Van glowered as he disembarked the cargo ship at the port of Palas. He had been ready to jump over the side of the ship and run off in search of Hitomi. It was Dryden who stopped him. They were close to Palas and the future of Gaea may depend on the information they had to deliver. They would just have to trust that Hitomi would be able to take care of herself for now. Van knew that Dryden was right, but that didn't mean he had to like it.
Millerna was there at the port to meet them, complete with royal entourage. Eries walked beside her sister, but it was Millerna who was at the center. The mantle of leadership clearly weighed heavy on her shoulders, but she wore it with a regal dignity Van would not have believed her capable of only a year before.

Dryden approached first and bowed, followed by Van and Merle.

Millerna bowed her head in return then looked about, confused. "Where is the lady Hitomi?"

"We have a great deal to discuss your majesty, but it would be best if it was somewhere a bit less out in the open," said Dryden in his deep drawl.

"That we do," replied Millerna. She signaled for the group to move out.

Once in the palace, Dryden and Van were conducted to Millerna's private meeting rooms, the only other party present was Eries.

Millerna sat in a large chair facing the door when Van and Dryden entered, and Eries stood beside her, looking stone-faced, and carrying a writing tablet and quill.

"Your majesty-" Dryden began, but Millerna put her hand up to silence him.

"My father is dead," she said.

Van and Dryden glanced at each other.

"My sincerest condolences," Dryden said, bowing his head solemnly.

"I'm sorry Millerna," Van breathed.

Millerna continued, "I have served in his stead for over a year while he has been bedridden, and this has appeased the chancellor's, but with his death, they are not content to allow my continued reign as the sole sovereign of the state."

"Millerna, you can't mean..." Dryden no longer feigned deference to her power. He spoke to her as the old friend that he was. "Times change, Millerna, they can't force you..."

"It is fortuitous for Asturia that you have returned," she responded. She still maintained her stately attitude. Van got the feeling that if she allowed her mask to crack, that she would crumble completely. He knew she had little love for her father, but she had a great deal of respect, and it was entirely through him that her authority was maintained. Asturia had never been ruled by a solitary Queen in all of Gaea's history.

"But, -"

"You have a duty," interrupted Eries. "Now is not the time to create a disturbance in this country. Our traditions must be maintained for the moment."

"The promise we made..." Dryden was stiff beside Van.

Van looked back and forth between the frozen Dryden, and the rigid Millerna.

"We do not have the luxury of following our own desires. I realize that now. I was young, and willful. If we are to survive this, we need the trust and compliance of the council. I can no longer command that alone."

Van watched the exchange in silence. In all the time he had known Millerna, he had never seen her with such restrained tension. It wasn't just the demands of her position, something else fueled the bridled fury Van could clearly see in her face.

"We are obligated to hold a coronation, for you, Dryden."

"The alliances with the other kingdoms are fraying! We are again on the brink of war, whether Zaibach is involved or not! Suspicion and accusations plague the balance we have with other nations. Millerna, now is not the time-"

"Now is exactly the time," Eries cut in. "We need a show of strength, a unifying event. Our father was a smart man when he named you Millerna's betrothed. You are well connected and well trusted. With you in place of King Aston, we may have a chance of salvaging the alliance."

"But with me in my father's seat," seethed Millerna, standing slowly, "the council is unsettled, and the alliance will lose its trust in Asturia as a central strength."

"I am a merchant and a scholar, Millerna... " He took her hands in his. "I am no leader. It was never a position I desired."

"But you will take it," she responded, sympathy finally softening her voice, "and I will be there beside you."

Van could see the fight leave Dryden's shoulders. He sighed and leaned back on his heels.

"Ah, I suppose I have no choice," he said, the peace of acquiescence lifting the dark cloud in the room.

"That is settled then," said Millerna. "Eries will take care of the details. This must happen soon, before word spreads too far that my father has passed."

Millerna gave brief instructions to Eries and then dismissed her to see to preparations. "Now, on to other matters. What of the Mercury and the mission? Where is Hitomi?"

Van could sense where the deep concern in Millerna's voice had come from. Her position as ruler required that business be taken care of and in a stately manner, but the absence of Hitomi was an omen of news she would not want to hear.

Millerna quietly waited for Van's response, the tension in anticipation of bad news twisting her face.

"We were ambushed at the border-"

Millerna let out a small gasp.

"Hitomi sensed them coming too late. They appeared out of nowhere, just like the one over the bay, and just as previous reports have said. They are capable of invisibility while in the air. There was no doubt that they are from Zaibach."

"Than you have confirmed the worst, I will notify the council-"

"That's not all. Celena is with them. She was abducted during the fight. Or, rather... Dilandau has returned to Zaibach."

"No!" gasped Millerna. "What about Allen?"

"Hitomi and I were transported away during the fight. I do not yet know the fate of Allen and the rest of the crew," Millerna looked on the verge of tears, "however, the reason Hitomi is not with us now may give you hope. She teleported away from us on our way here. Dryden says that just before the light took her, she was saying something about finding them."

Millerna sighed and composed herself. "I must bring this news to the council. Hopefully with this the council will finally be ready to believe Zaibach is once again a threat. Dryden, this will also be a good opportunity for you to accept your position in front of the council. Van, I would like you to recount the events of the mission again for the council."

"Your Highness," Van pleaded, "with all due respect, I believe that would be best received coming from you, not me, after my previous outburst, and...I would like to go in search of Hitomi." The restraint he had maintained since reaching Palas was nearing its end. He knew he would be able to find her if he was just given the chance, and finding her may mean finding the others as well. He was the one who had convinced Allen to join them. It was his responsibility to bring Allen back and to find Celena if he could. The guilt of breaking his promise to Allen writhed in his gut like snakes. He did not want to give his report to the council. Other than verifying that Zaibach was indeed their enemy, the mission had been a complete failure. They lost Celena, the ship was likely destroyed, and he couldn't even keep Hitomi by his side.

Millerna read the anguish in his features and nodded her head. "Alright. I agree."

As soon as he had permission from Millerna, Van nodded to Dryden and raced from the room. He almost knocked Merle over on his exit.

"Van?! Where are you running?"

Van stopped and took Merle's shoulders. "I'm sorry Merle, I'm going to have to leave you here for now. You will be safe here with Millerna and Dryden. I have to go find Hitomi."

He let her go and raced off through the Castle.

"Lord Vaaaaan!" Merle called out after him, but there was a slight smile twitching her whiskers.

Hitomi lay face down on soft moss on the forest floor. She could feel the spots of wrongness all around her. It permeated the air and seemed to sap her energy. She lifted herself up from the ground and searched the area for Allen with her sight. He was there, not very far away. She could also feel Gaddes, and Daniel. They all lived! The delight she felt at having found them dispelled the fatigue that was setting in from the wrongness in the air, as well as her apprehension about her sudden transportation from the leviship. Whether she had intended it or not, she had managed to travel to a point of her focus, instead of simply transporting away from danger. It was a start. Perhaps she would be able to control her transportations after all.

Her limbs felt weak, but she did not feel the extreme fatigue she had after her last transportation. She set out in the direction in which she could feel her friends.

After a short walk, she could see them through the trees and she ran to them.

"Hitomi!" Gaddes and Daniel both called in unison. Daniel stood as Hitomi approached them and caught her in his arms as she collapsed, but with a grin spread across her whole face.

"We saw the light touch down, and knew it must be you," said Daniel. He held Hitomi at arm's length and looked her over.

Hitomi observed the group now. Daniel appeared uninjured, but Gaddes was favoring one arm, and Allen was propped up against a tree. He looked pale and sickly, with sweat beading on his forehead and dark bags under his closed eyes.

"Allen!" She pulled herself free from Daniel and rushed to Allen.

"His leg is badly wounded," said Gaddes. "I did what I could, but I'm no healer."

Hitomi looked down at Allen's leg. A stretch of fabric was wrapped tightly around Allen's thigh, but it was clearly already soaked through with blood.

Millerna had shown Hitomi what plants could be used to stop bleeding while teaching her how to care for Van when he was injured. She didn't know if it would work for such a large wound, but she would have to try. She scanned the area with her sight for anything that felt similar. She found something that felt about right not too far from their location and hurried to inspect. She had been right. She plucked as much as she could carry from the small bush and rushed back to the group.

"Gaddes, I need you to tie another piece of fabric higher up on his leg. It will need to be as tight as you can get it."

Hitomi sat down and began tearing up the leaves of the plant to release its juices. Daniel ripped strips of fabric from his shirt. Hitomi noticed the tear already present, and looked at the fabric already wrapped about Allen's leg; it was the same.

"Do you have any water?" asked Hitomi. She looked to both Gaddes and Daniel, and they shook their heads.

"We only just used up the last of the rations from the Mercury," said Gaddes.

She searched the surrounding area for any creatures that felt as if they were swimming. She found some about half a mile away.

"Do you have any containers I can use?"

"Will this work?" Gaddes held out a flask that had likely contained wine or liquor at one point, but was now empty.

"I will be right back," called Hitomi as she ran off in the direction of the water.

It had been a long time since she last ran, but it felt good. Despite Allen's state, Hitomi finally felt like she had something to do. Allen was alive. Everyone was alive. She really could fix her mistake. She ran with the zeal of purpose finally realized. Her feet pounded the ground in time with her heartbeat.

Before she quit track, she could still do a mile in five minutes. At half a mile away, she could hopefully get to the water and bring it back in under ten.
The water she had sensed was a stream. It wasn't deep, but there were small fish in it. She filled the flask and returned.

Hitomi finished tearing the leaves and carried them over next to Allen while Gaddes finished tying the second cloth. She took a deep breath and slowly untied the cloth that covered Allen's wound. Blood oozed from the gash but slowed after the first surge. Daniel had heated the flask of water over a small fire on Hitomi's orders, and was now allowing it to cool. Hitomi took the cooled flask from him and poured it over the gash on Allen's thigh. The water cleared away the rest of the blood in the gash until Hitomi could see the sliced flesh underneath.

It was a wide cut, but it wasn't deep. Hitomi sighed in relief. A deep cut would have been much more difficult to treat with none of Millerna's supplies. The cut still sliced nearly halfway around Allen's upper thigh. Blood seeped from the severed tissue, but slowly enough that, for the moment, it did not worry Hitomi. The wound would need to be stitched as soon as they returned to Palas. Hitomi placed the crushed leaves gingerly into the wound. Allen stirred, but he did not wake. Once the herbs were in place, Hitomi folded a pad of fabric cut from Daniel's shirt and placed it over the wound. She used smaller strips to tightly wrap around the leg and secure the bandage in place. When it was done she removed the tie from above the wound.

The three watched with held breath for a few moments to see if the wound would continue to bleed. It didn't seem to, and Hitomi heaved a sigh of relief.
From the moment she knew Allen was alive, Hitomi's focus had been singly fixed on making sure he survived. Now her attention turned to the surrounding woods and the small camp that Daniel and Gaddes had set up. The two men sat nearby her, watching. They looked much better than Allen, but still haggard and exhausted. Daniel had donated nearly all of his linen shirt to bandage Allen, and was now sitting with what was left hanging from his shoulders and back. Gaddes was clothed, but the fabric was riddled with burn holes, through which Hitomi could see reddish, cracked skin underneath.

Again, the guilt of her mistake, her failure to keep them out of harm's way, welled up in her throat.

She observed the surrounding woods with her sight. She could feel spots of wrongness all around them, but nothing as strong as when the Zaibach melefs appeared. She switched her focus to her physical vision and scanned the woods around her. There was the wreckage of the Mercury. One levistone still hovered above the ground, while the other side of the ship dug deep into the ground. A long groove cut through the dirt through the trees into the distance. The other levistone must have been lost and left back there somewhere. If anyone wanted to follow them, that groove would be easy to see, even from above the tree canopy.

"We have to move," said Hitomi.

Both men looked at her and looked at Allen.

"I agree," said Gaddes, "we've exhausted the food rations. Before you arrived we were debating how to proceed, but it will be difficult to move him in his condition."

Hitomi sensed from Gaddes's tone that their 'how to proceed' decision had been whether or not they would have to leave Allen behind. She was glad he had not said as much out loud.

"I know," Hitomi said, "we need to get him back to Palas anyway, though. I can't treat his leg properly out here." She stretched her sight into the distance for any sign of the enemy.

"We may be able to carry him between us," Gaddes said.

"We could, but couldn't that make his injury worse?" asked Daniel.

Hitomi looked back and forth between the two of them, and to Allen up against the tree. He was ghostly pale. Hitomi was no longer worried about the loss of blood, but Daniel was right; too much jostling could do severe damage in his weakened state. They would also move incredibly slowly, and Hitomi had no idea how far they had to go, or when the enemy was likely to try to finish the job.

One levistone still hung in the air with the rest of the Mercury hanging from it, the port side wing resting in the rut on the ground. Daniel was following Hitomi's gaze to the leviship.

"I think I might have an idea," he said suddenly and rushed off towards the leviship. He grabbed a piece of metal scrap from the ground near the ship and wedged it in a thin crack in the bottom of the levistone. With another large piece of debris, he began banging against the wedge.

Realization dawned on Gaddes's face and he rushed to Daniel's aid. Hitomi wasn't sure what they were planning, but it was reassuring that someone had a plan, and it seemed Daniel and Gaddes were both relieved to have something they could actually do besides wait. Hitomi was left to wait now, and watch as Allen's face grew paler. His breathing rattled in his chest and his face was glossy with sweat. Hitomi poured some of the excess water from cleaning his wound on a piece of cloth torn from Deniel's shirt. She wiped his brow and neck in an attempt to cool him.

His skin was hot to the touch; his lips were cracked and dry. She touched his parched lips with the wet cloth. Her first kiss, she remembered, was from those lips. She blushed at the thought and felt guilty at the same time. How could she think a thing like that while he was in such a state because of her? He was alive, but barely. A creeping tightness wove its way into Hitomi's chest. She felt guilty for every time she had the thought that this wasn't the Allen she once knew. He was still Allen. She had still almost been his. He was still very dear to her. It hadn't just been Van that Hitomi missed during her time on Earth. It was losing her connection to all of Gaea, it was losing Millerna, and Dryden, and Merle. It was losing Allen. She already almost lost Van due to her failure, and now here lay Allen, and it was her fault. Perhaps it would have been better for everyone if she had never returned, if Van had not pulled her back, if she had landed on the ground below the building she jumped from. But then what of Yukari? Yukari didn't deserve that either. Hitomi was so selfish. Everything she had done was for her own desires, but it was everyone else who suffered for it. No wonder Van wouldn't listen to her. Of course Van wouldn't want a selfish girl like her. He had much bigger things to worry about.

She couldn't stop the tears that freely trailed down her cheeks now. She had moved from one disaster to another, always preparing for the next, confident that somehow they would get through it, that there would be an "other side", but as she looked at Allen she couldn't help thinking that too much damage had already been done. There are turning points in life that you can't come back from. Perhaps her choice to return to Earth the first time was a mistake she couldn't ever fix.

A hand touched her cheek, wiping away the tears. "You did what you could. Because of you, he still has a chance." Daniel's voice was low and comforting beside her. "We were useless. It was all we could do to stop the bleeding."

Daniel was not someone Hitomi had left behind. Daniel had not been hurt by her return. He was different. He was outside. He was standing close beside her, and she leaned into him, resting her head against his shoulder. He put an arm around her, and then two, and pulled her to his chest. She cried freely into what was left of his shirt, and felt, for the first time, that she was letting go of something that she hadn't realized she had lost.

Gaddes waited patiently nearby while Hitomi poured her grief into Daniel's chest. When her sobs began to subside, and she sheepishly pushed herself away from Daniel, Gaddes spoke up.

"Hitomi, can you navigate for us in the dark?" Gaddes stood beside a floating plank, levitated by two chunks of levistone that were strapped to each end. "It is nearing dark, and if we travel in the night we will make better time, and be more difficult to spot."

It took Hitomi only a moment to understand the plan. "Yes, I can do that, as long as I know which way to start."

Gaddes pointed off into the distance beyond the ruins of the Mercury. "I'm pretty sure Palas is in that direction. While we were still in the air I was able to see the mountains that separate Palas from the forest."

Daniel and Gaddes moved Allen from the ground to the floating plank. It settled to about three or four feet above the ground and seemed to remain stable. Allen shifted and groaned, but did not wake. A faint whisper of "Celena" escaped his lips, and he was still and silent again, except for the rasp of his breath.
Hitomi and the men set out in the direction of Palas. Gaddes and Daniel walked on either side of the floating bed while Hitomi lead the way. Thick clouds obscured both the moon and the Mystic Moon in the sky, throwing the woods into nearly complete darkness as the sun set. Hitomi stretched her vision in front of them. She felt the trees around her, and the small animals scurry out of their path. They were still surrounded by small spots of the wrongness she had felt earlier., but as they progressed, the spots of wrongness became fewer and fewer. Hitomi reassured herself that this was a sign they were moving away from Zaibach. What were they, and what did they have to do with Zaibach? Why had the melefs that attacked them reeked so strongly of it that she could barely sense anything else?

She stretched her vision as far as she could in the darkness, using her sense of the trees to keep the group on a clear path. The woods were quiet except for Allen's rough breathing, and the crunch of leaves beneath their feet.

Suddenly in the quiet, Hitomi heard a voice. It seemed far away, but at the same time, it almost felt like a whisper in her ear.

"Did you hear that?" she asked Daniel, who walked beside her.

"Hear what?" he said.

"I heard a voice."

"I didn't hear anything-"

"Shh," she could hear it again. It was definitely a voice. She could feel it.

She stopped walking and stretched her vision as far as she could. The wrongness was still obscuring some of her power. It made the voice sound almost like it was coming through water, but it was there.

Hitomi, said the voice. She was sure now. It was Van. Van was speaking to her through her vision. He had managed it. Somehow he had gotten through to her.

"Hitomi, what is it," said Gaddes from behind.

"It's Van. He's out there."

Van, I'm here.

Which direction was he, though? She couldn't sense his presence. He was probably too far away, and their link was still obscured.

Hitomi, where are you? I've left Palas to find you. I just need a sign.

Briefly, Hitomi thought she could sense his presence. He was in the woods as well, still a good distance away from them, much closer to Palas. He was there, just out of reach. She tried to convey that to him, to send him a feeling of what she sensed.

Hitomi, I-

And then he wasn't there. She scanned the forest around her, but the feeling was gone. His voice was gone. They were again alone in the woods.