CHAPTER EIGHT: SPLIT DECISIONS

Find out how to solve the amnesia…

Find another way into Dynamis…

Find the other champions…

Find out what Jeuno is up to…

Alain stood on the upper deck, resting his hands on the edge of the Highwind, looking down at the sea passing by below. It was early morning and he had not slept at all, how could he with so much to think about? They were still being indecisive, the only decision they had made was to take the airship further out over the sea away from the plateau to make sure they were not seen by anyone.

Getting back to the airship was uneventful after escaping from San d'Oria. They avoided the Ronfaure outpost and any torch light they saw. Catherine's magic was used to keep them hidden through the boarder as well. In La Theine they stayed clear of the crag, which Rahal had warned them was under guard, and made their way to where the airship had landed. They could not afford to stay on the land to make sure no one remotely nearby would see them so took off and headed out west straight away. Right now Samual was steering and would touch them down soon straight onto the water.

He had been trying to decide which task that they had the burden of seemed the most important. Gerdinus and Hanaa Mocorho's lives could be in danger if the Armthrwn Society found them before they did, as they could be completely oblivious to the danger posed. If Francmage was to be believed, leaving the society to destroy the other Dynamis areas inhabited by the spirits of the long dead northern expedition members could have catastrophic results as well. That lead on to finding out just exactly what the society was up to and how, if at all, their amnesia was related to it.

"Too many paths to walk and not enough people to walk them," he uttered out loud.

He walked to the centre of the upper deck and drew his Great Sword from his back, holding it slightly pointed before him and gripping its hilt tightly in both hands. He swung left and twisted before bringing the blade down and stopping inches before the deck. The swinging still seemed sluggish to him than during the war when he had learned to use the weapon, he had neglected his training.

As he turned to swing again he knew someone was behind him. He stopped the blade in time and frowned as he saw the tip of his sword inches away from the side of Rost's head.

"What do you want?" he asked the Elvaan.

"Fresh air," was the reply.

The Samurai ducked under the blade and walked to the opposite side than he had been resting on and looked out over the edge. Alain huffed to himself and carried on swinging the sword, changing direction every second swing to try and test the limits of how fast he could move while using such a large blade.

"Why do you no longer use a scythe?" asked Rost without turning to face him.

During the war he had favoured the much more specialized weapon. It was easier to swing fiercely due to its shape and was sharper to a point of being able to tear through plate mail with a slashing motion rather than a thrusting one with a sword. He had used a scythe during the war; it was what he had trained himself in even before deciding to pursue the path of a Dark Knight. The only reason he ever bothered to learn how to use the Great Sword as well was because Zeid seemed to favour it. He considered himself able to use both weapons well, but the scythe was defiantly less sluggish to strike with due to its smaller weight. He tried to remember what had happened to the scythe he favoured during those times, and his answer was a headache.

"I guess I lost it during the final battle, I don't really remember."

"You would do better with it. Your size does not favour a heavy weapon like a Great Sword. Still, at least there is a conventional reason you no longer use a scythe, I had simply assumed you wished to mimic Dark Knight Zeid and discarded it."

"As arrogant as ever, aren't you?" Alain bitterly retorted.

The Elvaan turned and they starred at each other from opposite ends of the airship. A fake smile, one hiding his hatred, appeared on Rost's lips before he silently disappeared back below deck.

"…Bastard," Alain said to no one as he carried on practising.

He found himself able to sleep for a short while in the early hours of the morning. The sun was rising as he eventually found his body was forcing him into unconsciousness even if his mind could not stop thinking about everything bearing down on them all.

It was an uncomfortable sleep plagued with images of the final battle. Things were different this time; he saw things he had not seen before. He saw the huge black and purple figure of a creature and dark shadows surrounding it. He saw two long black blades and a jagged scythe that was not his. He heard a woman's voice calling to them to run.

After two hours sleep, Alain was woken at eight to go with the rest of them to talk about what to do next in the meeting room. The airship was resting on the murky waters by then. His Moogle and Pop were in the meeting room along with the others.

"Master, master!" his Moogle cooed. "We've had a delivery through the super fast Mega-Moogle-Manangement-Mail-System (M.M.M.M.S), kupo!"

He was presented with a letter. While he undid the little red ribbon wrapped around the envelope he asked if there was word on where Gerdinus and Hanaa Mocorho were. His Moogle flopped its head from side-to-side, causing its dangling ball to bounce all over the place, signifying a no. The letter seemed hastily written by whoever penned it. His eyes scanned over it quickly while the others waited.

"…It's from Cid. At least, I think it is…there's no signature or name."

"What does it say?" Catherine asked.

He read the letter out to them, "I know I said not to come back, but it turns out that you need to. G. Things are pretty bad here, but that's not the point. U. Your mentor got in touch with someone and he has a message to pass on only to one of you people. M. You don't need to meet with me, just find a way to see him. B. I hope you're taking care of my little girl, I know she can be trouble, but treat her nice and she'll do as she's told! A. I hear those club members are going all over the place, annoying I know, but I also heard they hadn't gone across the sea yet. H. Anyway, speak to you later. Take care of my little girl."

They exchanged glances. The words that Alain had emphasized were underlined a few times. It did not sound like how Cid would write something, but the hints dropped about the Highwind and Armathrwn Society seemed to reveal the writers identity. As far as the mentor comments went, Alain assumed he was talking about Zeid. If that was correct, then by 'people' he probably meant champions.

Nokum-Akkum hopped up onto the table so he was at shoulder height with Alain and peered over his wrist to read parts of the letter out, "G-U-M-B-A-H…whataru is a gumbah?"

Alain realized what it meant instantly, "Not what; who. Gumbah is a person. It's a young Galka that knew Zeid. Any time my mentor wanted to meet with me he would send word in a letter written in some ancient Galkan symbols that Gumbah would translate for me. If this letter is really written by Cid, it sounds like he's telling us to somehow get back into Bastok to get a letter from Zeid that's in Gumbah's possession right now."

His Tarutaru friend had a hand under his chin, clearly thinking hard. Almost surprised at his own brilliant deduction, Nokum-Akkum yelped with glee before he snatched the letter from Alain and held it up, declaring it to be an obvious fake. They asked his reasons for thinking that.

"Why notaru send the translated letter instead? Sounds like a giant-wiant trap to get us back inside Bastok! You're all lucky I am such a smarty-warty pantarus!"

They were all silent, save for Rost clearing his throat, much to the Tarutaru's annoyance. He wanted them to be in awe of his amazing problem solving abilities, but they were not all as sceptical as he was.

"It would seem that Chief Engineer Cid is trying to use discretion in this matter," Catherine eventually said in reply. "Sending the translated letter would risk it being intercepted by the society, especially if they are within Bastok already. He wrote it with obvious enough hints to us about what is going on, but a random person reading it might not work it out so fast. He is telling us what he thinks we need to do next."

Alain brought up the point in the letter talking about the society not yet going across the sea. That seemed more than a hint about something else he expected them to do. To him, it seemed to mean that either they had not made their way to the Elshimo isles or the Kuzotz region.

"There is nothing in Elshimo of relevance to our situation that I can think of," Catherine stated, "but the Kuzotz region on the other hand… southeast of the teleportation crystal is an opening into Korroloka Tunnel, which subsequently leads straight to…"

"Zeruhn Mines, right inside Bastok's walls…" Alain said, finishing her sentence. "Cid is telling us to get back into Bastok via that route. There would be guards in the mines, but no where near as many as at the gates."

Pop asked them all if that was where they wanted to ship to start heading towards. There seemed little else they could do without more information about their missing friends. Luckily, the Kuzotz region was not that far south of where they were currently staying. Pop left the room and could be heard shouting instructions at his son from the control room. A dull hum made the walls and floor vibrate slightly as the crystal engine became active and the slowly took off back into the morning sky.

Before the conversation changed to how they could safely infiltrate Bastok through the mines and into the mining district Alain had already made up his mind. An Elvaan or Tarutaru would stick out like a sore thumb in the Galkan district of the republic, sure there were tourists and travelling adventurers, but they would pull unnecessary attention to themselves. Catherine technically could enter the city without much notice, but he did not want her to take such a risk. He was the best choice to go in alone, not least because he already knew Gumbah.

"It's too dangerous to have you go back into Bastok alone!" Catherine protested after he explained his plan. "What if you are discovered by a society member? Or a guard recognises you and has no choice but to report it?"

"He would draw the least attention to himself out of us and already knows the Galkan holding the message. Let him go," Rost said from the corner of the meeting room.

With that it was decided. He left the meeting room and was sure he heard Rost do the same shortly after.

Catherine sighed heavily, much to Nokum-Akkum's dismay. He leapt back up on top of the long wooden table and ran over to her with arms outstretched. She accepted his over zealous embrace.

"Cathy… Don't be sad, I have a plan to keep an eye on Alain!"

"You do?"

"Of course I do! We Tarutaru are the smartestaru of all races! All we need to do is find a sack, one big enough for me! Then I hide in itaru and Alain smuggles me into Bastok! If anything happens I'll be there to fight those strange cloaked guys off!"

She patted his head and ruffled his blond hair, bringing out his large grin which spread his tanned cheeks out wide. She thanked him for trying to make her feel better about Alain sneaking back into Bastok, but suggested the plan might not work as he thought it would.

"I'll go look around in the supply room!" her short friend declared, running along the table and jumping off the opposite side. "I'll come get you when I find a large enough sack!"

The Tarutaru's simple look on life always made her smile; even if she was worried about other things Nokum-Akkum would find a way to make it better. But she could not help staying worried about Alain. He had always been quite apathetic, especially after the war, and she often worried that he disregarded his own safety far too willingly.

She could only guess why he had gotten worse, but she knew that at some point in his past Alain had been shunned and gave up his career as a Dark Knight forsaking the rest of his training and never completing it. It was a touchy subject that she did not bring up with him. Even Nokum-Akkum, who had been Alain's best friend for years, did not know exactly what happened.

It was not the time to try asking Alain anything like that and she knew it, so she decided instead to try and Rost. The same animosity that was present during the war had reappeared for no good reason (at least that she could see), so it had to be stopped before it led to another brawl.

A gentle knock on Rost's room door returned nothing; he was not inside. She took her search to the top deck, but it was also empty. While walking around up there she could hear Nokum-Akkum throwing things around inside the upper storage room and complaining to himself about this and that. Next, she checked the control room and greeted Samuel politely as she always did. Pop was also in the room, but left after taking a sketch (of what looked like the crystal engine) down from the board above the control station on the left.

"Do you happen to know where Rost is?" she asked the young Hume.

He thought for a moment, "Now that you mention it, I haven't seen him for a while. He seems to vanish every so often. If he isn't in his room then…you could try the lower deck? The Highwind is big, but it's not that big."

Thanking him, she left and found the stairs down to the lower deck that ran along the very bottom of the airship under the floor with their rooms and the meeting room. This deck was home to the engine room where the crystal engine powered all aspects of the Highwind and nothing much else. The humming coming from the crystal was much louder on this deck and was accompanied by the sounds of pistons moving and gears grinding. She doubted that Rost would be in the engine room with Pop if he was trying to be alone, so she wandered towards the bow of the ship.

There was not much to be found in that section of the lower deck, it seemed unused beyond storing a few crates. Looking in a few she found it held their food supplies, which seemed strangely depleted. Either someone on board was stuffing their face or they had taken off from Bastok without a full stock.

Turning to leave, she jumped and held her chest with fright when she saw a large shadow in the corner next to the door she had entered from. Rost smirked and asked what she wanted.

"How rude!" she gasped. "It's very impolite not to announce yourself. I thought noble Elvaan knew better than that! Why are you down here anyway?"

"I like peace and quiet," he replied. "The noises from the engine are nothing compared to the over enthusiastic gibberish that constantly spews from that Tarutaru's mouth. If you know of an off button for him, please enlighten me."

Sitting upon one of the food crates, she shook her head at him. Rost had always been the quiet sort, choosing to keep most of his thoughts to himself rather than say them out loud. She was sure he probably spent most of his time complaining inwardly about every little thing and that made her smile. Most Elvaan were quite outspoken, but Rost seemed very selective with who he ever spoke out at.

He huffed from the shadows, "Why are you smiling?"

"You haven't changed since the wars either… have you? I suppose not, it really was not that long ago."

"Did you want something?"

"I wanted to ask you to please try and be nicer to Alain. I know you two don't like one another, but we must be able to get along if we want to live through this. We can't have you fighting with one another again."

The Elvaan Samurai huffed again and crossed his arms over his chest. Their dislike of one another was a touchy subject, it seemed.

"While Alain may not have matured since then, I have. Do not worry about it; we will not come to blows. We will cooperate well enough with one another when the situation requires it. People can dislike each other and still be comrades in arms, you know?"

"I guess I just wish that you two could become friends. That's all," she replied solemnly.

His reply was swift, "That won't happen."

The journey to the Kuzotz region only took a few hours. It was midday by the time the sea passing by below the Highwind was replaced with the golden sands and gravel rocks of the Altepa Desert.

They would land in the south of the eastern desert, where some flat stone ruins would act as a safe landing pad. It was too dangerous to attempt a landing on the desert, which was all too prone to sinking or drifting in sandstorms. If the winds picked up enough the desert would almost become a sea with the sand cascading down mounds like waves of water.

As Alain looked on at the bright land passing below he was sure he saw something travelling across the desert at a blinding speed. A huge dust cloud fired up into the air behind it from the sheer momentum of its feet. It shot by below the airship and had already reached the horizon by the time he ran to the opposite side to continue watching it. He was not sure what it had been, but was sure it looked like it had green skin.

Another twenty minutes past before they flew over the ruins that would hopefully hold a safe place to land. The grumbling white marble buildings now heavily coated in loose sand were the remnants of the Galkan cities from centuries ago, destroyed during a mass exodus to escape Beastmen hordes.

He travelled down below deck to the control room where everyone else was. Pop was right up against the front screen peering down and pointing at various parts of the ruin for his son to circle so he could guess how safe it was to land.

"Are you ready to go, Alain?" Catherine asked him after noticing his presence.

He nodded. He had changed out of his armour and donned simple white and blue Hume tunic with matching boots and pants, which were very common in Bastok. He still wore his Great Sword on his back; it was not uncommon for new adventurers to carry a weapon while wearing such simple wears so he hoped to blend in as one. The only other item he had with him was the pearl to communicate with the airship

The Highwind shook somewhat uneasily before a deep sounding thud rung out as the landing struts descended and cushioned their fall on a reasonably flat stone slab. A cloud of dust surrounded them as the loose sand around was upturned and the white marble that had been hidden beneath appeared.

"Propellers two and three are off and one and four are at half speed now. It seems safe enough to power them down," Samuel reported to his father (who was checking some gauges against the wall).

The hum of the crystal engine subsided as the last giant propellers above deck spun to an eventual halt. There was a moment of uneasiness as everyone was silent, listening for any sign of the airship slipping from the rock.

"Two out of two ground landings a success!" Samuel cried out, startling everyone.

Pop slapped his son around the back of the head and told him not to be so loud.

"I guess I'll be going then," he told the others.

"WAITARU!" Nokum-Akkum shouted at the top of his lungs and shot out of the room.

His short friend returned only a few seconds later holding a large sack in his small hands. He presented it to him with a big grin and announced himself to be a genius. Alain looked in the sack and found it to be empty. He shrugged and asked what it was for.

"Me," the Tarutaru replied. "You can hide me in there and thataru way I can protectaru you in Bastok. I made a promise-womise to Cathy!"

"…Uh," was all he managed to say in reply.

Everyone else was silent and making a point of looking away pretending to be busy. He caught Catherine's gaze and she smiled hopelessly at him and mimicked his shrug. He turned the sack upside down so the opening was at the bottom and let it drop over Nokum-Akkum.

"I'll call you as soon as I'm done, see you!" he said and ran out of the room.

Muffed angry calls came from the sack as Nokum-Akkum tried to pull it off, but could not. He tried running after Alain, but tripped on the material at the bottom and fell flat on his face. He let out an annoyed noise before getting back up and walking straight into the banister of the staircase out of the control room. Catherine walked over to him, helped him up, and pulled the sack of his head.

The Tarutaru jumped up and down angrily, "I'll getaru you for that, Alain!"

But by then he had already gone.

The entrance to Korroloka Tunnel was not guarded from that end and was free to anyone to use. The tunnel was a damp place with a stale odder constantly present in the air. It was home to a variety of creatures including crabs, worms, fish, slimes, spiders. Most of the creatures were pretty docile, but the spiders could from time-to-time attack without provocation.

The pale grey walls were wet and the soggy ground seemed to move underfoot. A long somewhat linear path ran down the centre of the tunnel with several breaks off into side caverns and natural rock bridges hung over head.

In order to avoid what appeared to be a party of adventurers battling with the creatures for training, he took one side path which circled around past a huge white clam and up over the main route. He passed across one rock bridge to get to the opposite side undetected and hugged the wall closely not to pull attention to himself.

Far from the exit out into the desert the tunnel was getting quite dark, but his eyes were quickly adjusting. Along the dank streams that ran through the tunnel were strange crystals that emitted enough light to keep the cave from plunging into complete darkness as well.

He came across a second group of adventurers that he could not avoid passing by. He bid them hello and carried on past, but held his breath as one called for him to stop. Surely they had not recognised him somehow? He turned and walked slowly back to them.

"Greetings," the group leader (a tall female Hume) said. "You look like you are in training as well, maybe to join the republic's army, or just as a freelance adventurer? Either way, if you like, you can train with us. We've been asked to clear out the crabs and sea monks in the southern tunnel so fishers aren't harassed. There some money in it and it's a perfect chance to put basic training to the test! We could get our Adventurer's Certificate for this! What do you say?"

He thought up an excuse quite quickly, drawing from his own experiences as a trainee fresh out of the basic training available to every registered citizen of the Republic of Bastok. He surprised himself by remembering the name of the client.

"Sorry, but I've already been given a task. Horatius the jeweller asked me to retrieve a pearl from one of the giant clams from the upper tunnels. I'm on a time limit to get it back to him."

The woman smiled, "Good to hear that you're doing your part, no problem. If you ever want to join our training missions you'll find us in here doing this or that. See you around!"

With that, he smiled back politely and carried on through the tunnel towards his destination; the gate into Zeruhn Mines.

The next section of tunnel was wider than most with a serious of dully glowing rounded rocks littering the path. He slowed as he approached them, something was not right. He saw the thin legs of a creature sticking out from behind one of the rocks and drew his sword in case of danger.

As he past by the rock, he twisted and slashed sideways straight through the body of a huge spider. Its legs collapsed as it fell in on itself. He turned quickly as he felt something surround his leg. A white web had ensnared it. Pointing one hand forward into the darkness, he followed the webbing and targeted another spider.

"Fire," he said.

His hand glowed with amber light as flames licked around his palm forming into a ball of fire that shot forward and engulfed the creature. It screeched and flailed around as its skin burnt, tugging on the webbing still attached to his foot and causing him to be toppled. Sitting up and cutting the webbing loose, he turned as he heard a scuttling sound from behind.

The third spider was to close to swing at fully, so he held the blade of his sword vertically and bashed it into spider's front, knocking it back a considerable distance and dazing it. He shot forwards and quickly followed up with a half moon shaped slash that separated its upper body from its lower. It fell into a pile as green blood oozed from its body. Alain adjusted his weapon on his back and carried on unhindered, silently glad he had been the one to fall prey to the creatures ambush and not one of the new adventurers.

Before long he found his way into Zerhun Mines. The walls changed from the pale damp grey to a dark dusty brown. Over a small bridge he found the gate into the protect area of the mines directly connected to Bastok. The gates were closed and on the far side were two junior class Iron Musketeers. He thanked Altana for his good luck. The two musketeers were of low rank and controlled by the Department of Industry, they would not recognise him from around the president's office or have seen him ever talking with any of the Mythril Musketeers.

"Hail," one said to Alain. "I don't recall seeing you pass through into the tunnels, but it looks like you saw some action. Good going, recruit!"

Alain peered down at his clothes that had been stained by green spider blood and bits of white webbing. He nodded and said he wanted to get home and get cleaned up. The musketeer laughed and signalled to his comrade to open the gates. A switch was turned causing the latches over the gears on either side of the gate open and twist, swinging them open inward.

He had successfully found his way back into Bastok.