Felinis: I'm trying to keep the earlier parts of the game condensed to two to three chapters. It's easier that way since unless something new happens it's just game recap. It's really fun to play on existing dialogue.
Rita was a true spit fire kind of person. It didn't take long over the course of their long trek to the ruins to figure this out. She was a belching fire ready to blow at any moment and Yuri admired that.
"So Halfer?" She starts and Yuri sighs because he knows from the tone that Rita doesn't find the word offensive. It's completely instinctual to her and he understands why it would be. A kid raised in the empire's research labs would no doubt be prone to this sort of thinking.
"I'd prefer it if you used my real name."
Her eyes widen a bit and there's flush of embarrassment. "Sorry… Yuri… I'm curious what city you're from. Nordopolica? Dahngrest? Mantaic? Or some small town nobody talks about?"
Yuri shrugs. "Neither. I'm from Zaphias. Born and raised right in the capital."
She crosses her arms sternly. "Who'd you learn Geraios from, then?" Rita is looking over him with great curiosity. "If you were from off continent it be one thing but your telling me that you lived in Zaphias with a Krytian parent? Please. You'd have to be an idiot to buy that load of crap!"
"I grew up an orphan." Rita stops. "I didn't have anyone to teach me Geraios or Krytian culture… or anything."
"Then how can you speak it?"
"It's all in the blood." Yuri says with an innocent grin.
Rita rolls her eyes. "Sure…"
Eventually they find themselves in front of the ruins that looked to once belong to a temple in times of old. There's a hum Yuri can feel in the earth as Rita guides them up a long, cracked staircase. "These are the Shaikos Ruins."
Estelle looks about and falls to disappointment. "It looks like there aren't any Imperial Knights around."
Repede sniffs at the ground pointing out the tracks. "I think I have a scent!"
Karol runs over and closely examines the tracks. "These footprints are still fresh. There's a lot of them, too."
"Which means it's either the Knights, the thieves, or both." Yuri mutters. They walk around for a bit but there's nothing but broken marble and moss. "Looks like no one's here..."
Rita groans. "The information about the underground couldn't have gotten out, could it?"
"The underground?" Estelle asks.
"Recently, an entrance to an underground area was uncovered here. A handful of mages are supposed to be the only people who know about it..."
Yuri tilts his head and narrows his brow. "But it's okay for us to know this?"
"It's not that big of a deal. The empire is just paranoid about outsiders stumbling in. They constantly complain about us so much as publishing a paper." Rita huffs. "It's not like I would've minded letting the thieves have the ruins above ground after we finished the excavation, but it's a good thing we came here when we did."
"So how do we get it in?" Karol asks and Rita points at the large statue of the goddess. "Well then, we'd better hurry up and follow them. All we have to do is move this?" Karol pushes at the statue hopelessly and Yuri steps up to help him.
"Come on. You have to put your shoulder into it." Yuri encourages as they both push at the heavy base. "Come on, just a little...more..." Yuri huffs as they both make the final push revealing a dark passageway.
Estelle looks over the two of them with concern. "Are you okay?"
"S-sure, that was a cinch..." Karol huffs while Yuri holds his thumb up with a grin. They head slowly down the steps into the dark cavern below. The air is chill and a lake is seen below with spires of some sort of building poking from the water.
Yuri looks at the aer floating off the spire and stalagmites above. Estelle runs around with a big a smile. "Be careful over there. It's slippery." Rita scolds walking after her.
Estelle slips a little Yuri moves to catch her but Rita holds her up. "Oops!" She laughs. "Do you always come to research these ruins alone?"
Rita nods. "Yeah."
"Aren't you afraid you'll get hurt by monsters or traps?"
Rita brushes her off and walks down the path. "There are always risks if you're trying to actually do something. If someone gets hurt, it's an acceptable loss."
Estelle looks down at her hands. "Even if you're the one who gets hurt?"
"Yeah."
"Don't you ever worry or hesitate?"
"Worrying about getting what you want without anyone getting hurt? You've had a pretty easy life."
Estelle winces. "An easy life..."
"And blastia will never betray me. So they're easy to deal with."
Estelle turns to him with a huge smile. "Rita's amazing! She just comes right out and says what she has to say."
"She knows exactly what's important to her."
The princess's mood sours and she looks down at the floor. "I wish I knew what was
important to me..."
"Just travel around for a while. You'll figure it out." Yuri says taking her hand to help her over a particularly slippery patch of rock. As they make their way Rita stops and looks at another blastia lying on the floor with no core and rusted over.
"Looks like this little one is no good too..." Rita pouts.
"Wow, so this is what blastia look like before they're excavated." Karol whistles.
"I wonder why ancient people buried blastia in ruins like this in the first place?" Estelle notes looking over the machine and Yuri wonders if they'll have a repeat of what happened in the woods.
"I wish I could tell you. That's something else being researched." Rita huffs. Yuri looks and notes that none of the blastia they've seen have had cores but hears that hum from below. He's not paying attention to the conversation but drifts back in to here Rita mention. "That's not quite true. It seems Estellise's information is a little outdated. Not surprising though."
"What's outdated about it?" Karol asks.
"There's some degradation of quality, but there's been some success in the synthesis of simple blastia cores. I'm currently assisting with construction formulas to better improve the quality of cores." She huffs. "Unfortunately, we hit a snag about two years ago. For now, the cores we've created are strictly for research purposes, but give it four years and we'll be able to construct cores for barrier blastia."
"That's incredible!" Both Estelle and Karol exclaim.
"Yeah, well, it's not that big of a deal really." Rita blushes as they continue on to find a blastia and she presents a sorcerer ring to Yuri. "Here. This little fella shoots aer out to power blastia. Since you're in the lead you have it."
Estelle is giddy at the sight of the ring. "Oh wow! I read about these in the castle. They're so fascinating!"
"Castle?" Rita starts to ask questions about what Estelle meant. Yuri helps steer the conversation elsewhere while Estelle plays dumb.
After some time of messing around with the sorcerer ring and the sentinel blastia moving about Rita has given up on asking Estelle about her accidently mentioned castle life as they're walking through Yuri notes a small crevice and follows inside to find a surprising site.
"Well look at that." Yuri whistles. It's signs that someone had been using this space as a home for a while. A few broken plates pushed to the corner and crude drawings on the wall. Carved in the stone is a heart with two letters that he can't make out.
"What do you think this is about?" Karol asks heading in front of him to walk around the space.
"I don't know, but it looks like someone was living down here for some time." Karol nods.
"Huh? Maybe it was a kid? There's a toy over here… I think?" He points to the molded remains of what might have once been a cloth doll along with a blanket. "But, then how did they get down here?" Yuri pulls Karol out. They have more important things to deal with right now. "Hey Rita, do you know what's with that cavern over there."
"No idea." She mutters. At the end of the path is a giant goliath sitting down on the ground. "This was the guy I was looking for. If I can just analyze him, I'll finally be able to complete my anima formu-huh?" She frantically looks at the machine. "No! His blastia core is missing!"
Yuri catches a white robe in the corner of his eyes. "Rita, looks like one of your friends is here."
"Hey! Who're you?" Rita yells and the figure stops.
"M-me? I'm just a blastia researcher from Aspio!" A weasel voice said from under the robe.
"...That sounded convincing." Yuri says sarcastically.
"And just who are all of you? This place is off-limits, you know!"
Rita smirks. "I think you just gave yourself away. I don't know who you are, but you're definitely not from Aspio if you don't recognize me."
"Guess she's got no problems with modesty." Karol mutters.
"Gah! This job is just full of problems. If it's not the Knights, it's a bunch of kids!" The man grumbles as he runs over to the top of the Goliath. There's a loud whir and the machine comes to life with the glow of blue lights. A large arms swings over and slams Rita into a wall.
Estelle dashes over next to Rita and releases a healing arte over the injured girl. Rita grabs her arm and looks closely at the blastia and then to Estelle. "How did you...?" The two were pulled into the action by calls of Yuri and Karol who were ducking under the large swings of the twenty-foot tall blastia. Rita launched spells to divert the machine's attention telling them not to hurt it. Yuri ran behind while Karol struck the legs. The man jumped onto the creature slicing the blade into the joints while the two casters used their artes to attack the front. Rita apologizes after every spell until the machine finally falls onto the ground with a heavy crash. Rita looks heartbroken as she pulls the core from the blastia. "I'm sorry."
Yuri has already taken off after his thief telling Estelle to hurry up. Flynn definitely wasn't here anymore. They find the man being attacked by small fry monsters and once they're dealt with Yuri kicks him to the ground with a glare in his eyes.
"I've only been hired to do a job... I was told I'd get a good price for any blastia cores I could find. Please don't hurt me!"
Yuri continues to glare at him. "You stole cores from the imperial capital too, didn't you?"
"The capital? No way, not me!" The man cries.
A growl slips from his lips and Yuri's lips turn to a snarl. "Then maybe it was one of your friends."
"Y-yeah! It's that creep, Dedecchi." So much for honor among thieves.
"Where'd he run off to?"
The man swallows as he looks at Yuri's blade still covered in monster blood. "He's probably picking up his money from the client right now."
"Client, huh? And who exactly might that be?"
He cowers further on the ground. "All I know is he's somewhere in Torim Harbor. I don't know any more than that!" Yuri continues to stare and the man cracks again. "He was a huge bruiser of a guy with a scar on his right cheek and one eye missing."
"So is this the guy collecting all the cores?" The thief nods.
"And where did you steal that Sorcerer's Ring?" Rita hisses.
"Wh-who says I stole it? The client gave it to me, said it would be useful for this job!" The thief mutters with confidence.
"Liar. That's not something the boss of some pickpockets could get his hands on." Rita looks ready to punch him and the man holds his hands against his face.
"H-honest! You gotta believe me!"
"This thing sounds pretty big. You think somebody important is behind it all?" Karol says taking the man's word.
"I think you're on the right track, Captain Karol. This doesn't sound like some ordinary band of thieves." Yuri says pulling out a rope to tie the man up.
"Man! First the Knights, then the monsters, now this... caught by a halfer and bunch of kids."
"Knight? Then Flynn was here after all." Estelle exclaims immediately pouncing on the man.
"Yeah, that's him. That damn knight! That stupid pretty boy-"
Rita's fist collided with the man's skull knocking him out. "Shut up!"
"Great, Rita. You knocked him out...Now what?" Karol huffs.
"I'll just tell the knights in Aspio to come get him." Rita says as she walks towards the exit. "Come on, let's get back. I want to be home before nightfall."
Estelle stops Yuri to look him over and pesters him about a bruise on his cheek from when his face collided into the Goliath. "Let me heal that!"
Yuri glares and interrupts her casting with a push. "I said no artes. I'll use a gel for now."
Karol huffs. "Gels are expensive you can't go using them for stupid stuff!"
Rita looks at them and huffs. "What is it this time?"
Estelle upturns her nose and looks from him angrily. "Yuri is refusing to let me use healing artes to fix any wounds he got."
She casts a curious glance to him. "Why not?"
Yuri turns away and keeps walking on. "Because, I'm allergic to aer and healing artes."
"Well, that's fucking bullshit."
Estelle gasps. "Rita!"
"What! It's true! If Yuri was allergic to aer he would have likely died at about age thirteen from organ failure and have spent that whole time in a bed. Not to mention the brittle bones problem." Rita says and Yuri does his best to ignore her. "The idea of being allergic to aer is absolutely ridiculous! It be like saying you're allergic to water!"
"Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it! Why don't you bother talking about something else like Flynn!" Yuri yells and keeps as far ahead as he can.
The sun is well past midday by the time they're back to the caverns and Yuri listens to them whisper about Flynn and how Rita had bumped into him. And, how the mage is curious about the weird things these two have witnessed. Rita passes them a passport once they're at the cave. "Here. Take this. It's getting late and you can stay at my house if you want. Just don't leave the city without my permission!" The girl runs off leaving the three of them behind.
"Thanks." Yuri takes the passport and they pass the guards at the gate who eye him as he walks by. Yuri looks out to see if he can spot that man from before but no luck. They wait inside Rita's shack for her to return and his head starts to burn. Shit. He hisses in pain and the others stare when he walks up.
"Yuri?" Estelle watches him get up and climb Rita's ladder to the upper level. "Yuri? Where are you going?"
Yuri bites his lip. "I'm fine. I just need to be alone." He hides behind the pile of books and does his best to cover his head under a heavy tome. He hears her follow though and Yuri cringes. "Really. Just leave me alone!"
The princess stops. "Is this one your... moments?"
He freezes. "What did Flynn tell you?"
"Not much just that you had moments where you got away from him." Estelle keeps her distance.
Relief floods through Yuri at her words. She didn't know anything. "Yeah. And when that happens it's best that I'm alone. So please leave."
"Can't I help you?"
"Go away."
Estelle bows and walks away slowly. "I see. I'll tell everyone that you need to be alone." Yuri takes in a breath as the pain digs into his skull. That rotting smell is always in the air around Estelle and it's maddening. Yuri mutters a mantra as he burns through the pain. It's worse than usual and he bites the of a book for comfort.
His mind is still there and that's all that matters though. He's still himself. He's still Yuri. Blood drips from his mouth and he groans as the teeth fall. Shit...
He closes his eyes and prays that it will be over soon, but the pain is ever present as the night continues and Yuri can hear them talking about him below. At some point, Yuri knows Rita climbs up to grab something but she doesn't look at him.
He goes numb and just heaves dry breathes. In and out. In and out...
Down below the group ate dinner as they occasionally glanced upward.
"What do you think is wrong with Yuri?" Karol says as he whittles some wood he had in his bag into the shape of an eggbear.
Estelle shakes her head. "I have no idea. He refuses to tell me anything."
Rita is sitting with a book in her arm and is eyeing at Repede. The dog turns the page and she raises a brow. "Is the dog… reading?" Estelle and Karol nod. "Weird." Rita narrows her eyes and turn to them with her arms cross. "Yeah. Your friend is weird. I'd say it was just a halfer thing, but he just seems… different."
Karol looks nervously and whispers. "Then there's the horns we found."
"Horns?"
Estelle nods. "We found red horns in his bag that weren't there before."
"That doesn't mean anything." Rita scoffs. "He could have just found them lying around or something."
"I don't think so." Karol says scrunching his face. "It doesn't look like the horns of any monster I've ever heard of."
Repede rolls his eyes and lets them on with their speculation. If all they do is gossip like fools over Yuri's inhumanity then he doesn't need to interfere. Still, Yuri treasures that secrecy and Repede would hate to see that tarnished. He barks and rolls over on his belly before running around demanding attention. "Hey, play with me or whatever!"
Repede licks Karol's face and the boy laughs and starts rubbing his fur. "Repede, what are you doing?"
"Distracting you obviously." Repede barks but it's obviously lost on the boy. Rita ignores them and goes back to her book while Estelle sits in worry.
Repede's night is spent distracting the humans and guarding the ladder while Yuri has an episode. It's not much, but it will at least push them off long enough for Yuri to make an excuse in the morning.
Felinis: I'd like to think that Repede reads at a college level. It's so nice to see everyone enjoying this fic and reading it. I can't believe I've already written over 50k words... I will admit I did write some of this drunk... I'm not sure that's a good thing or a bad thing. Since good and bad are subjective terms I am just going to assume it's neither and move on with my life.