Author's Note: For once I don't have much to say. End is coming. This is pretty much the final build up. TheFrogKiller gave me lots of help with this (Nadia's current character development stemmed from his ideas) and helped me get used to writing again. Still finding it quite hard, but we're so close to the end now it doesn't really matter. I should be able to do the next chapters well enough.

Oh, for those interested, you weren't supposed to know who the villain was until the finale, but I figured most people would probably guess, so I revealed it early. I actually like it better this way, I think. Still, if you still guessed before the end of the last chapter, I guess that just shows what a predictable writer I am.

CHAPTER 55

THE DEATH OF A FRIENDSHIP

Nadia went for her sword instantly, swinging it an arc at Abaj. Abaj simply smiled, swinging to the side and grabbed her wrist. He pulled down hard, his lycanthropic strength easily breaking her arm. Nadia screamed, dropping her sword and fell to her knees. Abaj kicked her over while she winced in pain.

"Fool." He stated. "Settle down. I am being simply honest with you."

"You're an evil fiend." She growled.

"Lies, my dear. Simple lies." He explained. "Who told you I was evil? Olose. He attacked me, he took my life from me."

"You murdered Norg." Nadia growled, trying to rise to her feet, but overwhelmed with pain.
"That was Olose. I've told you this." Abaj began to circle her. "A potion will heal that arm wound of yours."

"You don't want to heal me." Nadia warned. "You kidnapped Arcadia!"

"An underhanded action, I admit, but one that was necessary. I am a criminal. I admit my actions can be corrupt, but I don't murder innocents!" Abaj cried.

"Niether does Olose." Nadia panted.

"Really? Do you know what happened to his home town?" Abaj laughed. "Olose was not bitten by a werewolf. He was born one. A secret he kept from his adopted parents until it was too late. He destroyed the entire town. He was the beast of Lycan Forest."

"He couldn't help it." Nadia argued.

"Oh please. Is that what he told you?" Abaj laughed. "He couldn't sustain his lust for murder in his new life with Arcadia. That drove him to kill Norg when he found out about his affair."
"Bah! You want me to turn against Olose, and use my loyalties to Norg to do it." Nadia grumbled. "Well, insulting Norg isn't going to make it happen!"

"Everybody has a dark side, my dear." Abaj cackled. "And Norg only revealed his to his prisoners. The ones that could never speak."

"I'm not going to accept these lies from my mortal enemy. Especially not a mortal enemy who should be dead!" Nadia spat. "How did you survive?" Abaj let out a long evil laugh that echoed throughout San d'Oria.

"Not easily." He began to walk around her. "That explosion blew the silver spear from my body, saving my life. But the roof of the cave collapsed, mangling my body and crushing it underneath. My regeneration was triggered, hence the new face, but it failed. Under that much weight and rocks my body could not regenerate. Locked in a spasm of death, my body crushed and mangled but not being allowed to die, I sat there. I sat there as the years ticked by, trapped in the pain of eternal death." He took a step towards Nadia, his shadow casting over her. "Sampson left me in that state. Suffering for years. He didn't even check, he knew my power, but didn't check. No. He left me to suffer. And so he must suffer. Do you not see? That is why I do not just strike him down. I want to see him suffer!"

"So you lie to his friends?" Nadia asked, managing to get to her feet.

"I do not lie." Abaj growled. "I tell nothing but the truth." He turned away, tossing a potion to Nadia's feet. "Talk to Arcadia. Do what you will. Find the evidence." He smirked. "A battle is coming. It's time to choose sides. You have a chance to right your wrongs and side against evil. Don't throw it away."

"Oh, I'll be fighting evil." Nadia assured. "Just don't be certain that means I'll be fighting who you think that means."

"And don't you, my dear, ever be certain of anything." Abaj laughed and wondered down the street, leaving Nadia struggling painfully to drink the potion with her one broken arm.

A week passed without Nadia taking any action. She had badly wanted to talk to Olose about her discovery, but something at the back of her mind told her that perhaps Abaj had somehow told the truth. She wasn't going to trust him, but she was going to be cautious. She had stayed quiet for the week for a mixture of reasons. Olose and Arcadia were so busy, only having just moved back to their home, and so overjoyed with their child (now named 'Talia' in honour of somebody Olose had said he used to know) that Nadia hadn't had the heart to bring up anything to disrupt their joy. Her arm was still stiff from the injury anyway, she wouldn't of stood a chance had it degraded to combat. So much for potions curing it. She had to give them credit, at least it had put the bone back together, and she hadn't had to bring it up with Olose.

But she couldn't keep silent forever. She knew what she had to do. She'd talk to Arcadia.

Nadia found Arcadia feeding Talia with a bottle of milk. She smiled as Arcadia watched her.

"Aww, are you full?" Arcadia asked her baby gently. "Yes you are." She laughed. "Aww, look, you split some." She pulled the bottle away and mopped up the milk around the baby's mouth. She suddenly spotted Nadia standing in the doorway. "Ah! Nadia. Ahem. I was just-"

"It's alright." Nadia laughed. "She is your child." Arcadia blushed.
"Yes, well, the maid said she would feed her, but I wanted to do it. Just to be able to see her. She's so cute, isn't she?"

"'She's so cute, isn't she?' Since when did you speak like that?" Nadia joked.

"Well, I thought it was about time I allowed myself to speak in a more relaxed way. I don't want Talia growing up to feel out of place among heroes like yourselves."

"Heroes. I like that." Nadia smiled.

"Well, you are." Arcadia stated. "You and Olose especially, you'll be remembered as two legendary heroes. Leaders of the greatest crew in the land." She paused. "I've already started telling the baby stories of your exploits." Nadia laughed, she didn't talk to Arcadia enough, but it was clear that Arcadia respected her a great deal.

"Me and Olose? Legendary heroes, huh? Well, if history insists." She chuckled, before deciding to move on to more serious matters. "Arcadia, I was wondering, do you keep a record of all the letters you receive?"

"Yes." Arcadia answered curiously. "We keep them all one of the bookcases in the study. It often comes in handy. Why do you ask?"

"I was looking for letters from around when Norg was assassinated." Nadia explained. "Just their last contact really." Nadia paused. "I've been kind of missing him lately." She finally said to avoid suspicion.

"You want something to remember him by?" Arcadia smiled.

"Yeah. Sort of." Nadia pretended. "Where was Olose when he died? Did he see it happen?"
"If we were in San d'Oria, we would have visited you. So of course we were not there." Arcadia said warmly. Nadia smirked. "Besides, it was a full moon. Olose was out of the city to keep everybody safe during his transformation." Nadia paused. Then it is possible. But Abaj had said that Olose travelled there to stop an assassination attempt. Why would he lie when a perfectly good explanation was already there? Perhaps this was final proof that Abaj was lying.

"Thanks." Nadia said kindly, turning to leave. "You've been more hope than you know."

"I'm always here to help you Nadia." Arcadia told her. Talia started to cry and Arcadia picked her up. "Well, almost always here." She decided, trying to comfort the baby back to sleep. Nadia smiled happily.

She couldn't put her mind at rest however. She went to the study, and found where Arcadia was talking about. They had huge stacks of records indeed, all dated. She guessed it was just some kind of thing the upper class liked to do. Remind themselves of why they were so rich or something. She laughed. She still liked to mock Arcadia even if she was a close friend. Nadia flicked through the letters, and found one from the exact date she was looking for. More specifically, she found a sealed box, locked by a padlock. So that nobody can read it easily, she thought. She broke the padlock fairly easily with a dagger she had on her belt, hoping that nobody would notice for a while that it had been broken.

She lifted out a letter within, and began to read.

Dear Arcadia,

I've arrived in San d'Oria. I know you think my timing is off, but rest assured, I won't do anything stupid. I'll stay out of town in the evenings. I know you'd prefer it if I didn't spend any time in towns at all during the full moon cycle, but this is necessary. If this is what I think it is, then your life could be in danger, and I cannot allow that to happen.

I'm close to finding out who's behind the plot. They're meeting tonight, I know that, and I'll be there. Yes, it's cutting it fine with the transformation, but I'll have to do it. I have to catch them, Arcadia, I simply have to.

Wish me luck.


Olose.

Nadia placed the letter back in the box in awe. Why lock it away? It was proof, that's why. Proof that Olose killed Norg. He must have lost control. It was still an accident. But he was still dead because of him. He had gotten cocky. Everything Abaj had said was true! No, wait. He had mentioned an affair. His theory on things? The truth. Maybe it wasn't an accident. She shut the box and placed it back, quickly marching out of the study.

She sat down on her bed, pulling at her hair. There were other possibilities. Maybe the letter was a fake. Perhaps Abaj had placed it there. He had to be able to, since he knew the letter was there in the first place. Sure, she had evidence, but none of it was substantial. It could easily have been faked, and this was all a manipulation. She wasn't about to trust Abaj. No way. She needed rest. She needed sleep on it. She could then talk to Olose in the morning. She'd tell him everything. Then, if Abaj was telling the truth, he'd have to respond violently, and if he was lying, Olose would respond truthfully. One way or another she'd know the truth in the morning.

Nadia didn't sleep peacefully that night. She had horrific nightmares. She felt something ripping through her one good arm, tearing a hole in it and pumping something within it. She felt something swirling around her body as she squirmed in her bed before waking up, startled, sitting up in shock. She was panting heavily. She moved her arm, making sure it was still there. It was. She took some deep breaths.

She utterly missed the small pin prick now just below her shoulder.

The room seemed unusually cool. A slight wind was blowing, despite the window being shut. She shivered, and wrapped her blanket around herself. She was scared. Not much scared her, but this did. She felt her very blood temperature drop. Something shimmered before her.

"Do you know who I am?" Came a voice.

"Norg?" Nadia ventured.

"Yes." The voice laughed. "Long time no see Nadia. You enjoyed the years with my murderer?"

"Olose?" She whimpered.

"Ai ya Nadia! Of course Olose!" Norg's spirit told her. "You got so close. But I sense that if you speak with Olose, you will fail to see the truth."

"What? Why?" Nadia asked.

"Do you really think Olose doesn't have a back up plan? Or an excuse?" Norg asked. "The only way to do it is to attack."

"Norg. I don't believe in ghosts-" Nadia began.

"Stubborn as you ever were." Norg's spirit seemed to almost smirk. "Don't make me pull rank."

"I was kicked out of the army. Remember?" Nadia told him.

"How could I forget?" Norg replied. "I remember the party we held at the barracks."

"Nice to see you still have your old sense of humour, even in death." Nadia smiled weakly.

"My spirit is restless because he walks the land." Norg explained. "My murderer. Bring him to justice and I can sleep." The spirit faded away, and Nadia collapsed in disbelief.

"And you can sleep too, my dear." Abaj laughed evilly, before turning to the tarutaru mage at his feet. "You did well. That projection spell worked perfectly." He grinned a sinister smile. "That will be her final piece of evidence. Now I need to just sit back and watch the events unfold."

"You will finally have your revenge against Olose." The tarutaru laughed. "Congratulations."

"Yes. There's one lose end." Abaj hurled a dagger into the tarutaru's head, causing him to collapse dead. "You. You were a good mage, and enabled me to achieve my goals. But no one must know my plan. That hallucination drug we gave Nadia and that spell have done their duty. Her and Olose shall fight. Olose shall most likely be the victor, but that doesn't matter." He paused, relishing the silence. He enjoyed vocalising his plans. He somewhere enjoyed talking to the dead tarutaru, as if he would still appreciate the cunning of his plot. "No. It is not Olose I am interested in." He looked down at the corpse and decided to ask it a question. "If magical powers become so great when repressed for so long with Astra, what would happen if were to occur to a werewolf?" He laughed. "The lycanthropic blood, when it kicks in at puberty, would be more powerful than ever. And Olose's slut has just given birth to the third werewolf." He cackled. "And soon, she will be the most powerful creature in Vana'diel, entirely loyal-" He paused to appreciate the climax of his explanation. "-to me."