He hadn't intended on napping on that balcony. He hadn't intended on Flynn finding him. He hadn't intended on a shouting and shoving match. But all those things had apparently happened anyway.

Yuri hated to admit it, but Flynn had startled him. He had caught him off guard and it chilled Yuri to the bone that he had had a single moment of weakness, of openness. The upside was that he was no longer tired, and was able to help Rita shift through the remainder of the archives as dawn rose over the seaside city.

Even in daylight, the nightmares still haunted him. They couldn't simply be regulated to the shadows of the night. Every little noise put him on edge, and each shadow forming in the corner of his eyes got his attention. It was never anything dangerous. The steps of a party member, the form of Repede trotting through. He hated this.

He and Flynn avoided each other the rest of the night, and well into the next morning over the breakfast that Natz had sent up for them. He didn't feel like eating. Nothing tasted right anymore, and his nose was still so full of the scent of seawater and blood. But he also knew that if he didn't, Estelle would be doting on him again in no time, and he wanted to avoid that. Karol and Raven would be catching on anytime now though, and if she didn't do something about it, they would. Even still, he tried to fight through it and not to let it show. They had too much to worry about right now without the rage boiling in him being one of those things.

Yuri tried to keep up with what was going on. The birth of the spirit Undine, all of the research that Rita had been doing, her ability to turn aer into mana. But all of it seemed to go right over his head. He wasn't knowledgeable enough with that kind of thing and all the technical lingo that Rita spouted at the drop of a hat didn't help much. She couldn't help it though, and as much as it annoyed him, he had to take it in stride. Blastia was all she had ever known, and this was a whole new territory of interesting research and possibilities for her. If there was a possible solution in sight, this would all be worth it.

She mulled over the dozen or so pages of notes that she had taken, as well as some books that she pulled from her own pack, balancing a biscuit in her mouth and a cup of tea in one hand. The toe of her shoe tapped against the leg of the table as her eyes scanned the books. She was deep in thought, her brow furrowed, eyes focused, attention completely on her research. So much so that she jumped, dropping the biscuit when Judith placed a hand on her shoulder and attempted to question her.

"Huh, what?"

"I asked if you had made any breakthroughs. We were all hoping to wake up to some good news from our genius mage."

"I think I have all the pieces. It's just a matter of putting them together." She brushed the crumbs away from her notes and pointed out a few things. "From the archives here, we know that the Adephagos first appeared roughly a thousand years ago, and that in addition of the lives of the Children of the Full Moon, the Entelexeia ordered that what was left of the Children of the Full Moon, control the use of blastia so that this couldn't happen again. But over time, we can assume that the Empire that seemed to have been founded by the Children of the Full Moon, forgot their initial purpose and the blastia were put into use again."

"Is there any further research that you need to do here?" Flynn asked.

"No. I can finish putting the pieces together in my head now that I have all this information. We can move on. After I check out one last thing."

"What is it?" Karol asked, and received a thump on the head for his trouble. "Ow!"

"It's just a hunch I have. You all go ahead and get the restocking done. I'll be meet you by the entrance." She dashed off down the hall and left them to go do the item shopping.

It was a short time later that they found themselves, picking through the last remnants of the very expensive stock that the Fortune's Market in Nordopolica had to offer. Products were scarce, what with the near destruction of the town, its occupation, and the looming threat of a monster up above. Kaufman had to be flipping her lid over the state of her supply lines.

Everything was scarce and expensive. Even food items which normally would have cost next to nothing where outrageously priced. They would have to settle on what they could afford here and do a better job restocking elsewhere. Not that he really believed many of the other cities on Terca Lumireis would be in much better shape right now.

By the time that they finished up in the market, Yuri found himself lagging behind the others. The appearance of Rita, dashing around a corner and skidding to a stop before the party brought him in closer.

"Have you finished your investigation?" Judith asked, shouldering her pack.

"Yes. I went to take a look at the barrier here. I suspected there had to be a reason that those creatures attacked here instead of some other city. And I found out why they came after Nordopolica."

"Why? Flynn took the bait and Rita continued.

"They turned up the power on the barrier blastia. When I asked Natz about it, he said that they thought it would protect the city better. It's back to normal now, so hopefully we won't see any more of those things." She leaned back, tapping her foot while glancing out across the rubble filled bay. "I've also been thinking about those monsters from yesterday. Natz said that Palestralle tried to handle them, but they were just too strong."

"But we really didn't have much trouble with them at all," Karol interrupted.

"That's right."

"Do you know why that might be, Rita?" Estelle asked.

"Well, if they are shards of the Adephagos, and the Adephagos is made up of aer, maybe the fact that we had Undine with us factored into our ability to beat it."

"What do you mean?" Judith was even curious about this hypothesis.

"I think maybe having the spirit helped weaken their aer composition, because as we know, we now have a method of directly converting aer, and Undine is proving to be a basis of that. Her prescence is converting aer into mana,"Rita explained.

"So, if we had more spirits, do you think this would be effective against the Adephagos itself?" Flynn always seemed ahead of the game, but that didn't mean the Yuri wasn't mulling over the details in his own mind as well. He was no expert, but it couldn't hurt to think of something other than all the other problems weighing on his brain. A solution to this had to come first.

"I'm not sure, but it's worth a try. Four elemental spirits alone could control the aer and help mend the imbalance, but the Adephagos is huge and I don't know if even four of them would be enough power."

"It's not like there's more apathetia that we can just convert just layin' around," Raven said.

"And there aren't many Entelexia left, either," Judith added.

"What if we convert all the blastia cores into spirits?" The moment the idea hit Yuri, it was escaped his lips, a simple slip of the tongue that caused them all to turn to him, eyes wide and more than one mouth agape.

His voice was so dry and brittle and the sound of it forced him to licked his lips. He had hardly said a word since the night before during his brief fight with Flynn. The words he wanted, the ones that burned were venomous and all consuming, but he couldn't say them. Whenever they reached his tongue, he just swallowed them again. When had he become so angry? But this was different. He wasn't sure where the idea had come from, but it had appeared all the same. "There are hundreds of thousands of blastia all over the world. Would that give us enough spirits?"

Rita shook off the shock and seemed to count off on her fingers for a second. She shook her head. "That might work, but how do you propose we even do something like that? It would require going to every single blastia the world over and we don't have that kind of time."

"And if we did that... wouldn't the blastia all stop working?" Karol asked.

"What sort of world would that make this?" Even Estelle seemed to doubt.

"The protection promised by the barriers would be gone."Judith regarded it a little more objectively.

"Everything that functions on blastia would just... stop." He expected for Rita to have the biggest adversity to the sudden and implausible idea. She loved blastia. It was everything to her, and the idea of giving all of that up had to press heavily on her. It wasn't going to be something that anyone would accept easily. It would be a big sacrifice to deal with a big problem.

"There will be a lot of unhappy people." Flynn mused on it, reserving judgment.

"It might be the only hope we have. That... thing... is going to destroy the world if we don't do something." Yuri wasn't completely convinced with the idea either. Maybe it was everything inside of him just desperate to do something, anything, but maybe it would work. Maybe that would enough to stop the Adephagos.

"Let's start with the four Elemental Spirits," Raven said. "We can always go from there."

"Ba'ul knows where the other Entelexia are, right?" Karol asked.

"Yes." There was a tinge to Judith's voice, a deep bitterness that she was barely holding back. "But he won't take us there."

"What? Why?"

"Apathetia only comes from the deaths of the Entelexia, and he won't put his kinfolk in danger like that."

Even though no one came out and said it, if they were going to get enough apathetia to convert into the Elemental Spirits, that was going to mean the deaths of three more Entelexia. The apathetia that Alexei had were likely destroyed. They hadn't searched the remains of the Heracles, but whatever was left of an apathetia had sunk into the Inner Ocean. And the one they had given to Duke in Yormgen had been readily destroyed. The one creature who knew about the whereabouts of those who could still form apathetia refused to tell them.

"I'd like to talk to Ba'ul once we board the ship," Flynn said. "Perhaps his mind can be changed."

Judith said nothing further, and started out of town without them, eyes raised to the sky to call her partner.

How did one even begin to talk to a giant whale-dragon? Flynn knew that Ba'ul and Judith communicated, but would Flynn's own efforts make any difference? And could the Entelexia even understand him?

Ba'ul bellowed, a long, low, mournful cry. Even without a translation from Judith, he didn't like the way it sounded. He couldn't blame Ba'ul for wanting to protect his own kind, especially with their numbers dwindling so, but this was for the sake of the world. Flynn didn't want their to be sacrifices. In a perfect world, their wouldn't be. But this world wasn't perfect.

"Say what you wish. He'll comprehend what you're saying." Judith was sullen as well. The Entelexia were her friends as well. "But know that Ba'ul cannot undergo spirit conversion. He isn't old enough to form an apathetia." She tugged on a bit of the rigging, crimson eyes fixed on Flynn. "And I would defend his life to the end if you tried."

"Please understand. We want to protect the world, but we don't want to have to make sacrifices for it. We will not take the apatheia by force," Flynn said aloud.

She looked up a moment and then back to Flynn. "He will consider it. For over a thousand years, humans have hunted his kin for the apathetia and now there are so few of them left, so his reservations are understandable."

"Thank you, Ba'ul, Judith."

"In the meantime," Yuri spoke up, rounding around the side of the cabin to stand on the bow of the ship with them. His charcoal eyes avoided Flynn, and his voice was sharp. "Could we stop by Yormgen?"

"Why?" Flynn asked a second before he could stop himself.

"Because I want to take a look at something."

"I don't see why not," Judith said.

"Thanks." He turned and headed back for the rear of the ship before Flynn could ask further, and he was left holding in all the questions that he wanted answers for.

"Do you think that Yuri's been acting strangely?"

"I don't think it's anything to be concerned about. It will pass."

Flynn was really beginning to wonder if that was true.

Yuri had been near silent, so terribly quiet that he hadn't said more than a handful of words in days. He didn't smile. He didn't crack jokes or sarcastic responses that weren't filled with rage. The light in his eyes that battle caused was there for a moment, but gone as soon as the fight was over, where Flynn had seen it there for days after a particularly satisfying bout. He hardly seemed to sleep. Although, if Yuri was having any sort of nightmare where he might have been reliving his brush with death, Flynn couldn't blame him. But he seemed to be avoiding Flynn especially. Or maybe that was all in Flynn's head. He couldn't be sure. But he was sure that they hadn't said much of a civil word to each other since Zaude.

Flynn had tried. He was trying so hard to sort of the jumbled mess of feelings sinking and floating in his chest, forcing his body to alternate between sensations of hunger and sickness, dizziness and blurriness, feeling too light or too heavy. Nothing was comfortable, and thinking about it and trying to force the matter wasn't making the situation better.

Since Yuri seemed so intent on avoiding everyone, save Repede, who had constantly been at his side since he had washed shore, Flynn found himself catching glances at him, whether over a meal or a book or just across the ship. He was fidgeting so much. He found himself more than once with palms soaked in sweat at the idea of trying to talk to Yuri. Why was it making him so nervous and when had this feeling sunk in?

Flynn tried to ignore the strange signals of his body that he still didn't understand and didn't want to associate with that word as they neared the short stretch of coast against the Sands of Kogorh and south of the Father Muzeali Mts. That got easier the closer they got.

Whatever had been here before, only a few crumbling stone foundations remained, half buried in the harsh, hot sands by the desert winds. There hadn't been a town here for a very long time.

"What happened here?" Estellise asked, followed by Karol.

"Do you think that whatever happened to Mantaic happened here?"

"No. This is different," Yuri replied. "This has been this way for a long time."

"What are you saying then?" Raven asked.

"That the town we visited here before was merely an illusion. Much like the Adephagos seed that we fought before. I suspect that it was Phaeroh sending us a message," Judith explained.

"I'd really like to know what sort of message he meant by all of that."

Could what have felt so real only been an illusion? What of the buildings they had been in, the creak in the wooden floors and the whip of the curtained doors? What of the people they had spoken with, all of whom seemed strange, but very real, like the folk from nearly any village? But Flynn couldn't forget that moment when he and Yuri stood alone on the wooden patio overlook the stony shores of the bay that dipped into the sea, and how cold and empty it felt. It felt as if no one had walked those paths in years, that all that remained of them were the faint imprints of their energy on time and the landscape. The chill that left on him had been hard to dismiss. And now, there really was nothing.

"H-hey Yuri!" Karol called from over one of the dunes toward an area where Flynn felt like the sage's house had been.

"What is it?"

"I found something you've gotta see!"

"I'll be right there!" Yuri called back and the rest of the party started toward where he yelled from, but Flynn caught Yuri's wrist before he could go.

"Are you all right?"

"I'm fine." That sounded like a bitter lie. "Don't worry so much."

"You're not fine. You're a mess."

"What the hell do you know?"

"I don't know anything, but I want to. Please, tell me-"

"Would you just leave me alone?"

He couldn't. He wouldn't. But Yuri ripped away from him and started up the dunes. He followed at a feverish pace, as quickly as he could through the sharp sand.

"Yuri, I-" There was so much he wanted to say, but everything broke off and died when he made it to the top of the dune to find Karol standing in the center of one of the building fountain's holding a very familiar red chest.

"This is the red case from the Atherum?" Estellise asked, taking the case carefully.

It was worn and damaged by time and weather, but still in better condition than the village that had once been here. But how had it gotten there if all of what they had experienced here last time had been a mere illusion?

"But that means-"

"There's a book inside," she said, setting down the case and taking the book in hand. It seemed well preserved, considering the toll that a thousand years of dry and harsh weather would take on something made of paper. "I-It's a journal!"

"What does it say?"

Estellise cleared her throat and began to read. "'235 Year of Asule. 3rd day of Rapinae. Dearest Longchi... I think that today is the day that I'm going to stop waiting for you to come back. It's been three years since those travelers came to town with the box, but they came with only a promise that you would return as soon as you could. I have always had my doubt about their kind words, and deep inside I always knew... The box that I gave you as a gift, which you guarded with your life... There's no way you would have ever given up so long as you were strong and well. I'm sure that you would want me to move on and look for happiness yet again. That's why it's time that I said farewell. Thank you for everything you've done for me.'"

A hush settled on them, all eyes staring at the journal and the box.

"What a strong girl," Judith said finally, breaking the silence.

"Guess you can't just wait 'round forever for someone who ain't comin' back," Raven added.

"Don't you all think there's something weird about this?" Rita asked, picking up the box, turning it over in her hands and examining its entire surface.

"About what?" Karol took a peek at the inside while Rita had it upside down.

"The version of Yormgen that we went to was an illusion that Phaeroh created... And yet the box we delivered in the illusion... is right here." Judith was just as stumped by this as everyone else was.

"So, wouldn't that mean that the travelers that she mentioned in her journal were us?" Estellise asked. She closed the book and laid it in her lap.

"I don't know how that would even be possible, if the Yormgen we visited was an illusion. Why would this record have been left here?" Rita was having a hard time wrapping her head around it. It was a conundrum for sure.

"Looks like the world is chock full of mysteries," Yuri said and turned away.

"Why did you want to stop here anyway?" Judith asked.

"I just had a hunch. Isn't it about time we went to see Phaeroh?"

"You drug us all the way out here on a hunch?!" Rita stomped up to him.

"Hey. At least we learned something interesting, right?"

"T-That's not- AGH!" Her argument lost, she stormed off over a dune in the direction of what had once been the town entrance.

"Wait up, Rita!" Estelle set the book back in the box that Rita had dropped unceremoniously. She looked at it tenderly a moment, and then stood to dash after Rita.

Ba'ul dipped down out of the sky and waited for them to board.

What sort of hunch did Yuri have that would have brought them here? And if their first trip to Yormgen really had been an illusion, then what did their evidence here show?

It was too much to think about now. They had too much to worry with already, and Phaeroh was going to be the first problem.