly onto the sutures, then got tossed haphazardly back into my bag. I'd sort that out later.

Awesome. One down, one to go.

Carefully, I held the edge of the bandages down at the center of my chest and reached up behind me with the roll to wind it around my torso and - fu - sucked in a rough breath as the edges of my vision went white with pain.

It was a wonder I didn't fall out of the tree, fuck.

I took a breath as the world slowly dripped back into focus. Okay. Maybe this would be a bit more difficult than I thought. I could still do it. I could still do it. I nodded.

Okay, okay. Yeah. I've got this. Totally got this.

I tried again with trembling hands, only to hiss as I felt the stitches pull uncomfortably again.

All of the anger and the frustration and the pain of the day welled up in my eyes, and I could feel the itch of tears despite my best efforts to fight them back. The back of my head hit the trunk of the tree with a dull thunk. I was just so tired.

But I needed to get these on - that was a non-negotiable. It was bad enough that these would probably scar. I didn't need them getting infected too.

Fuck. I needed help.

Friends.

Maybe..?

I rubbed hastily at my eyes. Took a few breaths. Tried to get my emotions under control.

Okay. Here we go.

"Ah, hey, Judith?" I asked, voice dry and too small. I stared stubbornly down at the blood on my hands, rubbing them together as I waited for her to acknowledge me. Dried bits flaked off, falling gently to the branch, but they were still too wet. It was still too fresh. The crimson stain stayed.

I grimaced.

"Hmm?"

I cleared my throat quietly, forcing myself away from that line of thought. "I don't think-" No, that wasn't right. I swallowed thickly. Restarted. "I can't get these tight enough. Do you think you can..?"

I just… trailed off, clutching the bandages tightly in my bloodied hands. I still wasn't looking at the krytian, refusing to actually cave in and say the words - just trusting that she would understand what I was asking for. Hoping that she would understand.

She slid over to my branch without a word and settled in so we were sitting face to face. Surveying the supplies I'd pulled out, she handed me a gauze pad to hold, in addition to the roll of bandages I'd tried and failed to apply by myself, and set the rest behind her. She leaned forward and gently tugged the tattered remains of my shirt from my shoulders - shit, I'd tried to bandage myself with that still on? Stupid. - and used her canteen to rinse a bit of the blood off the ruined fabric before dabbing it gently across my new stitches. I groaned quietly though my teeth at the pressure.

When she was satisfied that she'd cleared most of the old blood away, she nudged my arms away from my torso so she could apply the gauze and wrap the bandages around my waist. She was slow in her movements. Methodical. As if she'd done this a hundred times before.

Idly, I wondered if she had.

"Is there a reason you didn't want Estelle to take a look at this?" she asked as she was finishing up. She tied off the end of the bandages snugly into place with deft fingers and a nod. "I know she's a little worn out, and all, but this is … "

I sighed, flinching a bit at the way the breath was restricted by the new bindings. "I just don't react well to healing artes, is all." Even if that wasn't the case, I probably wouldn't have asked her. I'd gotten used to patching myself up. Asking for help wasn't my first instinct.

"Oh? Why is that?" She sounded genuinely curious.

I shrugged, leaning my back against the trunk of the tree. "Something about aer and my body? I'm weird, I guess. I don't really understand it." Which was true enough. And I didn't really care to understand it. All I had to know was healing artes plus me equals ouch. Didn't need much more of an in-depth explanation than that.

There was a beat of silence, then an innocent, "Is it because of Lady Khana?"

My eyes shot open. Judith met my gaze cooly. "I don't - maybe?" I mean, it probably was, but she couldn't - "How do you know about that?"

Her eyes fluttered closed as she smiled widely. "Oh, I know all kinds of things. Ba'ul has told me a lot about his Queen."

I blinked slowly, mind still a bit hazy from the pain. Had I heard that name somewhere? "Sure, okay. And who is Ba'ul again?"

"He's a very dear friend of mine." Her eyes remained closed, but the guarded smile she'd plastered on melted into something softer - more genuine. "We've travelled quite a ways together."

"Okay. So where is he?" I vaguely remembered her mentioning wandering around with someone else, but there had never been any details attached to the stories. Certainly not a name. I filed it away for later and started playing with the hem of my cloak.

"He's nearby."

I breathed out heavily through my nose - the faded echo of a laugh. Didn't want to strain my ribs too much, after all. "And what, he's too cool to hang out with us losers?"

Her eyes flashed playfully, and her lips twisted into the kind of smirk you get from someone you share a secret with. "I wouldn't say that. He's just a bit shy, is all."

"Ah. Probably a good move sparing him our company then," I said, leaning back against the trunk of the tree, trying to find a more comfortable position. "Shy doesn't survive long with Karol and Estelle around." Just like secrets didn't survive long with Yuri. Or shame with Judith. Or personal space with … literally anyone.

"That's true." I could hear the smile behind the statement, even without looking at her. There was a brief pause where she seemed to weigh her next words carefully, and spoke slowly when she figured out how to say what she wanted to say. "And I'd prefer not to have Rita shoot on sight. She gets a bit … excited whenever he's around."

My head fell to the side as I digested her words. That was … an odd thing to say. I was pretty sure that we'd never met Ba'ul. Or even heard much about him. For her to say that about Rita was a bit out of place.

She was implying that we'd met him before. That we'd met the two of them together before. Multiple times. That Rita went berserk each of those times. Which meant …

My eyes, which had drifted shut at some point, snapped open.

Which meant … Wait.

"You're the Dragon Rider."

Judith's warm, red eyes slid open a fraction, and she eyed me through dark lashes for a long, silent moment. "Yes, I am."

Oh. Well shit.

Okay then. That … okay. That was fine, I guess. She never said that Ba'ul was human, or krytian like I'd been picturing.

"Wicked," I said, not really knowing what else to say. She'd handed that to me on a plate, which meant she wanted me to know. Which either meant she trusted me or she was testing me. Waiting to see my reaction.

I started fiddling with the cap of my canteen just to do something with my hands in the silence that followed. I opened it. Took a sip.

There wasn't much I could do about her … activities. They were in the past, and there was no changing it now. There was no sense in getting all worked up about it, and I didn't really care either way.

Where Rita had been short-tempered and trigger happy, my thoughts had always been pretty neutral toward the dragon rider. She had never hurt me, or anyone else in our group, for that matter. Aside from that one moment in Heliord where things had gotten a bit dicey, she'd just been destroying the blastia. Which, sure, was a capital offense in our mage's eyes and probably also the Empire's, but Judith had more sense than to just break things to watch them shatter. She had to have a reason.

"Well that was disappointing," Judith huffed after a few more moments of heavy silence.

I felt some of the tension drain from my shoulders, but was still alert. Confused. "Do you - what did you want me to do?" I asked just a touch defensively. Her reaction wasn't what I was expecting either, but what did she expect me to do, shove her out of the tree? Please.

She considered me for a moment. "I'm not sure. Something more volatile, I suppose."

I crossed my arms and huffed. "I'm not that easy to set off," I said with a pout. Was I? I wasn't Rita, by any means. "And you put that in my lap. Which I don't understand, but that's cool too."

"It was a calculated risk," she said.

"And I'm assuming Yuri already knows."

Judith nodded. Figured. He had been the one to fly to Ghasfarost with her. Plus the bastard knew everybody's secrets. Which was hardly fair. He knew more about each of us than all of us combined knew about him.

The more I thought about Ba'ul and Judith as the dragon rider pair, the more I realized that I probably could have put that together on my own if I had actually taken the time to think about it. Yuri had flown with the dragon rider to Ghasfarost, and the group had come back with Judith. No mention of what had happened to the two who had been destroying all of those blastia. I don't know what I thought had happened to them, but nobody had even mentioned them, and I'd been a bit preoccupied at the time.

A flash of movement.

A hot liquid dripping sluggishly down steel.

"Shut up already."

My jaw clenched at the flash of memory. I fought to push it back, to box it up and bury it in a dark corner of my mind again. I'd deal with that later, later. This was still not the time.

Okay. Think about something else.

Judith. Dragon Rider. Ba'ul. Okay. Did I know anything else about them?

Break it down.

First things first: When had I seen the two of them?

There was that time in Caer Bocram, right? They busted in and took out the reverse barrier holding back the house turtle thing. It had a name, I know Khana had told me, but fuck if I remembered. She'd scrambled my brain pretty good by screeching almost the whole time we'd been there.

And that was a whole 'nother can of worms, wasn't it? The screeching thing? Annoying as hell and had literally made me bleed out of my eyes. The other times weren't as bad as that first one, which was probably just because of the high density aer. A splitting headache was the worst I'd gotten from the others.

And the other times… It had happened at … Dhangrest, right? When Phaeroh showed up, before Khana had taken over my body to speak to him. And maybe the handful of times we'd seen the Dragon Rider destroying blastia. I didn't recall any other times. At least, I couldn't think of any right now.

Okay, cool. So what was The Screech's common denominator, then?

I wracked my brain for a few minutes, trying to tie the events together. They'd all happened on the same continent, I suppose. But we'd been all over Tolbyccia. So it wasn't about location. A breeze stirred the leaves around me, and I pulled my cloak closed a bit tighter in response.

Maybe it was the blastia, then? I still didn't understand what was so special about them. But there weren't any in Dhangrest that would have triggered it. At least none that I knew of. Maybe that wasn't it either.

Then, what, the giant monsters? I pulled up a knee to my chest, careful to move slowly, so as not to pull at my stitches. Folding my arms against my knee and burying my chin in the nest of my elbows, I considered the possibility.

The turtle thing at Caer Bocram. Phaeroh at Dhangrest. Even Ba'ul was larger than most of the monsters we'd come across.

Judith had called Phaeroh an Entelexia, whatever that was - I don't think any of us had really pressed on that, had we - and Khana hadn't been pleased with the information dump. It had been a secret she had wanted to keep. And Khana had known a lot about the giant turtle thing at Caer Bocram.

Maybe they were all Entelexia, then? And Khana was connected to them somehow. Judith did just say that Ba'ul had called her his Queen. She was the Queen of Spirits, after all. She was probably connected to a lot of things. Maybe the Entelexia were just some kind of spirits.

But that didn't explain the screeching, did it?

I blinked. But then … maybe it did?

There was something in a distant conversation that was ringing bells in the back of my mind. If I could just remember what it was…

It took a few minutes of trying to recall what we'd talked about as we ran away from Dhangrest. Karol had named the guild. They'd talked about Raou. I went ahead on my own. I think I'd asked Khana what would happen to her if I died, but she distracted me with -

My head snapped up. That was it.

Ho, shit. Khana had called Phaeroh her brother, hadn't she.

And Phaeroh was an Entelexia. Which meant that … Khana was an Entelexia too? Or maybe that she had been, before. Before she was a spirit. Before she was stuck in my head. And if the thing at Caer Bocram and Ba'ul were both Entelexia like I thought they might be, and they were all related -

The screeching ... was she … maybe she was talking to them?

Because I certainly wasn't relaying any messages she had for them. But that didn't mean she wasn't capable of somehow communicating with them. If she wanted to talk to the things - her family, I realized with a start - she would find a way to do it.

I waited for a response from Khana. She was in my head, and while she was typically kind enough to wait until I spoke aloud to respond, she wasn't above commenting on the things I was thinking.

But moments melted into minutes, and it was becoming clear that Khana wasn't going to answer.

I sighed roughly. "You would go quiet on me. Asshole."

"Hmm?"

With a start, I turned toward Judith. She was peering over at me, spoon held halfway between her mouth and her bowl. Waiting.

Shit, I hadn't meant to say that out loud. Hopefully she didn't think I was talking to her.

"Nothing. It's nothing. Sorry," I said.

Half of me expected her to lapse back into the comfortable silence we'd settled into, but there was a soft clink and another hum as her spoon hit the bottom of her bowl.

"You're talking to her, aren't you?" She had turned to face me completely, legs dangling off the side of her branch, swaying lazily back and forth.

I didn't have to ask who she was referring to. Instead, I scoffed. "Yeah, well, talking implies a conversation. She's just ignoring me. As per usual." As much as I tried to keep the bitterness out of my tone, even I could hear the traces of annoyance.

If Judith picked up on it, she didn't comment. Instead she cocked her head to the side and glanced up through the foliage at the sky. I tried to follow her gaze, but didn't see anything remarkable. My eyes flicked back to the krytian, then back at the leaves. Then back at the krytian.

What was she doing?

After a moment, she smirked faintly. "I think she's talking to Ba'ul."

I just stared at her. "What?"

Judith hummed. "She's talking to Ba'ul."

"O-okay." I didn't need her to repeat it. "How do you know that?"

"He told me."

After a moment of silence, I glanced over my shoulder. Where was ..? "Is he nearby? How are you ..?"

The krytian held up a delicate hand to her mouth and chuckled. "No, he's still a ways away. But he's close enough that I can still hear him." When my brow furrowed even further, she tapped two fingers to her forehead. "It's a telepathic connection that we have."

"Huh." That was interesting. Khana talked the same way. I wondered if that was an Entelexia thing. "Do you know what they're talking about?"

She only shook her head slightly. "No, they're speaking privately. It would be rude of me to eavesdrop."

I nodded. That was fair.

But there went my theory about The Screech. I couldn't hear it right now, so maybe it wasn't her form of communication after all. Ugh. Back to square one on that, then. But maybe I could get Judith to confirm a few things for me.

"You said that Ba'ul called Khana his queen, right? Does that make him a spirit too, then?"

The krityan tilted her head to the side, feathery antennae quivering in the slight breeze. "Not quite. Ba'ul is something called an Entelexia," she said. Score one for me. "But I'm afraid I don't know much more about his relationship with Lady Khana. Just that she is the Queen." She nodded pointedly at me. "You'll have to ask Lady Khana about the rest."

I nodded to myself. I'd figured out as much on my own, but I wanted to hear her put it into words for me. I didn't quite know where Khana's conversion to a spirit fit, or how it happened, but I was still proud of putting that much together.

"Bold of you to assume that she would tell me." I said aloud. "No. She likes her secrets too much."

"Secrets aren't always a bad thing," she said. "Sometimes they're kept to protect us from a truth we aren't yet ready to see."

Nevermind that this directly affected me, which should have given me the right to know. I shook my head. I'd just have to let it go until I could ask Khana.

"And besides." I could hear the smirk in Judith's voice and couldn't help but smile with her. "They make things so much more interesting, don't they? Who wants to know everything about everything, anyway?"

"Not me," I said back, haughty. "Can you imagine how boring that would be?"

Judith raised a hand to her mouth, speaking to the side as if we were sharing a new secret of our own. "We should ask Yuri. He seems to know much more than he should."

I mirrored her gesture. "I say we just let him be a bore. Let him think he knows everything. Meanwhile, you and I can keep secrets together."

Her eyes flashed in amusement. "Keep him on his toes."

"Keep things interesting," I nodded.

We both dissolved into light laughter at that. This was such bullshit. We both liked to know things. But it was fun to pretend, even for a moment.

And maybe Judith could actually become a confidant. Who knew?

"Actually, speaking of secrets, can I ask you another question?" I shifted again against the bark at my back, trying to settle into a more comfortable position. "About the whole Dragon Rider thing, I mean."

A beat of silence. Another. I was about to drop the whole thing when -

"If you must."

It was more of a response than I thought I was going to get. I figured she'd ignore me flat out, or change the topic, or do something else to dance her way around it. That didn't mean I missed the hesitation before the response, though. Even though she said yes, I'd be lucky to get even half an answer out of her.

If I wanted a straightforward answer, I'd have to ask the question as straightforward as I could. No wiggle room.

"You've been destroying those blastia. Why?"

Judith hummed, then lapsed into silence. It started to stretch on, and moments turned slowly into minutes, minutes melting down and beginning to gather. Eventually, it went on long enough for me to catch the hint.

That was fine. I would just keep fumbling my way through this puzzle on my own.

Okay. Uh. Back to the blastia then.

There were … four? That I for sure knew Judith had either destroyed or attempted to destroy. There were probably more, but there were at least four that I could think of. Ehmead Hill's barrier, Ragou's weather thing, the reverse barrier at Caer Bocram, and the barrier at Heliord.

There was something special about those. Something different. And maybe not the good kind of different, if Judith had made it her mission to destroy them.

Amalgam.

I found myself drifting back to a half-finished conversation with Khana. She'd been talking about the formulae within the blastia that were being destroyed, and had used the word amalgam to describe them. The only reason I remembered was because I'd had to go look up what the heck it meant afterward.

She'd also said that they wouldn't be a problem for much longer. Which meant she knew that something was going to happen to them that would take them out of commission. And Judith was hunting them down. Did Khana know about the krytian's quest?

"But how would she…?" I said softly to myself. How would Khana know that, though? And how would she know where those blastia were? Unless I was wrong, the spirit was tethered to me, and was therefore limited by what I could see and hear. If I didn't experience it, she wouldn't know.

Right?

I frowned, slumping down and placing my chin in my hand. No. That wasn't exactly true either, was it. If it had to do with current events, it seemed plausible, but there were a lot of things that she seemed to be aware of that I was clueless about. She was pretty old. Old enough to know Entelexeia by name. Old enough to talk casually about the things we called ancient. She knew a lot about the world and how it worked. Specifically about aer.

I rubbed at my furrowed brow and puzzled over it for longer than I should have before it struck me.

"They're upsetting the aer balance, aren't they."

Because really, why else would Khana take interest? She'd expressed her ire back at Keiv Moc about the imbalance at the aer krene. And again at Heliord with how the blastia's formula was upsetting the natural balance.

I wasn't exactly asking at this point. I was pretty sure I'd figured it out, but it would be nice to have Judith confirm it. Khana had been mercifully absent since Heliord, and while I was grateful that she wasn't contributing to my headache, it also meant that she wasn't around to help me out.

"Come again?"

I turned my head toward the krytian, and - oh. I guess it had been some time since that conversation had ended, hadn't it. Her eyebrows were drawn together, her head tilted delicately to the left. I'd startled her. Well, startled her as much as Judith could be startled. Confused was a more apt word. My outburst had come out of nowhere, and she wasn't around in my head to follow my leaps of logic.

"Those blastia. Khana mentioned that they were being taken care of," I said, making air quotes around the last few words. "And she normally doesn't have a lot of strong opinions about what goes on, but she has been pretty vocal about things regarding aer and the natural balance and order of things. The only reason I think she'd care this much about a couple of blastia is if they're putting that at risk."

I think. Probably. Maybe.

A beat of silence. "You're quite clever."

Now that was just generous. I was just slowly putting puzzle pieces together, and I had no idea if I was even making progress. Still, I'd mark one down in Isadora's win column. That was about as close to a straight answer as I was going to get.

Okay. Awesome.

A thought filtered through my mind, and before I could really process it, it was already making its way past my lips.

"How can I help?"

I could almost see the gears stop turning in the krytian's head for a moment as she failed to process what I said. She blinked her eyes slowly, once, twice, to reset before peering up at me curiously. "Pardon me?"

I gave a half-hearted, one shouldered shrug, kicking myself for my lack of a filter. That was stupid. I continued anyway. "Khana already told me that they needed to be destroyed. I figure, since Ba'ul can't exactly be around right now, that you could use a hand."

She turned on her branch so that she was facing me fully, long legs swaying over the expanse between us. I tilted my head in her direction, attention captive. The moonlight was filtering through the upper canopy, bathing her in an ever-shifting spotlight. She was rather striking.

"You want to help me sneak around the Empire and cause irreparable property damage to irreplaceable magical artifacts? Isadora Harroway, I didn't take you for a rule breaker." She teased lightly, but there was an underlying heaviness to her tone.

I held up my hands in surrender. "Hey, I'm all for breaking the rules if there's a good reason for the rules to be broken."

Her head tilted to the side as she drew a knee to her chest, feather-like antennae quivering behind her. "And how do you know that there's a good reason? Maybe I just want to cause a little chaos."

That made me laugh a little. "I mean, that's certainly a possibility, considering what you convinced Estelle to do back there."

Judith had been almost single-handedly responsible for Estelle's determination to seduce the guard back in Heliord. Sure, Karol had come up with the idea and Yuri had recommended one of the girls, but Judith? From what I heard, Judith had pulled a passive aggressive move to get Estelle worked up enough to feel like she had no other choice but to prove herself.

And then turned around and got her dressed for the part, as if it had always been the plan. And the worst part? Estelle was still wearing it.

If she still had it on it in the morning, I was going to fake a heart attack or something and tell her the only way to heal me was for her to change her clothes, for the love of all things.

"But I don't know. That doesn't quite sound like you. It's been too consistent for it to just be chaos for the sake of chaos. You're too organized. Too careful. You're proving a point."

Judith's red eyes burned. "You seem to think you know me pretty well."

So much for keeping secrets together, huh.

While the words themselves weren't said with any hostility, the underlying warning was clear. We were still relative strangers. We all were, really - our whole group. What we knew about each other was what we were allowed to see. Who was to say we weren't being lied to?

Could we really trust each other?

I considered what I knew, what I thought I knew, and what I knew with certainty before responding carefully.

"I think I know Khana pretty well," I corrected. Judith had a fair point - she was still a wild card in my eyes. I would stick with what I knew. "And she hasn't steered me wrong yet. I may not always like her, but I trust her more than …" I trailed off for a moment, staring up at the pockets of starlight above, not wanting to say it out loud. What a stupid thing to not want to say out loud.

"Hmm?" Judith hummed, gently prodding.

With a sigh, I continued, "I trust her more than I trust most people. She hasn't let me down. If she says they're hurting the world, I believe her."

Everyone I had ever known had let me down at one point or another. But the spirit in my head had always been constant - always been honest. She may not always be forthcoming with information, and we may bicker more often than not, but when she gave advice and input, her opinions and insights were generally the right things to do or say. It was my own fault for not listening to her as often as I should.

Judith was nodding. "I'm the same way with Ba'ul. He's a little different than us, but he saved my life, you know. I owe him everything."

A weight lifted off my chest that I didn't even realize was there. It was ... nice to have someone else who understood. Ba'ul was an Entelexeia. Khana was a spirit. We were both connected to things much larger and more powerful than we could comprehend, and we trusted them.

I smiled up at Judith - a real, genuine smile. "Yeah." The words were inadequate, but nothing I could say would have been any better. We both knew.

"So you would help me, just like that?" She was smiling back at me, but still seemed genuinely surprised. I couldn't tell if that was a good sign or not. She was still so hard to read.

I shrugged, drawing idle shapes on my thigh with my hand. "Sometimes it's nice to know you have a friend."

She blinked again, not prepared to have her own words handed back to her in such a way.

"Alright then," she finally said with a smile. "I guess this makes us friends."

I grinned back. "I guess it does."

---

I would just like to acknowledge what an absolute dogfight Yeager can be. This is a nod to how many times I died because of him in my most recent playthrough, and also because it seems like Yuri is invincible in a lot of stories I read. Not so much in mine! (And also because I did hella research going in)(Wanted to put most of his artes to use)

Had to find some way to explain Over Limit and Burst Artes and the like. I'm not sure if I love what I came up with, but it's fun to try and reason out the game mechanics as if they were real world things. And I know that Yeager doesn't use a mystic arte at this point in the story because they aren't introduced yet, but I think it's a shame to save the fun until later on, ya know? Caress of Death is cool as heck. I'm not waiting until Zaude to play around with it.

-Han