Syrin liked to keep himself busy, so that was why he was in his tent reviewing strategies, and that would be reviewed again whenever Zeke returned. There wasn't much of an inventory to take care of this time around, seeing as most weapons were already replaced and not everyone was with him. Keeping himself busy was the one of the few things that distracted him from his long history, a history that he didn't necessarily want to deal with nor was it anything that deserved to be thought of again. A lot of it was just travelling, both before and after Ike passed. There were also many unpleasant people who deserved no second thoughts.

It would have been easy except that his past was looking at him everyday. Anything memorable mostly had to do with Ike, or particular people who really made his blood boil. So long as Ike as a god, his thoughts at the end of day always involved Ike. Being around Nasir and Stefan forced him to think of such things as well and those two always hung around him instead of making themselves useful. Stefan was trying to "guide" him, whatever that meant, and Nasir... he didn't know why he was so clingy but he had ideas and he had a feeling that Kurthnaga was involved. Why would Kurthnaga care about him?

But that was another one of things that he didn't really care to think about. Nasir's words were more helpful than harmful and unlike the times of the Mad King's War, he wasn't betraying them. Oh, he was sure that Kurthnaga knew the important things through Nasir and the sending stones that they used on their way to the Tower of Guidance, but it wasn't Goldoa he was worried about. He was worried about contacts within Crimea, like Chibuike. He didn't like the man, mainly for the fact that Syrin couldn't figure out his motives.

If he watched the Greil Mercenaries like he claimed, what was the purpose? Did he do that for his own amusement? Why did he decide to talk to the rebellion when it was most likely a severe breach in his contract with Crimea? Syrin couldn't trust people very easily, and one of those reasons was because people like Chibuike were around. They were a threat, even if they seemed innocent enough.

"Syrin?"

Ah, Zeke. Syrin opened the flap to his tent.

"I see a lot people but no soldiers. I'm not sure if they're close by or not but they're not in town currently," Zeke mumbled. He dismissed himself and left Syrin to mull over his words. Everyone being out and around was rather interesting, as they usually found themselves in empty towns with a skeleton crew. Perhaps with an audience, no blood would need to be spilled and that would work better for everyone. Crimea wouldn't know they went through so hopefully they wouldn't harass the citizens either. However, if they went together they would probably scare them off. They needed a few of them to explain and promote the rebellion and hopefully the town would support them while the bulk of them moved onto the middle town.

He considered everyone who was with them. Kaetar seemed particularly good at talking to people but was still at Toha so he was out of the question. Nicholas and Misha came to mind when he thought of other possible people though – Nicholas could talk to anyone and Misha could relate as she was also from Crimea. Perhaps even Peter would be useful for such things since he dedicated himself to Asheruna. Everyone else would move on.

"Still holed up in here?" Stefan asked suddenly. Syrin didn't even flinch anymore – he was used to Stefan appearing out of nowhere and as sudden as he was, Syrin came to expect that Stefan was going to appear at some point. He would continue to startle the others but Syrin knew of Stefan's odd ability for a lot longer than the others and felt more prepared for his sudden intrusions. "Everyone else already ate."

"Have I ever cared about when everyone else ate?"

"No, but you're terrible for not taking care of yourself so I grabbed you something to eat," Stefan said with a small smile. He had some cooked meat that Syrin guessed was a rabbit that Ema most likely found and skinned. Syrin watched Stefan put the plate down but Syrin didn't jump to grab it like Stefan must have expected. Really, for someone who hovered around him often, Stefan really shouldn't have expected anything more. Just because food was brought to him didn't mean he was going to eat, unless it was Ike asking him to eat something. He had no problem ignoring everyone else.

"You should give that the wyvern," Syrin answered back. The wyvern would want it more – he wasn't picky and Syrin was worried about making sure that he got all the food that he needed. At least the only other big animal was Joel's horse, who seemed content to simply graze on grass when Joel let him. It was a nightmare making sure they had enough food for several horses and at least two wyverns and laguz, Ike, and Boyd on top of it. "I had something to eat earlier. I'm busy anyhow."

"You can be a lot of trouble sometimes, you know that?"

"You're the one who willing chooses to bother me. I never asked you to take care of me," Syrin muttered back. Stefan chuckled.

"Someone has to. No one else is taking care of you, not even you," he said before disappearing for a moment. He came back with empty hands, so Syrin assumed that he actually gave whatever Ema caught to the wyvern. Just as well.

"What are you preparing anyway?"

"A way to win support from the next village," Syrin answered. Just as he thought of that though, something else came to mind. It was strange that there would be a village that had a lot of people just walking around. Life didn't exactly stop because of the rebellion but it was certainly altered. People didn't go out just to socialize anymore, children didn't play in the streets, and generally, people only went out for necessities. He suspected a couple of vendors and merchants and a couple of customers for them but not much else if there were people in the first place.

He remembered overhearing Elincia and Lucia talk when they were reunited – not that it was difficult, Elincia was excited and therefore not very quiet – about how her retainers disguised themselves in front of Daeins. It would not surprise him if Crimea pulled something like that again. If he sent Misha, Peter and Nicholas in on their own, it could end badly for them since it could be hard to pick out the soldiers if they didn't want to be seen. Misha and Nicholas could hold their own if it was a small group but when numbers are a mystery, he decided not to risk their safety.

"I've got it. Call everyone around where the campfire was."

Stefan at least did as he was told, if just to get on Syrin's good side. Syrin was very much aware of it and he didn't mind sending him off to the more sociable things such as gathering all the rebels. He decided to sit down this time, as his arm was bothering him again for some strange reason. He sometimes wondered if arm just bothered him because it could but again, it was silly to assign a personality to an ailment like his arm. The weird thing about the scar was that it extended beyond the boundaries of the original injury, which was considerably more clean cut than the twisted scars he ended up getting and he couldn't help but to wonder how so much pain came from the odd scarring.

"Is everyone here?" Syrin asked. The rebels looked around and nodded. "As you know, the next goal is to secure the town that's roughly an hour away. Since Zeke said that there are a lot of people around, our best tactic will simply be to try to talk to them."

"Really?" Chifee asked. "Just talking?"

"There's no reason to start a battle when we don't need to. That will most likely ended up working against us rather than for us. However, I feel that the circumstances are suspicious."

Ema's ears flattened against her head and her tail curled around, something Syrin noticed that she did when she was in deep thought. "What's up?" Misha asked.

"I'm trying to think of when we saw villages that had a lot of people inside and I don't really remember a time before Begnion."

"Which is what's wrong with the picture then," Joel muttered.

"Crimea has disguised retainers before, back when Crimea was occupied by Daein. It wouldn't surprise me if they decided to do the same thing over again with us. It could be that most of the people we see are in fact, Crimea soldiers disguising themselves while out on patrol. I doubt that all of them are but since this can be difficult to tell, no one is to attack if they're not attacked first."

"And you still want to talk?" Rykuu asked.

"I do. Nicholas, Peter and Misha are going in, unless anyone else decides that they can go as well. I want backup to go in first, pretend that they've always been there, and then Misha and Nicholas will go in. If anything happens, defend them. Understood?" Everyone nodded.

Syrin was the first to enter the town. He wanted to watch everything for himself but his arm was bothering him again. He took it out of the sling and let his hair loose, both which were inconvenient, but it was a precaution. He didn't want to be identified immediately, which is why he had everyone let their hair loose and peel away their armour. He also decided it was best for Rykuu and Soren – it felt weird to say his old name but refer to someone else – to stay behind and watch all the stuff with Mike and Makken. The latter together were too large and all three of them together made to be a recognizable bunch, particularly Rykuu and Soren who where probably still wanted. He doubted that anyone would look twice at Mike if he was not with Makken but maybe Makken was only docile if he knew Mike was near. He didn't know Makken well enough to make such a call.

Meagan and Gus were in next. They had their hands together and Gus leaned in for a quick kiss. When they separated, they went together to look some apples that someone was selling, and Syrin rolled his eyes when Gus tossed a couple of gold coins into the merchant's hands. At least it was their own gold instead of the gold that they needed for weapons. Meagan was quick to bite into the purchased apple.

It felt like a while before he saw gathering. He didn't even have to look to know that it was Misha and Nicholas doing their job. Peter was also with them but it seemed that he was doing most of the talking. It did make sense for someone who devoted himself to Asheruna to speak on their behalf. It was not often that Nicholas was silent and he was pretty silent as soon as Peter had the chance to talk about Asheruna to several people.

Syrin had to admit, Peter was pretty good about keeping to himself when it came to such topics. Syrin had enough of goddesses for a lifetime, seeing as he was blessed by one to fight against the other. It was exhausting to think of them. He was reminded of the long trip to the tower, the long ascension of said tower... It wasn't like he could escape from the concept, but Peter didn't remind him of their existence. The only thing that did was Kaetar and his damned curiosity and the fact that Ike was proclaimed to be a god. Syrin reasoned that it had to be for some political reason. After all, the Begnion senate tried to dethrone Empress Sanaki based on her apostle status. It had nothing to do with the fact that she was a bad empress, she just had power they wanted and sought any way to seek it.

Ike's name was an easy one to hide behind. He was powerful and his name brought powerful imagery to mind – a lowly mercenary who could rise to be one of the most powerful people that history saw. Ike never claimed all the credit but history as quick to forget everyone who helped him, which only made him seem even more powerful. It wasn't like it was difficult to make him a god but it was disappointing to see that how his memory was treated after death.

Ike still meant a lot to Syrin. It was the part of the reason why he kept his arm, as painful as it was to do so. The pain still reminded him that he was alive, just like Ike asked for him to do – to survive and find something to do with his life because according to Ike, he still had a lot of talent to give. Another reason as because it still had its uses, mainly when it came to using magic. The most important reason was because Ike tried so hard to save his arm. He used what vulnerary he had to make sure it wouldn't fall off and Ike spent many weeks after that tending to his arm and making him comfortable. However, the memory didn't make the scar hurt any less. Despite all his their efforts, he still ended up with an ugly scar and his arm was disabling for a good decade or so before Ike's death. Ike felt bad for a decade.

Out the corner of his eye, he saw one of the so called civilians pull out a weapon. Zeke jumped out of an alley and swiped the weapon from him, hopping away before the soldier could catch him. That didn't stop him from giving the branded thief chase but Zeke was both strong and fast, making him an effective thief even if he didn't actually steal often. That would save some gold if he did that more often... he needed to talk to him about that. The weapons wouldn't be in mint condition but they were still rather useful.

He looked back to the audience. Only a few seemed to notice that anything was amiss. However, he still couldn't point who the soldiers in the crowd were, just that they were there. They could even be in the audience listening to Peter. At least Peter wasn't as fragile as Rhys was – though Rhys was an excellent healer, he was often ill and he wasn't strong at all. On the other hand, Syrin sometimes caught Peter exercising and he also heard from Joel that he defended himself well with only a staff in his possession. If anyone tried to get at him, Syrin was sure he could hold off one person or maybe even a couple of people.

The audience started asking questions. Obviously, they were worried about their protection and he could prove that he was capable of protecting him. However, unless more Crimean soldiers decided to show themselves, he couldn't move. He didn't want to risk attacking a civilian – that would look particularly bad for them.

"Gus, Meagan, keep an eye out on the crowd. Pretend you're listening," he stated in a whisper when he caught their attention. He didn't wait for an answer and continued to walk away from the crowd. Perhaps Crimea was in the same predicament – with civilians everywhere, it provided a cover but it also made it difficult to hit the ones you actually wanted to hit. They couldn't risk hitting the obvious rebels without hurting the civilians around them.

It was a stalemate. No one wanted to look bad.

When he turned the corner and found a dark alley that led to what seemed to be the slums, he found it was a different story. While most of the people were in the nice part of town, the part that there had bountiful wares to sell, the homes were nice and there was space to socialize, the part of town was rather different. Out of the sight of many, it seemed like a few of the rebels got some kills in after all. He stepped over one corpse with a slit throat.

He found Joel first. He was not on his horse, he was with Mike and the others, but that didn't seem to bother him. He was leaning on his lance, but his sword was on his side. He still looked confident on his own two feet and he had a blood covered sword out. "It's funny, how as soon as most people are out of sight the Crimeans suddenly don't care about hiding. I guess we're recognizable no matter what we do."

"Did you handle all of them yourself?"

Joel nodded. "It's not like they were difficult or anything. I don't think any are of significant rank, so we're still fighting people who have no idea what they're doing. I don't know what these people are afraid of."

"Not everyone has been trained among the elites of a country, no?"

"Does that matter? You did fine, being trained as a mercenary did you not?"

"Oh, so you figured it out?" Syrin wasn't surprised. He was talking to someone who knew tactics, and Syrin was aware of the fact that scholars studied what he did in battles. Syrin found it weird that people were mulling over his work, but it was because Joel was well trained in such areas that Joel was good at analyzing and piecing small things together. He knew some people would figure it out eventually, whether he wanted them to or not. "I was trained in magic long before I became a mercenary. Being a mercenary just offered the practice. To be enrolled or perhaps drafted into the Crimean army now, however, means that there is minimal training. It's likely that these people don't have the experience."

"I guess we're still not a threat then. At least the small fry is easy to take care of."

"Where is everyone else?" Syrin asked.

"Around? I don't babysit them," Joel said, rolling his eyes. Syrin shook his head. While he was sure that everyone will pop up again eventually, he didn't like being left in the dark about anything. He was content when he had all the pieces to work with. If he was aware of something, he could work around it and change his plans accordingly. Missing information on the other hand was very frustrating and it was something he couldn't but to think of it constantly until he had such information.

"They'll be alright. We have fighters that have more experience than most of these recruits can only wish to have. Even our least experienced can still kill," Joel muttered with a shrug. Syrin had a feeling that he was referring to Kaetar, who despite being in the rebellion longer than most, ended up fighting the least while he explored different choices in weapons. He was progressing fine with the bow but he still seemed a little hesitant to make the appropriate shots. Though, when he thought of experience Elli also came to mind. She was fast and certain did possess some talent but she just looked lost on her own. She was far too nervous to fight without Arum being by her side to give her the confidence she needed to fight. Arum might have trained her well but she couldn't effectively fight on her own.

"Perhaps you should go see how the talk is going. I'll continue to kill anyone who is stupid enough to attack me," Joel suggested, his voice oozing with confidence. Joel came off as arrogant at times but his words were not empty taunts. He was well trained and well taught in several subjects, and his horse made him very useful to keep around, even if he only really got along with Kaetar.

"I will. The sooner the people support us, the better."

Just as Syrin was about to leave, he heard a lot of shouting all of a sudden.

"You know what? I'll go too," Joel muttered. They both quickly made their way over to where the crowd gathered. The talk, apparently, reached a high point. Gus had his sword out, Misha only had a knife to defend herself with, and both Nicholas and Meagan had their tomes open. Peter was also carrying the light tome that Syrin gave him, but he didn't open it. Gus and Meagan were on one side of the crowd while Misha, Nicholas and Peter on the side of the crowd, effective protecting the frightened onlookers.

The Crimeans apparently decided to strike, bearing their weapons at the rebels. One of them attacked and Peter sent him crumbling to the ground by slamming the tome into the side of his head. On the other side, Zeke suddenly came flying down from one of the roof tops, using his weight as his own method of knocking one of the soldiers out. Understandably, it would hurt to have someone as fast and as tough as Zeke suddenly land on you.

"Don't let the villagers get hurt! Joel, go join the side with Misha and Peter, they lack an effective close combat weapon," Syrin shouted.

"I dunno, Peter's pretty good with that tome," Joel said with a chuckle, swinging his weapon around to catch a soldier in the neck. He died nearly instantly, if the sudden spray of blood was any indication. Joel looked upset for a moment as he found that the blood splattered on him but he used the brief moment of apparent disgust to toss his lance to Misha, who shoved the knife into her tunic to catch it. Joel drew his sword from his side and immediately sliced the blade at another soldier.

On the other side, Gus and Meagan were handling themselves fine. Zeke popped up in front her, using both daggers to bat people away, only for Meagan to finish them off with a well placed Elwind spell. Gus was a skilled fighter, not as fast as Elli or as strong as Arum, but he could still deal well timed and skilled blows. All of his attacks were either incapacitating or deadly.

The other rebels came over, hearing the sounds of battle if he had to guess. Ema didn't rush to battle, but weaved her way through the soldiers to stand in front of the civilians. The others stood by, and as it turned out, they weren't really needed. It didn't take long for the people that were there originally to cut through anyone who posed a threat. Stefan still had his blade on his side, as if he didn't even draw his sword.

"Well, that settles that. Now, is anyone injured?" Peter asked, dusting off the tome that already looked well used, despite keeping it closed the entire battle. Syrin doubted he even read the darn thing, not since he gave them the tome for that exact purpose. Nicholas shut his own tome.

"You know, it might last longer if you didn't beat people around with it," Nicholas said with a chuckle as he examined the tome.

"Ah, but I didn't quite learn how to cast it yet and my staff is with Soren, Rykuu and Mike. But is everyone okay? I can run and get it if it's needed!" Peter said out loud. Everyone shook their heads.

"What will happen when you leave?" one of the villagers asked.

"We'll clean up the bodies. No one will survive to say that you support us. If they ask, pretend that you all retreated as soon as the fighting began, and they shouldn't suspect anything. Cooperate and be obedient with them until we say otherwise. Do I have your word that you support the rebellion?" Syrin asked.

All the villagers presented raised a fist into the air with a cheer. Syrin was content with the sight. It was a relief to know that they know had some support outside of Toha. The new challenge was making sure that they could keep their loyalty.

"Now, I suggest you all retreat into your homes and wash up," Joel suggested.

Despite the support, the rebels didn't stay in the town but made their way back to the camp grounds where they set up camp the night before. When Ema and Rykuu left to see if they could hunt again, everyone settled in front of the campfire. Even Soren was there, silent as ever.

"That was a pretty good day!" Chifee announced with a stretch.

"Progress is good but we still need a lot more support. Two towns isn't going to be sufficient support," Syrin stated.

"When will we meet up with the others?" Elli asked suddenly, keeping her eyes on the fire. Even though she had Misha sitting on one side and Meagan on the other side, she didn't say much.

"Soon enough."

"Anyway, Syrin, what did you end doing for most of your life?" Stefan asked, throwing some wood into the fire. "You left, right?"

"I did. I've only been back in Tellius for a couple of decades now. What of it?"

Stefan raised an eyebrow. "You don't realize how special that is, do you? You could count one hand the amount of people who explored beyond Tellius and came back. What is like?"

Syrin sighed. With stefan asking such a thing in front of everyone else, Syrin found himself in a situation where it would be difficult to simply walk away. If he walked away, the others wouldn't live it down. It was no doubt interesting to them. Stefan knew it too and he had that goofy grin on his face.

"Not much different than what we find here, with the exception of wolf laguz and the more wide-spread use of the so-called ancient language. The world isn't magically better just because you crossed the desert. People are greedy and self-serving no matter where you go," Syrin answered with a shrug.

Chifee frowned. "There has to be more."

"Ah, the wolves are not exciting enough for you?" Nicholas asked, patting him on the back.

"But I want to know what else there is!"

"There probably is more, but Syrin's not the happiest person ever so it's not like he'll say anything about it," Misha said with a shrug.

"If you want to see for yourselves you're free to leave after all of this." Syrin rolled his eyes. Really, why did he have to describe it? There wasn't much he cared for in terms of scenery. The part he cared about was the fact that no one really knew him or Ike – they had nothing to hide, nothing to live up to, and nothing to be ashamed of. Though Ike wasn't ever really ashamed of himself.

But he wasn't going to say any of that. He wasn't going to let himself get carried away for Stefan's entertainment. He wasn't going to suddenly start being social, especially since he felt that out of anyone, Kaetar would appreciate his information the most. He didn't mind as much talking to Kaetar – Syrin felt like it would help him to know history, or it was bound to repeat itself, and he knew Kaetar appreciated it. He also felt there was something else there, but Syrin was bad at identifying emotions if he even acknowledged that they were there.

"They're back!" Misha said suddenly. Rykuu and Ema were still transformed, dragging their kills in their mouths. Syrin, with little appetite, decided to go back into his shared tent with Stefan. Stefan followed him in.

"Aren't you going to eat?"

"What are you trying to pull?"

"Elaborate."

Syrin glared at him. "Why won't you leave me alone? Why do you try and make me talk to people? Why do you care so much?"

Stefan wasn't fazed. "Have you ever thought of what you're going to do with your life? Do you really plan on wasting your talents because Ike isn't here anymore?"

"Don't answer my questions with questions of your own," Syrin growled.

"I'm here to help you-"

"Is that so?" Syrin interrupted. "You've barely drawn your blade since you got here. You're taking up space and resources and you don't contribute." He glared at Stefan again. He refused to lose face to him, especially since Syrin could really begin to feel the frustration creep up.

"You don't need my blade. You have quite the gathering here, all sorts of talent and potential. They're only going to get better. You need a different kind of help, you need guidance, or you'll waste this life that Ike wanted you to live. We wouldn't be having this discussion if he didn't request that you live after he's gone, am I right?" Stefan asked, placing a hand on Syrin's shoulder. Using his good arm, Syrin batted him away.

The last part stung. It was true, that Ike thought that he still had more to offer to the world. Ike thought he could change something for the better. While he was glad that Ike had so much trust in him, Syrin didn't feel as though he was capable of doing that. If anyone else was made into a god, he probably wouldn't have bothered. He didn't care enough for the world to help it. He was only around because Ike wanted him to be. It was kind of selfish of Ike, and Ike did admit it, but Syrin didn't fault him with it. He could never really stay mad at him.

"I don't need your help."

"Syrin," Stefan started, grabbing the wrist on his bad arm. It jostled his arm and Syrin grimaced in pain. "I know what it's like to close yourself up because neither the beorc or the laguz would give you a second thought. I know the pain that comes with being alone, abused and non-existent. Why trust anyone when they make it clear that they don't care? It's easy to fill your life with hate when that's all you've seen. Then to learn it was all a lie... just drove that blade deeper into my heart. There was no good reason for any of it."

He spoke slowly and Syrin realized that it was probably emotionally exhausting for Stefan as well. That certainly made two of them. Syrin didn't care to have this conversation. He kept his voice steady though, taking any sign of emotion out of his voice even though the words he said spoke otherwise.

"But I realized that living in the past hasn't help us at all so slowly, I'm letting go of it. I'm letting go of the hate and the pain so I can help my people. I learned that moving on and doing things for yourself doesn't mean you're forgetting about what happened or you're forgiving anyone that hurt you. You're just acknowledging that it happened. You also need to realize that moving on doesn't mean you're forgetting about Ike."

"You're trying to get me to be your adviser," Syrin sighed.

Stefan chuckled. "I would be lying if I said that wasn't the case. My, or rather our country, needs a lot of help in order to make sure we have enough resources to sustain ourselves. It doesn't make my words any less true though."

"You're hardly the prime example for such a lesson. You like to think that you're the expert here and truly, you're only 'letting go' because it's convenient for you to do so. If Grann could survive well on its own, without the eventual need for interaction with the beorc and the laguz, you wouldn't be here. In fact, you didn't even try to get close to me when we first met, aside from trying to convince me to join you. I don't need a lecture from you."

Not even that seemed to bother Stefan, making Syrin even more upset than he thought he would be. He didn't even know why it did upset him and why he felt he needed to prove him wrong. He hated his smirk but Stefan's presence hasn't bothered him so much before and they've been sharing a tent for a while. He was also the one who went to him for help because Stefan was the only he could really think of who was alive and would be willing to help. He felt conflicted. Part of him knew that some of the words were logical, that he could technically act on his own without Ike and he could still remember him whenever he wanted, but who was Stefan to tell him what to do?

"Syrin, if you think I'm so useless, why haven't you asked me to leave?"

Syrin didn't know. He never asked Nasir to leave either.

"Do you like the familiarity? Do you like the fact that after all of these years, there are some people you recognize? That there are some people that have an idea of what you're going through?"

"Why don't you just leave me alone?"

"I will for now. This is a lot of emotion for you and I can tell you'll make me leave anyway. I suppose neither of us are very good with emotions though. Just remember to eat in the morning," Stefan said, his smirk fading as he left the tent. At least Stefan wasn't trying to force food on him on him this time, on top of him leaving him confused. Syrin sighed and sat down on his bedroll, moving his sleeve up to massage his arm. The whole conversation was more emotional than he was used to and he generally didn't give his emotions much thought, as emotions often made it difficult to think clearly. Sometime during that conversation, he was beginning to think a little irrationally and he hated that Stefan forced him into a weird situation like that. It was difficult to even think the conversation over after the fact but his mind clung onto every word and refused to leave him alone.

Stefan had a point. He didn't even know if he truly was following Ike's last wish. He was alive, he was surviving and by all means, he was living in the literal sense of the word. He felt the pain in his arm everyday, reminding him that he was the only surviving member of the mercenary company that was so beloved. Kaetar and Stefan seemed to have their own definition of living and it involved a lot more than just simply surviving. He hated thinking about it. He wanted to concentrate on the rebellion, not on what he was to do with his life after. That wasn't what was important. Syrin's life was never that important.

He had a hard time focusing. When he felt some relief of the pain inflicted by Stefan, Syrin crawled into his bedroll. He was done for the night. He was done with thinking, done with emotions, and he was done with Stefan.

Thankfully, he didn't dream that night.

Syrin ended up having a lot more narrative than I thought would happen. It already feels different from Kaetar. Hopefully there's enough dialogue to split it up a bit!

I don't usually answer reviews but I think I need some address some things!

SomeoneImportant: First, I think there are two good ways of keeping up with my story. One is to bookmark (or if you have way too many, just set the filters to Tellius and 100k words and my story should be near the top) and on the first of every month, go check for any update. I always upload at least once a month. This should work 95% of the time, the 5% being in case I'm crazy and upload two in one month. I think the only time I would really need to upload to is if I somehow miss the previous month. The second, and probably the best way, is to get an account here and follow my story. Every time I upload a new chapter, fanfiction will send you an email with the link to the newest chapter inside so you'll be notified if I am crazy. This is really helpful if you read several of fanfics that aren't completed yet. Up to you, but either should help!

The second point is yes, I'll probably rewrite some of it, at least the ones that have less than 5000 words since that's my new standard and apparently that's nice chapters! In fact, if you go back you'll notice a new prologue. Hopefully it's better. However, I'll be doing this during the duration of my story. For example, a new chapter update may also contain a rewritten chapter and I have some reasons for this. One, if I get writer's block, the least I can do is go back and rework something. The other is because I want to give the story the best chance to get people to read it. One of my biggest fears when I first began this was that I would reach the end and no one would have read it. I probably would have given up before I got that far if I didn't think that anyone cared for it. This story is one of my biggest projects, so I do want as many people to chime in as possible to let me know that I'm doing alright as a writer or if there can be any improvements. Also, writing with any older game when the newest is the easiest to get isn't exactly easy. My story gets drowned out by Awakening fanfics pretty easily, and while this is a good thing for the community because there's all this new life and new people who have been introduced, the previous continents get a little forgotten. Or really forgotten. This is kind of why I want the story to be on the front for as long as possible with hopefully a better prologue and some newly rewritten chapters to draw some readers in. It might a little greedy sounding, but I do want a project that's dear to me to do the best it can.

However, be assured that new chapters will come first. I won't hold a chapter just because the rewrite of another isn't done.

Ha, I rambled again. But wow, it's hard to believe that this story will be three this year. I would hope I would get better in three years.