CHAPTER 49

ACTION

The tent door fluttered open, despite the fact that nobody seemed to be there. It moved as if a ghostly presence had lifted it up. The group within remained perfectly calm.

"Hey Viliv." Olose casually said.
"Hey Viliv." Arcadia looked up from the book she was reading for a moment.

"Hey Viliv." Phabrizoe acknowledged.
"Hey Viliv!" Suse beamed, looking at the blank space.

"Hey Viliv." Nadia decided to put in, mainly to conform to everybody else.

"Dammit." Viliv sighed aloud. "And I thought invisibility would be a neat trick."

"If it was the first time you played it on us." Olose told the invisible space where Viliv clearly was stood. "Or it would have been, if I couldn't smell you."

"Well, it's the safest way past the monsterrrrrs!" Viliv cried as she flickered into view. "Those invisibility potions the Doctor gave me arrrrre rrrrreally cool." She decided. It was the morning of the wedding, and she had been gathering details for the group throughout the week. Her trickery with the invisibility potion had kept her safe, but she always failed to sneak up on the group, which ruined any fun she would be having.

"I see you've got more info for us there." Olose observed.

"How could you tell?" She asked in surprise. She was still holding the papers behind her back. She had wanted to surprise them.

"You were invisible. The papers were not." Olose pointed out. "So hiding them behind your back didn't really work."

"Oh. So that's how you knew I was herrrrre." Viliv said in realisation.

"That or we saw the tent open." Laughed Nadia.

"Either way, I have some information in here you might need." Viliv explained.

"What else could we want? You got us maps, times, programmes, hell, even fake invitations, not that we can use them without some fake cat ears." Olose said with a shrug.

"These are different passes. Catering passes." She smiled.

"What?" Olose asked.

"Well, they've hired caterrrrrers from the mainland apparrrrrently, so that we can have all kinds of forrrrrreign dishes. Using the passes, they'll just think you're the caterers, unless they rrrrrecognise you, I guess."

"Sounds good." Olose decided.

"But you have to get therrrre beforrrre the wedding starts." Viliv told him. "Otherrrrrwise the real caterrrrrerrrrs will show up and expose you."

"That's okay. Once we're in, we should be able to disrupt things well enough." Olose explained.

"Right." Viliv paused. "I need to get back beforrrrre somebody rrrrrealises I'm here." She pulled out an invisibility potion. "Good luck." She drank it and disappeared. The tent door fluttered open again, and Olose could hear her footsteps as she ran off through the jungle. He turned back to crew.

He took a deep breath, looking at the passes.

"Right. Plan of action time." He decided. "Phabrizoe has already exposed an unguarded section of the wall. I shall go with Nadia, and we shall sneak in, over that wall, dropping down inside the town. We're the most obvious, so we'll be taking this course of action. But first, Arcadia and Suse, you take the roles of the chefs. You go in and enter nice and legally. Once you're in the kitchen, I want you to get to work."

"Cooking?" Suse said in joyful surprise.

"No. Not cooking!" Olose laughed. "I need you to start using what items you can and begin to build a chain. The hooks that hold the pots up and such. Should be simple."

"A chain?" Arcadia repeated curiously.

"Yes. A chain." Olose paused. "Phabrizoe? You've done some white magic training, right?"

"I sure have, Captain." Phabrizoe replied.

"You're job is to head to the mithran barracks, and cast a mute spell on it. Get in the same way we will, via the unguarded part of the wall." He explained.

"Mute the barracks? Why?" Phabrizoe asked curiously.

"Because all noise bounces off of the walls in some way, and if it's muted, no noise will get inside because the sound can't pass through it, right?" Olose explained. "You'll then meet up with Arcadia and Suse."

"With the chain?" Arcadia guessed.

"No. Lay the chain under the seats at the wedding. I have plans for that." Olose told her. "Phabrizoe, you then case paralyse on the door hinges, freezing the door."

"What do we do then?" Suse asked.

"You come to the point where me and Nadia are breaking in." Olose explained. "You meet up with us, and we help you up over the wall. You escape, and we drop down. The barracks is suitably out of action for as long as Phabrizoe's spells can last. We disrupt the wedding, trigger Trevia's memory, and escape over the wall while most of the guards are locked in their own barracks. Simple."

"The word simple has never been so badly misused." Phabrizoe commented to himself.

The two mithra guards shuffled on their feet, clearly bored, and missing the wedding. It was one of the greatest events in Kazham, and they were stuck on lousy guard duty. A hume and a mithra approached, and they jumped into a battle stance, readying their weapons.

"What are you doing?" Arcadia asked in shock. "What are they doing Suse?" She inquired, turning to her companion. "We come here, respected chefs, and they lower their weapons at us?" Arcadia was suddenly very glad she had taken those theatre lessons when she was younger. "Well, I never!"

"We're the chefs!" Suse cried shoving the passes under the guard's noses, ruining Arcadia's act slightly.

"I can see that." The mithran guard commented, resting her weapon on her shoulder. "Sorrrrry. Please. Go on in."

"Shouldn't therrrre be morrrre of you?" The second asked, slightly weary of outsiders.

"Yes. Yes. Of course! They are coming." Arcadia snapped. Luckily, her upper class accent made her sound like a fancy chef. "We must prepare the kitchen first. Do these people know nothing about cooking?" She sighed to Suse. Suse giggled.

"Nope!" She laughed.

"Very well. Go on in." The mithran guard sighed. "Really. Outsiders. A stuck up hume and a tailless mithra. Probably made her cut it off on the mainland to fit in morrrrre. I'm never going therrrrre, that I can tell you!" The second guard was only half listening, and rolled her eyes.

Phabrizoe landed in a roll, having jumped off of the wall. Olose gave a silent thumbs up, and he nodded, running as fast as he could. He arrived by the barracks, and went up on his tiptoes, seeing in through the window. The mithra inside were either asleep, or cleaning weapons. One was reading a magazine. None were too busy. He grinned, placing his hand on the wall, and began to chant quietly. For a moment, the entire barracks shone with light, before it faded. He began to sneak around towards the door.

"Hey! You! What arrrre you doing?" Came a cry. Phabrizoe turned, seeing a mithra gripping a spear. He smiled.

"And here I was thinking this was going to be easy." The guard lunged her spear at him, but he jumped, landing on her head. He jumped off, turning in the air, and firing a fireball. He landed as the guard fell forwards, smouldering on the ground. The explosion made quite a lot of noise, but the sound waves were absorbed by the muted barracks before they could travel inside. He shrugged. "Okay, so this is easy." He grabbed the guard and pulled her back, hiding her in a bush. "Now, don't you go waking up and ruining anything." He said to the mithra, who was soundly unconscious. "I suppose I should be on the safe side." He began to cast a special spell he had taught himself. The mithra's body shimmered and he smiled at his handiwork. A timed version of the spell bind. It would activate just when she woke up. He added silence for good measure. She'd be stuck and unable to call for help. Perfect.

The little tarutaru scampered to the door, and placed a hand on the hinges. He cast paralyse quickly, and watched as the hinges turned a dull green. Nobody was getting out of that door short of ramming it down.

Arcadia fiddled desperately with the hooks, weaving them into a long chain.

"I have no idea what Olose wants with this thing." She commented to herself. Pots lay everywhere, the two had been using the hoops that held the pots hanging from the ceiling to make the chain, and reinforced it with a length of rope.

"What's going on in herrrre?" Came a voice as one of the guards came in to check. The second, more suspicious one from the doorway.

"Please! No interruptions! This is a very delicate procedure!" Arcadia snapped, trying to still sound like an angry chef.

"You're cooks, not engineers. What arrrre you doing?" Growled the guard.

"Let me show you!" Beamed Suse, walking up and taking the guard by the hand. She quickly swivelled around, wrapping the guards arm tightly behind herself. She forced it upwards into a lock and the guard dropped her spear. Suse pushed the guard forwards, and she stumbled, hitting against the counter. She turned around just as Suse leapt into the air, kicking the guard to the head and knocking her out.

"Where did you learn that?" Arcadia gasped.

"Olose taught me." Suse said proudly.

"Remind me to have a word with him when we get out of here." Arcadia grumbled. "You had better hide that body before somebody sees it." Suse got to work as Arcadia continued to construct the chain.

Olose looked at the pocket watch Arcadia had provided him with.

"Time's up. Let's move." He told Nadia, and the two began to climb the wall. Outside, the defensive spikes made for good footing. Ironically, it was inside the town that the wall was near impossible to climb. Olose instantly spotted Phabrizoe, who jumped with amazing agility to Olose's hand. Olose pulled him up and lowered him down to the other side. "Good job." He commented.

"No problem Captain." Phabrizoe saluted, and ran. Arcadia and Suse quickly emerged from some bushes, and ran to the edge of the wall. Arcadia rose her hand, and Olose took it. She almost slipped away from him, and struggled to get over the wall, but Olose managed to help her. Suse jumped up, and Nadia hauled her over. Olose and Nadia looked at each other.

"Let's go." They said together, dropping down.

Trevia stood in the long flowing bridal dress she had been provided. Not white like in the rest of Vana'diel, instead her bridal dress was made of natural grasses and flowers from the jungle. Jeren stood opposite her in armour. A marriage was the one time a male mithra would be allowed to dress as a warrior as a vow to fight and protect his bond. Arcadia took his hand as he took hers.

"I do." She spoke, finishing from what the mithran priest had just asked her. Her heart was beating faster than she thought possible. She was full of all kinds of emotions. Love. She loved Jeren. And she was so happy to be marrying him. Horror. She was finally leaving her life behind. Kissing goodbye to all of her memories lost and starting over. A new life, without even knowing what the old one was.

"Then I pronounce you husband and wife." The priest smiled.

"Not if I can help it!" Olose cried from the back of the crowd. He had been hoping to arrive at the 'if anybody here has any objections, please speak now' bit, but had clearly missed it. He didn't even know if it existed in Kazham tradition.
"What the-" Jeren began.

"Olose?" Whispered Trevia as her mind exploded, seeing him. The guards drew their weapons quickly.

"Destrrrroy him!" Ordered their captain, the same leader of the guard that Olose had been exiled by.

"Nadia?" Nadia ran to Olose's side, drawing her sword. Olose drew his. The guards closed in, and Olose engaged them. Nadia attacked the ones coming in to the left while Olose was preoccupied with the ones attacking from the right. Trevia watched in horror. Her mind felt like it was on fire. So many emotions, and then, just for a moment, a spark of familiarity. She dropped down in pain, clutching at her skull.

"TREVIA!" She heard Jeren yell as if it was a dream.

Olose ducked under a swiping spear and struck upwards, snapping it in half. He beat one mithra with the hilt of his sword, knocking her unconscious. He kicked another and she stumbled back. A third ran at him, but he let out a powerful growl, and she stumbled away, frightened.

Nadia's luck was just as good. She was making short work of her attackers, keeping them at bay with fast single handed sword work. The guards turned to retreat, running back to their captain.

"No! Dammit! Where's our reinforcements?" Snapped the Captain.

The mithra in the barracks remained blissfully unaware of the alarm ringing. They continued about their activities within, and none had so much as approached the door.

"You lot! Distract them!" The Captain ordered. "I'll go and get our own reinforcements." She ran off as the guards ran in for a second offensive. Olose and Nadia spun their blades and engaged them.

Jeren stared in horror as Trevia curled up into the foetal position, clawing at her own brain. She felt as if it was on fire.

"So it's not coincidence. The name."

"I'll say. Last time we met you tried to kill me. Here to finish the job?"

"No. Last time I was swung out of a window by my tail. I saw that as a defeat. My employerrrr believes Olose Sampson is dead, and would not employ me were he still alive due to my previous failurrrre, I have no desirrrrre to kill you."

Olose beat back the final guard, watching her collapse.

"No problem." He grinned. Jeren's eyes went wide, drawing his sword from his armour. For the marriage he was allowed to wear one, and he had made sure it was the silver blade.

"You fiend! What've you done to her?" He screamed, running and swinging the blade. Olose blocked it easily, and stepped to the side.

"I'm doing what is right!" He told Jeren. "Her memories have been stolen and I'm letting her live again!"

"You're killing a sweet and innocent girl!" Jeren sobbed, stabbing forwards.

"You did that the day you tried to force her to marry you and caused her to run." Olose replied, parrying. The two blades swung at each other again.

"Well, I made up for my mistakes. And now you're redoing them!" Jeren cried.

"You're murdering a real person! Trevia is real, whether you like who she became or not! By destroying her memories you're destroying her identity!"

"This is goodbye then. Good luck, and with any luck we'll see each other again soon."

"Goodbye, Captain. I feel I was betterrrr off knowing you. Than I was beforrrre."

Olose pulled Jeren's blade down with his own, noticing the dangerous silver material it was made of.

"You're no better!" Jeren spat. "You're destroying who she's become!"

"I'm giving her the right to make a choice!" Olose replied. The two spun their blades in and they crashed against each other. Olose punched forwards, upper cutting Jeren. He crashed down, but managed to get back up quickly as Olose advanced.

"Trevs?"

"Yes?"

"Urm, I meant Trevia. Pesky 'ia' bit, always evades me. Urm, we're approaching Kazham. I don't expect you to come up on deck, not yet, but I thought I'd tell you."

"Thanks."

Jeren swung in his blade and Olose ducked underneath it. He brought it back, and slashed Olose in the leg. Olose screamed as smoke rose and the silver burned his flesh. He dropped to one knee.

"So much for the mighty Captain!" He laughed.

"JEREN! NO!" Came a desperate scream.
"Trevia?" Jeren asked in shock. Trevia ran to his side.

"Don't hurrrt him." She growled. It was a warning, not a request.

"What?" Jeren asked. Trevia suddenly leapt into the air, round housing Jeren's hand and knocking the blade flying.

"Captain. I need to borrow this." She grabbed Olose's sword, and cut off her dress, just leaving her top and bare legs. "That's betterrrrr."

"Glad to have you back Trevia." Olose smiled.

"Glad to be back Captain." Trevia grinned. "Jerrrren." She turned to him. He looked up with teary eyes. Trevia's heart sank. Her memories were back, but she remembered how Jeren had been to her. What he had done. Yet how he had comforted her. "Come with us." She decided.

"What?" He gasped.

"Now or neverrrr. Decide." She stated simply.

"Heads up!" Nadia pointed to the advancing guards. Olose noticed that the door to the barracks in the distance had been broken, no doubt by the Captain. He grinned.

"Planned for." He answered, shaking off the pain in his leg. He dove under the chairs and pulled out the long chain. He threw it to Nadia. "You ready?"

"Ready." Nadia smiled.

"CHARGE!" Olose cried.

The two ran, flinging the chain out in a line. They ran into the guards, knocking the front row over. Nadia threw her end of the chain to Olose, and Olose pulled it tight, locking the guards in a group. He quickly wrapped it around and tied it tight, leaving the guards tied to each other in a helpless group. They grunted and cursed uselessly. Olose laughed.

"Nice job Captain." Nadia smiled.

"I love it when a plan comes together." Olose grinned, before he started hitting the guards. "We still need the chain to get over the wall." He explained. "Knock 'em unconscious, and then we can escape."

"I'll come." Jeren decided. "Trevia. I'm-" Trevia turned to him.
"Save it. You have one chance. You don't like who I am, I know. You used that potion to change me. But I realised how much you carrrrre. You have one chance. If you trrrruly love me, then you'll love who I am, and come with me. If not, stay herrrre and find yourrrrself another brrrride."

"I'm coming! I'm coming!" Jeren protested. Trevia smiled.

"I'm glad to hear it." She said almost too softly to hear. Olose unravelled the chain as the guards fell down unconscious.

"There. Done." He smiled. "Now we need to get to the wall and use the chain to climb over it. Hopefully Phabz has prepped the rowing boat for our escape." There was a sudden explosion and everybody fell silent, turning towards the mighty Ifrit's Cauldron in the distance. They paused. Plumes of black smoke rose from it.

"Sweet Altana." Whispered Nadia.
"That's the Cauldron!" Jeren cried. "It's erupted!"

"That lava flow will destroy all of Kazham!" Nadia realised.

"There's no time to lose! Trevs, your with me! Nadia, take Jeren back to the shore and get me Phabrizoe. We're going to need him!" Olose looked up at the burning volcano. One thought ran through his mind. This can't be coincidence. "We've got a town to save." He said with determination.

Author's Note: Yep, there goes hope of a chapter without a note. Olose says a line from a famous TV show in this one, I'm sure somebody will spot it. This is a bit longer than usual by accident, I kind of couldn't keep it short and have all the events I wanted occur. I decided to skip to the climax of this story arc because I knew I couldn't drag it out and let it sag. Unfortunately that means Trevia and Jeren get thrust to the backburner despite the fact I said I'd try to do more of their interaction. I can't help but worry that this chapter will make the story arc seem rushed, but it's the best I could do. I quite like the chapter on its own though, I think it's fun to see the crew working together and pulling this plan off.

Oh, and I regretted the one word naming system for chapters this time. I really wanted to call it 'Mission: Impossible'. I was listening to that theme while writing it. It suited quite well! At least, it was funny.

I also remembered I mentioned getting my exam results, but never said what they were when I did get 'em. Doubt anybody cares, but just to say they were good enough for me to go to University. Which means I'm now very scared about going away to live on my own. Especially to live on my own with possibly no time to write!

And my computer is still being dodgy, but seems to be fixed temporarily, but I still can't guarantee I'll find time to write chapters if it keeps getting opened to be repaired. I'll do my best though! I'm really sorry if I do miss an update though!