A whistling winter wind kept Reis awake during the night. Even if she had been used to the permafrost of Goland, it had been a long time since she experienced a storm of such ferocity. Whipping up within the matter of hours, the wind and snow forced every soul into cover, whether it be a little cat or a fluffy yellow chocobo. Aeris stayed in the bed next to her, poring over a map that Reis assumed was the map of this world.

'Reis…' Aeris said, still gazing at the map, 'What was Ivalice like?'

Reis strained her memory for all the details that she remembered of Ivalice.

'Well…the place where I was confined to during my dragon years…Goland…that was under freezing ice and snow for the entire year. Then there was Lionel. A vast principality, neutral to both the Hokuten and the Black Sheep. It was a land of high cliffs and low swamps, populated densely with both animals and men,'

'What—or who—were the Hokuten?' Aeris asked, 'And the Black Sheep?'

'Knights of the…well, you know, I've told you this when we bathed,' Reis answered, turning pink when she said the last detail of the sentence, 'They serve the White Lion and the Black Lion respectively,'

'Do go on, I'm curious about your world,' Aeris told her, urging her on, 'It must be a rather destroyed place, isn't it?'

'I must admit it is,' Reis said, eyes scanning the ceiling, lying back on her pillow, 'I wished there hadn't been war…then…then…'

She couldn't bring herself to finish that sentence. Breaking off into a bout of tears, she couldn't bear the thought of either Prince Larg or Goltana being the cause of all her suffering and her fiancé's death.

Aeris patted her gently on the shoulder when they heard an ear-splitting scream. Sitting up straight as a bolt, Reis stared at the doorway. Standing up, she and Aeris walked over to the door, Reis taking a small knife in case anything happened.

'Nooo…I don't want to…No, I don't want this,' a voice moaned in the innkeeper's room, pitch rising and falling as the voice repeated the same words again and again.

Aeris raised her eyebrows.

'Oh my…not another one…' she muttered, returning back to the room and coming back out with her ancient staff.

Reis cautiously pushed the door open, holding the knife in a position ready to strike, should anything dangerous be on the other side. Even though not yet fully recovered, the dragoner had incredible strength of mind and body; the pain of the not-quite healed wound still seared away, though not with the intensity of the previous night.

Dashing through the doorway, Aeris held her staff as though expecting something dangerous. Reis followed her lead, her knife still held in front of herself, point outwards and gleaming.

A black-cloaked man stood in the corner, shaking uncontrollably. What on earth is this? Reis thought, as Aeris approached the man and lifted his sleeve.

'As I thought,' Aeris said, her voice quavering in pity, 'Another sufferer of Sephiroth's disease,'

'Does your opponent really make that disease happen?' Reis asked incredulously, eyes wide as she stared at the man, who was still cowering on the spot, 'Seems like a very dreadful one to have,'

'No, no, it's not really a disease,' Aeris explained, lifting the other sleeve, 'Sephiroth just controls these people through the little Mako energy within their veins—ah, there's the number. Seventy-seven,'

Seeing the puzzled expression on Reis' face, Aeris quickly explained that Mako was the energy of life itself, of the planet and all its living things. Sephiroth must have some link with the planet then, Reis thought.

Barret barged through the door, his gun arm rotating as though he had shot a number of bullets through the lethal weapon.

'Yo, Aeris, what's going…on?' he asked, taking a step back as he saw the shaking man.

'He's been affected by Sephiroth's Mako control,'

'Must…go…to…Reunion…' the man said, barely coherent through all the nonsensical babbling that he made.

'Yowtch…that must be annoying,' Barret said, turning back for the door, 'Well, I'm going back to bed. See you tomorrow morning, Aeris…and the other girl,'

Barret left the room, leaving Reis and Aeris in silence. The man collapsed onto the floor, still mumbling random words and things like 'Reunion' and 'Rejoin Sephiroth'. Leaving the man there, Aeris walked back towards the room.

'Are you just going to leave him like that?' Reis asked Aeris, walking alongside the brown-haired woman.

'Nothing I can do here-or that anyone can do. His mind's been blown to pieces,'

A mind being blown to pieces…what a nice way to put it, Reis mumbled to herself.

Reis climbed back into her bed, planning to forget the dreadful thing that she saw. As she began to drift off to sleep, Aeris climbed into the very same bed, pulling up the bedcovers slightly and slipping underneath them. Putting her face into Reis' silvery-gold locks, she sobbed quietly. Feeling a wave of pity for the other woman, Reis allowed Aeris to continue her sobbing, eventually hugging her to stop the tears. Aeris looked into Reis' sapphire eyes. She could see the pity in them, clear, sincere.

'I'm sorry,' she apologized, making movements to get out of Reis' bed. Reis, however, held Aeris' arm. Aeris looked at her hand, holding her arm. She got the message, and climbed back in. Snuggling up to Reis, she grasped her hand tightly.

'I just…can't go on like this…' Aeris sobbed, tears leaking from her emerald eyes, 'Every day…every minute…I hear the cries of the Planet…the screams of the dead…the agony they endure…'

'It must be tough, having to listen to the Planet and the dead every moment of your life, not to mention troubling,' Reis said, trying to comfort the other woman.

Breaking into hysterical weeping, Aeris pressed herself against Reis' body. Shocked, Reis stayed where she was, stunned by the sudden motion. Never did she think that Aeris was so unpredictable.

Singing softly in Aeris' ear, Reis calmed the distraught woman, who slowly fell asleep in her arms. Sigh…I guess it isn't only me with the problems…