How dull this world became without him. No earthquakes to tear the land asunder, no fire to burn away at meaningless cries, and no screams to sing him to sleep. In fact, the place looked positively greener since he last saw the place.
Not that he slept anyway but curse these fools who shunned his offer to help like it was some disgusting child offering them a poor dinner.
Kefka twisted into the shadows with the comforting reminder that at least people here would see him. He bided his time and he would wait for the opportune moment, but when it came he'd remember the soothing cries of panicked mothers and wailing infants.
And yet this dingy little alley held no throne appropriate to his status, nor a pedestal to flaunt his majestic presence. How would his esper girl find him without any pointers?
He left his corner and strolled off to find his sweetest treasure.
And stopped short when he caught sight of that other girl that came to tango with him at the tower. The little one, with the sketchbook, from the village of liars and cowards!
He leaned over her shoulder to see what she drew and found green fields. Rays of sunshine. That wouldn't do at all, not what she could capture a good memory of his times.
"Prissy and prancy and all sorts of idiocy." Kefka reached forward and tapped a ghostly finger in the wet paint. Felt none of it, of course, but the paint did react and flatten at his touch. She retried the stroke only to be interrupted again.
He did that a few dozen more times before he got bored. Her paint was not worth his time! Of which he had an infinite amount. That was how not-worth-it it was. Besides, he already spelled out his name and anyone with half a brain would see it, which meant no one ever would, which was immensely infuriating.
If this little brat of a girl couldn't see him, or his artwork, he'd find someone who could.
Terra didn't wander this part of town, that was clear. On the other hand, there was that little boy staring at him from across the cobbled ground.
Kefka joined him. "You've seen enough dead, haven't you, little brat?"
Not so little as he might like, given the boy worked among the treasonous traitors. But he saw Kefka and that meant something about the state of his heart.
The boy looked for another minute before he climbed like a beast off the boxes he sat on.
Kefka followed him as the brat raced down the streets to some dingy building in a town of dingy buildings.
The beast closed the door behind him but Kefka strolled through anyway. What terrible manners, on his own world, no less.
"Kefka." The beast said to—ah! The Figaro twins! Spectacular. Beast held the little bigger one's hand, pointing towards his Magnanimousness himself.
"Well, well, if it hasn't been half-a-five-dozen dead people since I've had the displeasure of seeing your faces," Kefka said.
Sabin crouched, but didn't focus on what mattered. "What about him, Gau?"
The beast just kept pointing to Kefka. Sheesh, why did he bother with such imbeciles when he hadn't made an inch of progress toward Terra?
He blinked forward and shoved himself into the beast's brainpan.
The beast screamed—what a delicious sound! Kefka pounded further in and forced his way through ragged memories to find the wretched instincts of a savage. "Can't even pretend to grin and bear it, hm?"
Oh, that sentence traveled straight out of Gau's mouth.
Incredible. He should have done this ages ago! Not that he had the option, thanks to some uptight pricks back in hell. Good thing they were so busy with their little PR issue.
Kefka forced himself to the front of the mind, taking the reins of this little beast. Only to find himself pinned. He forced open his new eyes to find the irresponsible pair of brothers forcing him against the wall.
Kefka slunk back into the recesses of Gau's mind. He was in now, and the poor little underdeveloped mind of the doll would have a rough time forcing him out. Especially with the weakened state of his heart. With this emotion center as rotted as it was, no one could force Kefka out.
Gau breathed hard and looked around but couldn't figure it out in his poor processing power what happened. He didn't struggle against his captors. Kefka could be patient. Wait for them to do the wise thing and release the child.
Sabin grit his teeth, still holding the beast down. "That bastard's come back from the dead. Thought they had some kind of system in place to make sure this wouldn't happen."
"If they do, it's broken." Edgar relaxed his grip. "Kefka, where is Gau?"
"I… Gau…"
Sabin twitched. "If that's true, then where's Kefka?"
Gau looked around with a sumptuous hint of desperation. The limbs of this gangly beast had muscle to them. Lean, but enough for anything Kefka could ever want.
Gau said. "Not see."
"He can't be gone."
Sabin relaxed enough for Kefka to break through and squirm straight out of his grip. He bounced away with a dexterity that he never knew in his own body.
Ooh, knives! Two of them!
Sabin lunged for him, but he was too late. Kefka danced the body onto the table and snatched his weaponry. One looked like it was for opening letters. He flipped that one into the air and held it to his own neck. The other was cruder. For food and dirtier work.
Kefka barely contained his glee. "Now this is the kind of vacation I could get used to!"
Baby King Edgar was the first to speak up. "What do you want?"
"Fun, what else?" He made a show of thinking, keeping the knife against the neck. It almost felt good. To feel with a physical form, one he didn't even worry about hurting. This was just a vacation, after all. He could wear and tear as much as he wanted. "You might know, where's the girl you are so intent on hiding from me?"
They shared a glance. "You mean Terra?" Edgar asked.
"You've forgotten how to play this little game you loved so much." He flipped the steak knife and sliced his own thigh. "Somehow ever dumber than you used to be."
"Stop!" Sabin pled.
"Let's not—" His letter-knife hand flinched towards his neck. Not of his control, that was for sure.
That was a nice, sharp knife. Maybe it wasn't just for opening letters. He forced that pesky will back down, but not before his neck stung.
How…
Unforgiveable.
Anger rose, broiling straight through the rotted emotion center, filling what empty void there was with nothing but Kefka's hate.
"Wasn't planning to cut my own neck just yet. This doll doesn't know how to sit still."
"That's not yours!" Sabin took a step forward. Geez, give a god five seconds to make sure he was still the guy in charge.
"Now, now. Let's get back to the question. Yes, I mean Terra, who else would I care about?"
"How are you here?" Edgar asked. "We were told that you could never crawl out of your worm tunnel and find your way back here."
Kefka split a grin at the thought. The golden lord and the red timemaster wouldn't be busy with the lost little girl for too long. Be following him soon enough. Which meant there wasn't enough time to get lost in these weeds. "Cute. You think you can ever be rid of me? This is my world, Figaros, and it's always gonna be my world."
"Funny. Figured if you wanted a world for yourself, you'd take better care of it."
"It's mine, and the only reason for it to be mine is to have fun with it."
The door opened. Correction—the soon-to-be-obliterated-and-dragged-into-hell-with-him door opened. That dumb little painter girl from before entered.
The doll seized up inside. He needed his own body, that was for damned sure.
Kefka shot a warning through his skull and the doll slunk back to the shadows.
"Edgar, Sabin, I—" She went stiff like an Esper getting its power sucked out on his operating table.
Edgar snapped, "Relm, get out of here!"
She didn't leave. Instead dropped her painting with his signature. "He's here."
Edgar moved to stand between her and Kefka like it mattered.
"Terra isn't here anymore." Sabin clenched big fists. "She's been travelling to other worlds."
"That puts a damper on my vacation." He tapped his leg with the pointy end of the steak knife and Sabin's palpable horror almost made him feel better. "Any idea where she went?"
"No."
Kefka rubbed the blunt of the blade against the dripping blood, painting it pretty.
"What. Do. You. Want?" Edgar held a hand out in front of the girly. She peeked out from behind him like a curious infant.
"A little respect would be a start. I come all this way, I don't even see any sign of me."
"You expect a tapestry?" Sabin asked. While Edgar covered the girl, Sabin inched before the baby king.
Kefka raised the steak knife to the doll's face and cut a line from the left side of the forehead, down the left eyelid. He'd have to stop by later to see what it looked like after healing. "Honestly, you should pay me for my artwork. Which one, you may ask? Eh, I'll leave that to you to decide."
Sabin jumped forward. Kefka danced to the side and finished sliding the knife down to the chin. Then stopped on a chair up against the wall. "You really have forgotten how to play. What'll I do about these uneven lines? I can't charge you less, since you were the one to mess it up."
Sabin yelled, "This isn't a game!"
"It is if you're bored enough. And with you all undoing what I've done, there's nothing to bask in!"
The girl fought to get past Sabin. "You son of a bitch!"
With his initial across the doll's face, Kefka wasn't sure what else there was to do here. He didn't have the time to murder everyone, after all.
Kefka eyed the handle of the blade, then the girl that wrestled with Sabin. He threw the steak knife, covered in grease and blood, and felt a twitch caused by that damned beast of a doll.
The knife missed by inches and pinned the girl to Sabin.
Girl screamed and Sabin pulled her off.
"Edgar, get her out of here!" Sabin lurched forward. Kefka pressed his remaining knife to Gau's neck and considered killing him then and there.
Eh, he could come back for more fun times.
Instead he threw the other hand up, back against the wall, and slammed the knife into the palm.
Then kicked the chair out from under him.
Screams throbbed and Kefka laughed. It sounded almost like himself despite his host's bizarre vocal chords and Kefka caught them fading to screams before he vanished from this world.
Cid Haze rocked in his chair that overlooked the field of world travelers. Some practiced magic, others sparred with blades, and others still played games of chance and draw. An idyllic scene, given the warm afternoon sun and spotty clouds. Some of their guests wore extra layers despite the balmy weather and others stripped to what teetered on the edge of indecent to keep breathing.
Given all the construction that kept up on the Cottage, the only ones that stayed inside were Ace, Trey, and Prompto. The former two, they liked to discuss things about some "Valhalla" and "Historia" like some scholars they were. Prompto, though… Cid worried about him. He showed such energy after they brought him back with Iris and Gladio that to see him so subdued ignited a nagging concern in Cid's chest like someone pricked him with a needle and left the wound to bleed.
When Prompto emerged, Cid asked, "Sure you're ready?"
"What do you mean?"
"Talking to these corrupted kids—won't it bring up bad memories?"
"Oh." Prompto adjusted that handgun at his side. "Probably."
The kid all but cried the first time they brought him out of that haze of his and refused to meet with ex-possessees for over a week. "I suppose best'n I could do is come with."
"You shouldn't—"
"Chocobo shit." Cid hefted himself from his chair despite protesting limbs and an aching back. "I want to help you with this, son."
Prompto shifted and looked away. "… Thanks."
Cid followed him into the basement they carved out below the Cabin and found the two children collected by Desch and Terra. Krile sat on her bed, knees up to her chin and arms wrapped underneath while little Shinra dozed on his. Without their shards, the two looked a touch more like the children they should be. Save for the bandages, of course.
"Got some questions for you two," Prompto announced before taking a chair and swinging it toward the center of the room. "I'm sure you're not tired of that."
"We can't say anything," Krile muttered. "Why not leave us alone?"
"I think you know the answer to that one," Cid said. "Honestly, I'd love nothing better, but this'll turn out better for you two as well if we can get a leg up on that god you follow."
"We don't follow Bhunivelze," said Shinra, though his voice muffled against his sheets. "We obey."
"Obedience is safest." Krile looked up at Cid with large eyes. "You're putting everyone at risk by fighting."
Prompto cleared his throat. "You two are still connected, right?"
"Yes," Krile said. "In the most important ways."
"So you remember what your goals are?"
"Yes."
"But we're not saying anything," Shinra said. He rolled over to face them and Cid flinched at the branching scars that reached from forehead to chin to fingertips. "You're wasting your time."
"We'll be the judges of that," Cid said.
Prompto turned to Krile. "You wanted to start a war on Ivalice?"
"… No."
"Then why did you attack the diplomat?"
"Because I wanted to… play."
Prompto cocked his head and asked, "How old are you?"
"Ten."
"Try fourteen," Cid said. "Or older."
Krile pouted. "Fine. Fifteen."
"I know kids your age when I see them," Cid said. "Now, you've corrected some of your information, how about you go on with what you were doing on this Ivalice planet?"
"I thought that man was evil."
"We know you wanted a war," Prompto said. "Why bother hiding it?"
"Because she's not an idiot," Shinra said.
Krile pursed her lips and curled up tighter. Some squirrels that found their way in shimmied up the bed and scurried about her. "You can't do anything to us. You won't. Us Warriors of Light are just fulfilling our duty, after all."
Cid took the other chair and sat by Krile's bed. "We don't believe in forcing anything around here and the same rule applies to you kids. But you'll also suffer if you let this Bhunivelze have his way."
"Suffering is temporary," Shinra said. "Death is forever."
Prompto shifted. Cid pretended not to notice and said, "Is it death you all want? That's not what most beings of Light desire."
"No," Krile said. "Death is a waste. But it's necessary in order to make everyone ready for order. They won't accept it otherwise."
"Order?" Cid said. "That sound familiar to you, Prompto?"
He nodded.
"Krile," Shinra said. "You're playing into their trap."
"Shh! I'm trying my best here!"
Shinra huffed and turned away again.
"Bhunivelze's planned for all of you," she said. "Every planet and person in the galaxy. But I don't remember all of them so I can't tell you!"
"Do you remember this one?" Cid asked. "Does he think about this planet much?"
"Krile!"
She threw her hands up as much as her chain allowed. "I don't know! He never told me that one!"
"The loss of shards," Prompto said. "What did that change?"
"Nothing!" Shinra bolted into a sitting position. "Stop talking all of you!"
"You know about that, too, hm?" Cid asked.
"No! Yes! Just—just stop talking!" Shinra looked at Prompto. "You betrayed all of us, didn't you?"
Prompto gave Cid an odd look. "Yes."
"Then I hope they kill you first and make it slow."
"And if I wish I didn't hear that coming out of your mouth," Cid said. "By the Crystals, we'd better keep this god out of kids' brains if it's gonna ruin their manners like this."
Footsteps down the stairs and Porom joined them. "Any luck?"
"Only as much as you would expect," Prompto said.
Porom said, "We just need to try harder is all."
"We've been trying as hard as we can," Cid said. "The only thing we haven't done is string 'em up by their toes and interrogate them until they cry for mercy."
"That's not happening," Porom said.
"I know it's not, my dear, but my point stands. We've tried almost everything under the sun."
Porom put a hand on her hip. "Not everything."
"Again, we could string them up—"
"I mean there has to be something that'll work that isn't that. Keep trying."
Cid heaved a sigh and watched Porom leave before turning back to Prompto. "Such is our burden, I suppose."
"She's wrong," Shinra said. "I've told you a million times."
"Torture doesn't sound so bad," Prompto said. "It's not like they'll mind it as much with Bhunivelze in them."
"Hey!" Shinra said.
Cid shook his head. "Not much point to beating this thing if we become like it, right?"
"… Right," Prompto said.
Krile betrayed a breath of relief. The squirrels stilled.
Prompto said, "I do know a couple of tricks, but I doubt they'd work on them while still attached."
"Cheater," Shinra said. "Dirty, lying cheaters."
A click sounded and Krile got a hand free. The squirrels scurried about and focused on the other hand. Cid jumped to his feet and Prompto dove at the bed. Krile screamed at the attack. They had to call in some of the others before they got Krile subdued again.
Cid tried to pretend these kids didn't scare him. But if anything convinced him to stop Bhunivelze, it was these darned messes.
Porom paused at the sight of Firion training Vaan and Yuj with Setzer guiding in the practice and bit her lip at the sight of them going at it like their lives depended on it. Firion had them redo certain techniques again and again until their fingers bled and worse than that, no one seemed to mind it. They almost… enjoyed it? Though Vaan broke away shortly after she arrived and left for the Cabin.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" she asked Firion during a lapse. "It looks brutal."
"So it must be. Whether it's another country, another world, a ragtag mob, or a corrupted god, they must be ready to face whatever we face."
"But surely they don't have to push themselves so far?"
"Would you rather they put their lives in the hands of their enemies?"
Porom thought a moment and shook her head.
Firion offered a tight smile. "It's all we can do to keep the corrupted at bay and it's critical that we stay a step ahead. Don't worry, though—no one's dying today."
"That's not what I'm worried about." Porom watched Setzer guide Yuj through a sequence and imagined one of them falling. Imagined Palom or Leonora suffering at the hands of one possessed. "Give them a break soon, okay?"
Firion didn't respond before Porom returned to looking for Arc. The boy was thoughtful for his age, but still so distractible.
The yard was large enough for practice, but not so big that she couldn't push herself with a few assisted leaps to cross the length of it. The cabin and nearby river were the only other two places anyone around here used, so she started with the river because usually it was Palom or Leonora that pulled him away even though she could swear the two were off somewhere else like they tended to do.
The smell of electric magic hinted of work done to the south and she followed it past the river and toward the forest whose doorstep they camped on. It didn't take long to find Leonora, Palom, and Arc all fussing around with spells and small wormholes. They got Arc to the point of casting small breaks in space, but it would take time to get him as proficient as they were.
… Though he still caught on a lot faster than he should.
Arc took a sphere of water and froze it before tossing it at Leonora, who melted it back down and used a protect on it before throwing it to him. A game? Palom didn't participate in whatever it was, distracted as he was by the wormholes and gauging stability versus distance, etc.
Porom moved to catch their attention before something exploded between them in a burst of electric fire. Arc laughed and Leonora shrieked. Palom didn't react at first, but after some prodding from Leonora, he formed a pile of snow that engulfed her and Arc.
Porom wished Baralai allowed alcohol. Sometimes she felt like a frazzled parent trying to keep these children under control. Nevertheless, she rounded her shoulders and approached because work had to be done eventually.
"Isn't it about time we updated Baralai on our progress?" she called.
Arc and Leonora shook themselves free of snow, using a combination of magic and hand-swiping to get the stuff off. Arc moved faster than Leonora and rushed to Porom's side. "We've found a potential fix for the jitter," he said. "I swear, we weren't wasting time!"
"You were," Palom said without looking up from his work. "Don't act like it's a bad thing."
"Well, it isn't good," Porom said. "We've got Bhunivelze out there doing who-knows-what and we're just sitting here having missile fights?"
"Not sitting," Leonora said. "No one's sitting."
"Not yet," Palom said.
Arc dipped his head. "I'll get back to work."
"As you both should," Porom said with a pointed look to Leonora. "Let's not allow the enemy a chance to get further ahead."
"It's not gonna make much of a difference in the end," Palom said. "With the way time and space work, we can hop to the exact point we need and skip the pressure of finishing before Bhunivelze. That's how I took an entire vacation on Spira before meeting up with you again. Not to mention, if he wanted to kill us, he would have done so years ago."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Porom said. "Arc, please don't listen to him. Leonora does enough of that."
Arc pursed his lips. "I don't know about—"
"Don't do it." Porom put a hand on his shoulder and leaned down to his level—which wasn't so low. "I don't want you falling into the same traps, okay?"
"None of us do," Palom said. Despite keeping his eyes on his work, he took on a terse tone. "Unless you don't want me teaching him how to avoid said traps?"
Leonora put up her hands. "It's okay, I can keep Arc under control."
"I'm not a child," Arc said. "Not anymore, at least."
"Leonora, I don't know that you can keep yourself under control," Porom said with a meaningful look toward Palom. Leonora furrowed her brow, likely confused because for the love of Ramuh that boy took all the sense from her head. "But fine. I'll leave you to it and report to Baralai myself. What can I tell him?"
"Portals are affected by static," Arc said. "We've found a correlation between magical interference and instability, aggravated by—"
"So we've made minimal progress?"
Leonora cut in, "We've better established our understanding of setup and duration. If he wants a completion of the project, it'll be a while."
"Good enough." Porom waved a hand. "Carry on."
She left the three to their own, though there remained silence behind her as she took off back to the Cabin where Baralai chose to linger. Most everyone else would visit the city and study or train in the fields or befriend other travelers—Vaan was their resident expert there—but Baralai preferred not to leave the Cabin.
Said habit left her with an odd sense of discomfort, but she tried not to judge him based on that alone.
Arc listened to Palom's whistling while Leonora prepared her next shot. She and Arc practiced with the back and forth of their missiles. There hung a heaviness to the air about them, but Arc couldn't say where it came from.
"Porom's taken on a lot of responsibility," Leonora said. "I bet she could lead the Guild if she wanted to."
"I'll bet she wants to," Palom said.
Leonora deflated and hesitated before passing Arc the shot again. "What about you, Palom? Do you want to lead?"
"I don't want the responsibility, and I don't want her to have it. Neither of us were made to be leaders, you know."
"Leonora seems to be," Arc said. "Would you take the lead if they offered?"
Leonora switched the element to fire and lobbed it. "I've never thought about that."
"You'd do better than any of us," Palom said before standing. "I'm going to go freeze a lake. Don't burn yourselves."
As he left, Arc caught the ball and froze it into crystallized fire. Then dropped it when he saw Leonora wiping at her face and sniffling. She shook and covered her face.
"Um." He looked around him in the vain hope of finding Porom. "Is something wrong?"
Leonora shook her head and wrestled her breathing under control. "No, it's just—"
She sobbed and pressed her face into her hands.
Arc swallowed and took slow steps toward her, mind spinning. "Can I help? If you're hurt, I know some white magic and—You can cast white magic. It's not that. Stupid. Um… can I ask what it's about?"
Leonora hiccupped and looked at him with reddened eyes. "I just wish those two would get along!"
Thoughts reeled to imagine what brought that on but Arc didn't think a history lesson would help Leonora. "The twins?"
"Yes." Leonora took a deep breath and wiped at her eyes. "Good grief, I shouldn't dump this baggage on you."
"I'm okay with it."
"I just—I love Palom and I love Porom, but they don't—they don't love each other."
"I don't know about that." Arc put out an arm and Leonora took him in a hug. "I know I don't always get along with Luneth, but that doesn't mean I don't love him. And… we don't always understand each other thanks to his being fae and all that… But siblings seem to have a habit of dragging each other down."
"But they've been doing it for years!"
"… Without ever making peace?"
"They did it once recently before going right back to hating each other."
"… Oh."
Leonora pulled away and patted his head. "But it's fine. I can handle it."
"You shouldn't have to."
"But someone does. Maybe we can work together and change their minds? I think Palom likes you."
"Not as much as you, though. I doubt I'd make much difference."
"I don't think he likes me that much."
"… Doesn't he?"
"I mean, we respect each other? But it's just being partners."
"And that isn't liking you a lot?"
"Not… in the right way."
"… Oh." Arc furrowed his brow. "I see what you mean. I think. Have you talked to him about it? Refia says that helps."
Leonora shook her head. "I don't want to ruin what we have now."
"How would that ruin it?"
"If he doesn't think the same. Which… I don't think he does."
Arc hummed and swept off a boulder before taking a seat. "I doubt he'd be offended, at least."
"You don't know Palom, then." Leonora sat beside him and Arc couldn't help admiring the golden shimmer to her hair and the elegant cut of her robes. How could Palom not like her? "He has a bit of a temper. Not like he used to, but he freaks out when he doesn't know what to do."
"A temper?"
"Not—! He doesn't hurt me or anything! Point is, he and Porom put each other on edge and that's not going to work if we plan to keep our guild together through this mess."
"Then let's fix them. We can bring them together, can't we?"
Leonora offered him a hopeful smile and put a hand on his. "We can. Thanks, Arc."
"I just want to help."
"… So do I."
Baralai traced a line between the pawns Vaan laid out and counted the distance in units. They prepared for a siege on the Cabin like it was guaranteed and Baralai counted on that. Not because Bhunivelze would ever target their humble headquarters, but because it provided purpose to their training and a solid course of action for their ragtag army of travelers.
"Wouldn't that just open the mages for attack?" Vaan asked, still breathing hard from his rounds in the yard.
"It would," Baralai said, "but that's what I count on. If we can trick the enemy into putting themselves forward like that, we can bring more weapons in from behind. Not to mention that we might find more overlap between our mages and fighters with Yuj training under Refia and Setzer's odd mix of skills."
"Oh. Would they think of that?"
Strategy in battle was always Nooj's area and Baralai didn't spend enough time with him in the war room to pick up everything he needed. Thinking back now, he wished he thought to spend less time reading and more time studying tactics.
"Basch always focused on numbers," Penelo said from her position by the door. "Clustering as many people as possible on as little people as possible. Can we assume a large body and create a habit of looking for the mage and taking them out first, etcetera?"
The door opened and Porom stepped through. "Sorry to interrupt, but I talked to the other mages and they said it'll be a while before we can give you anything on the portals. Given my hopes of having that ready are dashed and gone, how could we approach practice over the coming weeks without them?"
"Depends on what we can do without portals." Baralai stood and stretched, though his limbs protested. Bit back a groan at the pain in his back and straightened.
"More of the same?" Vaan asked. "Man, I'm so sick of Firion's drills! He just made Yuj puke! Can't we find something else to do?"
Baralai took in the scattered pawns on the makeshift map, where the mages remained close to the Cabin and the magic indicators scattered about them. "How do we feel about evasion?"
"As a whole?" Penelo asked. "Or as individuals? Because I trust myself better than I trust the party."
"Evasion as a whole shouldn't matter," Porom said. "Right? I mean, I doubt Bhunivelze's just going to come in and lob fireballs around like Palom."
"He does that?" Vaan asked.
Penelo furrowed her brow. "I haven't seen it."
"You're right," Baralai said. "He likely won't attack us as a group. But neither is he likely to come in peace next time we face him. It's best that we prepare for as many scenarios as possible in the hopes of getting one right."
"Wait," Vaan said. "Is this just a wild goose chase?"
"It's always been like that," Penelo said. "That's what we agreed on what we left."
Vaan frowned. "But Baralai had the guy inside him? Don't we have some idea of what he's gonna do?"
Penelo looked at Baralai with what he could only assume to be expectation. "Some," she said. "But he changes all the time, doesn't he?"
"He does," Baralai said at length. "He's shown himself as more of an opportunist than a strategist."
"So predicting his every move is out of the question," Porom said. "Let's make ourselves into an opportunity, then."
"And draw him here?" Vaan asked. "That sounds stupid, but also right. Who do we offer up as a sacrifice?"
"We're not sacrificing anyone," Penelo said. "I assume that means creating a source of power to attract him?"
Porom said, "We've got vessels in our basement now. Wouldn't that catch his attention?"
"Not necessarily," Baralai said. "Especially if they're not linked. Those still connected might provide some lure, but he's not much of one for revisiting failed plans."
"That's just sick," Vaan said.
"It takes one to know one," Baralai said. "It's a bad habit of some of us to not see beyond the potential use of a person."
Penelo rolled her eyes. "No need to be dramatic, Baralai. We all know you see more than that."
"Not that much more," Vaan said. "You know, to be fair."
Baralai shook his head—being amongst these people only dropped his guard. "I doubt Hilda agrees with you."
Vaan said, "Hilda's cool, but she's got this sort of tunnel vision, you? She only sees the goal."
"Like some of us," Penelo said. "You're not one to talk about tunnel vision, Vaan."
"Being one to have said vision, shouldn't that make me more of an expert?"
Porom waved a hand. "Let's get back to the point, please. What do we develop this week? Our melee fighters need work in formation and our magic users don't all know synergy. We've got competing habits in mystic consumption and some recruits are more eager than others for blood."
"You have a good handle on the group, then," Baralai said. "How about you tell me what it is we should focus on?"
Porom flushed and stepped back. "Well, we haven't put the fighters with the casters yet. Maybe we can accustom them to each other?"
"Sounds like a good start to me." Baralai gestured. "Vaan, Penelo, you help Porom put together a plan while I go get my daily rant from someone who hates me."
"Who—?" Vaan started before Penelo grabbed him by the arm and dragged him toward the door. "Hey!"
Porom lingered and cast him an odd look before leaving with the others.
