Yay another update! And only three weeks after the last one! N E ways, to tell you this, I have a plot in my head, and I write down anything that goes through my mind that might help me continue with the story. For right now, I don't think I'll be updating that much… well, not every week or every two weeks kinda thing, since I have a lot of plot holes and writer's block in my story. But don't worry. I'll finish this story eventually (and usually eventually for me means not ever doing it, but I promise that I'll get this story done.). I've also been busy with school work, and you know how all of that goes. Since it's the end of the school year and finals are coming, teachers always give you a lot of work.

This chapter is a little longer than my other ones. So, it sort of makes it as a gift for people who were patient. N E ways, enough of me talking, enjoy chapter 8!

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Chapter 8: This and That

Caden woke up in a room that she wasn't familiar with. She sat up and looked at her surroundings. She was on a four-post bed. She was in a big room with accessories in there as if it were a modern castle bedroom. Caden stretched and rubbed her eyes. She moved to the edge of the bed and noticed that the only thing that someone took off of her was her boots. She put them back on, stood up and walked to the door. She opened it and she looked around; Matthew did take her into the castle and into a room as she was sleeping on his back. She took a couple of steps out and closed her door. Matthew appeared out of nowhere and Caden jumped; surprised that she saw him, and she fell down on her backside.

"Oh, ha, sorry about that. You're not used to me doing that, aren't you?"

"D-Do I look like I'm used to it?"

"Yeah, you're right."

Caden helped herself up and looked at Matthew.

"So um… how long have I been sleeping?"

"Just for a couple of hours, that's all. When we arrived at the castle, Lord Hector got some of his work done, but now he says that he's done with his work for today. He decided to push the rest of his work today for him to do tomorrow. Maybe you can talk to him now, if you want to."

"…Nah… Florina can do that. They need to have more time together."

"What makes you say that?"

She smirked, "Didn't you see them while we were traveling? Florina always tried to talk to Lord Hector, but then she was too shy, you know. Her Pegasus actually brought Lord Hector to Florina, Huey was probably too sick and tired about Florina being too scared to talk to Lord Hector by herself."

"Hey, that was true now that I think of it. So you're leaving them alone right now, are you some kind of matchmaker or something? Is this all falling according to your plan?"

"Yes, I am a matchmaker now that I think about it. And a second answer is a yes too; Florina was partly the reason why I came here. I have commanded people to stay at others' side for a while when we were traveling," she smiled now realizing that she was a matchmaker, "If it wasn't for me, I guess a lot of people wouldn't have met each other, you know. Not only did it help people like each other, a lot of others found their relatives who they haven't seen in a long time." (1)

"Hm, you're right. Since you're not going to talk to Lord Hector, what are you going to do now?"

"I feel… like talking and training."

"Alright then," he chuckled, "We have a training room on the first basement level of this castle. Let me show you where it is."

"Actually, I was thinking that I can work on my footwork outside."

"Oh, sure."

They went outside and Caden looked at the flora surrounding the castle. She loved the scenery, and she saw that there was a big open field on the right of the castle. She pointed there and looked at Matthew, and they decided to walk there. They walked near a big tree where there was a lot of shade, but Matthew decided to take his seat on a broken tree trunk nearby. Caden took out her sword and started practicing her moves. Matthew was watching as she was doing that. "Slash, turn, slash, thrust." She was saying in her head what her body should respond to. For a last move, she leaped forwards and extended her arm in front of her."Your sword handling is like watching a dance. What kind of style is it?"

Caden stopped, she was slightly blushing, "Well, it's my own style. I get some moves from other sword play styles."

"That sounds fun. How many different styles have you obtained?"

"I'd say… from the top of my head… about five different styles."

"So that means that you learned all the styles as we were traveling?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much what it is."

"Say, why don't we spar right now; your style against a thief's?"

"Err… um… I'm uh… not that good with a sword. As I said, I'm still an amateur."

"Well, part of learning how to use a sword is to use it in live combat. Why don't we do that now then?"

"I've done that in Caelin against Lady Lyn and a trainee over there, and we've fought the bandits off today in the village. I've had enough sparring for a month," she said trying to prove her point.

"Fine, fine, I'll ask you when you're ready."

"Thank you for under- ahhh!"

Caden didn't know that Matthew was like that. He leaped forward to Caden and took out his dagger in the process. He started swinging his dagger towards Caden's face. Caden still had her sword at hand, so she blocked his dagger with her sword. Her sword was only centimeters apart from her face.

"Looks like you have good reflexes."

"This is the second time this happened to me! Catching me off guard like that, that's not honorable!"

"I'm a thief, not a swordsman. I don't listen to all those rules," he said matter-of-factly.

Matthew was pushing his dagger and moving his face closer to hers. Caden was starting to get nervous, so she jumped backwards as she forced her sword forward so she could gain a half a second getting away. As Caden was leaping back, she raised her foot off the ground and when she landed, she stepped on her robe which jerked her neck downwards, which made her start falling backwards. Matthew ran up to her and caught her before she fell. "Whoa, he's that fast? I didn't notice him coming."

"I uh… err… thank you, Matthew," she said standing up as fast as she can.

"It looks like you're a good fighter."

Caden turned the other way, "I wouldn't think so."

"Why do you doubt yourself?"

"Because… I do. I tried using my sword skill years before to defend someone. It was only one slight mistake that I won. That was all luck, it wasn't my skill."

"That was years ago, probably when you were first learning. You have gained more knowledge with your sword skills, so you won't make the same mistake."

"No… that's not it. The reason why I didn't want to use the sword again was because I was weak minded, and I couldn't stand watching people die. I didn't want to watch that again."

"Someone can be killed when there are weapons involved. That's a given."

"No… you don't get it. I can't stand killing people instantly with my hands. No matter how bad they are, I didn't want to stand there and look at them as I took their life away, I was more weak minded when I actually saw them die before my eyes. When I was first traveling, the one who I was traveling with, Bayle, made that suggestion for me. He did the 'duties' that I didn't want to do. Sometimes I would use my sword to weaken them. Or when I cut off the limbs of the people, they would die after I leave…" She raised the sword in her hand so she could see it. "But that's all. That one mistake... with that one mistake, I killed someone when I was there to see it. After that, I said that I would become stronger. I did for a little while, but every time, I would mess up, and that mess up would cost me my life... or theirs if I used it in real battle."

"… Bayle? You were traveling with someone before Lady Lyndis?"

She tried to get her mind out of her depressing state, and to Matthew's question, "Yes, I started my journey about five years ago. About six months before I met Lady Lyn, I was traveling with Bayle."

"So then, putting it together by what you said earlier today, Bayle was the one that you liked."

She turned to face Matthew and nodded her head, "I did like him. But he died. It's hard to talk about it now, and that's probably another story if you want to hear it… and remind me that you want to hear it."

"That would mean that it was hard for you seeing us fight the enemies, right?"

"Well, I've gotten used to it, seeing others kill other people. All I'm weak minded of is when I do it."

Caden put her sword back in its sheath, and Matthew put his dagger back in its holster.

"Alright, that's enough for one day. I'm going to rest."

Caden lied down on the grass; she looked up and closed her eyes. Matthew sat next to her.

"Ah… it has been a while since I have rested like this."

"Oh yeah? You must have been working yourself hard for a while then," Matthew said sitting next to her.

"Not even recently. I've been pushing myself to harder and harder for several years. I never gave myself a very long break, until now. I haven't rested this long, or worked my mind this little ever since they day I left my family in Etruia. Once I started my journey to becoming a tactician, I would always work myself very hard."

"Now that you mention it, you're from Etruia? And how did you become a tactician?"

"Yes, I'm from Etruia. And well err… it was all because I was selfish, to put it simply."

"You were selfish? I don't get it."

"Another day, another story. It's a long story, and I don't want to bore you to death."

"I wouldn't think you would bore me. I'm interested about your life."

Caden opened her eyes, took her eyes off from the clear blue sky and averted her eyes towards Matthew, "Really?"

"Yeah, you're a young tactician, possibly younger than half of the people we traveled with, I know that you're a few years younger than me. You were an inexperienced strategist when Lady Lyndis first met you, and now you have become one of the most famous tacticians in Elibe."

"I wouldn't say Elibe. More like Lycia, Bern, and possibly Etruia as well."

"Still, that's pretty amazing though. We started traveling together about three years ago, didn't we? And look where you are now."

Matthew was right. In only three years, she's about as well known as a marquess. Most of the military men in Elibe knew her, she couldn't not admit it.

"Why do you always have to be right, Matthew?" she asked sounding slightly annoyed but joking.

"Eh… I don't know. I guess that's just me," he said.

"Hm… I see. You know, I'm interested about your life too. You being a spy and all, don't you get to see a lot of interesting things?"

"Well, I guess you can say that. Spying is fun from time to time, like when I went with you and Lady Lyndis to go to Caelin."

"That was your job back then?"

"Yes, it was. Lord Uther asked me to check on what all this commotion was about on Lord Hausen's granddaughter. I was sent to spy on your progress, and what better way of keeping check on her than to join your numbers?" (2)

"Yes, I see. It makes sense. I thought you were supposed to keep your missions a secret. Why are you telling me this?"

"Well, it's over already, and what I'm telling you wouldn't seriously affect something big."

"Right… got it. But as we have both experienced, spying can be dangerous too."

Matthew nodded his head.

"So then, back to talking about you, are you going to tell me how you became tactician?"

"Sure I'll tell you… some other day, as I said so earlier. You don't need to know all about me in one day. I'm staying in Ostia for a while."

"Yeah, alright then. I know what you mean."

After Caden rested for a while, she stood back up and smoothed her robe.

"I guess I'll just stay in the castle for the rest of the day. I'll most likely be in the library, studying."

"Isn't being in the library and studying working your mind? I thought you said you wanted to rest."

"Matthew…" she sighed and looked down. "Yes, you're right, but studying in the library for me is like a small way to work my mind. I don't have to think on my feet and think of the consequences for my actions… unless it's 'What if I read this book first' or 'Damn, I shouldn't have read this one; it's horrible!'"

Caden chuckled after her joke, and Matthew did too.

"Well then, maybe I should accompany you. As I said, you're interesting, and I would like to see what you read. Maybe it's a good time for me to look at a book as well."

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I asked Bayle about his way to attain information and use that to tie in with his sword play. He was more than happy to tell me, and he even showed me some of the techniques that he has made up himself. During those times, he said that the way I could get better was if I used it if we were fighting seriously. The only way we could fight seriously was if we ran into bandits, which happened often since it was only the two of us traveling.

When I was first starting out, he noticed as we were fighting the bandits, I would seriously wound them, not kill them. He asked me about that, and told me the consequences of doing that.

"If you leave someone alive as dangerous as he is, he can gather more people and conspire against us. That wouldn't be too good for us, you know. Cutting the arms and legs off of a person sometimes doesn't kill them."

"Y-Yes, I get it."

"Alright, that's good."

"But… Bayle, I'm not… I can't kill anybody. I can't even kill animals to save myself. I hate thinking that I've killed someone or something. That's why I don't stab them in their chest where they could die instantly."

"Hm… well, if you can't do that then, I'll kill the people for you. Just weaken your enemy, and I'll kill them for you."

"Err… that sounds funny, but I'll go with it. Thank you, Bayle."

"It's better to be safe than sorry. But you know, you're going to have to grow some backbone sooner or later. I'm not going to stand up for you all the time."

"…Liar."

He smiled, "Haha, we'll see about that."

Bayle rubbed my head which messed up my hair. I got mad and swung my hand to hit Bayle, but Bayle ducked and he made me miss. He smiled and laughed at me. I tried to hit Bayle again but Bayle was running away from me. I chased after him, but he was faster. Without second guessing, I decided to take out my fire tome, opened it, and did the only spell that I knew and did horrible to conjure most of the time. I chanted and fire came from under me and shot towards Bayle. From there, Bayle was hit with the fireball, but only his robe was caught, so he jumped down and started rolling to put out the fire. As he was doing that, I caught up to him, and waited until he was done.

"Geez, I knew that you had a fire tome with you, but I thought you said you only use it for emergency purposes."

"This was an emergency purpose. I needed to avenge for my hair that you messed up, and because you evaded my first attempt to hit you."

I knelt down to look at him, and I tapped my chin, "Perhaps this isn't enough of a payback than I deserve."

"Hey, you got me with your fire spell, and getting me like this, resorting to falling on my knees, is a huge thing to do, alright? I think you have more than enough payback from me," he said with a smile.

I smiled back, and helped him up, and that was that. It was fun having Bayle around. He's talkative, outgoing, and he acts like a kid sometimes. He's also very thoughtful, there was no way that I wouldn't start liking him… and start to fall in love with him. That was inevitable.

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"Father is not here in this world, but yet he talks to me in my sub-conscious," Robbin said.

"What is he saying to you?"

"Not really much saying… it's more like… he's trying to show me images… like parts of his life."

"What kind of parts?"

"…Last time I saw, it was a group of people. One had red hair, another was a woman who had long green hair, and another young man with blue hair. All of them looked somewhat noble. There was also someone else in the vision. This person had reddish-brown colored hair, and she had a big dull green colored robe on."

"Yes, I see. Father was probably showing you the ones who we should go after. If we run into somebody who looks like the person in the vision, tell me, and we'll take care of them."

"What if they were innocents?"

"It doesn't matter. Everyone in the world should die."

"If that should happen, wouldn't we need some more people accompany us so we could ambush them?"

"Not to worry, dear sister. Father has left us yet another present if something like this happened."

He took out another book from his small bag that he brought around; the book was filled with spells and chants. He turned to a page where it said how Nergal made his morphs.

"Hm… it says right here that in order to make these morphs, we need energy that's called 'quintessence,'" Dugan said.

"Oh really? So how does it say we can get this quintessence?"

Dugan read Nergal's entry silently, and evilly smiled, "It seems simple. Don't worry; we can get quintessence as easily as conjuring magic. Leave it to me. But making these morphs will take a lot of time…"

"We don't need to avenge Father that quickly, we can wait for a couple of years or something."

"Yes, we need to take care of avenging Father's death as soon as possible. Never mind the idea about the morphs then, we'll just recruit some more people to work with us. It's a better idea. But this quintessence, it looks like it can become really useful."

"Dugan, I thought when we were first leaving, you said that you had your own little group with you. So, where are they?"

"I have my connections. They're… scattered, and they would come to me when I need them."

"They sound more like servants more than friends."

"Shush, big sis," he said knowing that she was right, "They're my friends. I have known them for a while, and they don't wait for me on their hands and knees."

"Dugan… Oh… never mind. I'll ask you some other time."

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Hector was generous enough to give Florina and Caden a room with two beds. Florina wanted to talk to Caden at night, so they stayed in the same room. Florina was already under the sheets, ready to go to sleep. Caden came into the room and went to her bed. She sat on the edge and started taking off her boots.

"Hey, Florina, how did everything go with Lord Hector?"

"I-It's was… alright. I… I um actually had the courage to talk to Lord Hector this time. Actually, he did most of the talking, and I would reply once in a while. And he was the one who walked up to me."

Although Caden wasn't looking at her, she could tell that she sounded shy. Caden laughed.

"Haha, typical of you, Florina. You need to learn how to speak up, you know. Did I ever tell you, before I was traveling, I was like you. I was really shy, and it was hard for me to talk to others."

"No, you haven't told me before. And how did that all change?"

"…Bayle. Practically everything about me that you see before you, it was because of Bayle."

"You learned a lot from Bayle then, right?"

"…Yes, I did. I have experienced a lot as I was traveling with him, good and bad."

Florina didn't want to talk anymore about Bayle, and neither did Caden. Once Caden took off her boots, she blew the candle out, took off her robe and went under the sheets.

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End of Chapter 8: This and That

Author's note:

I kinda think that part of the dialogue in this chapter is a little lame or confusing.

1) It's a spoiler on this note if you haven't read Dart-Rebecca, Dart-Wil, and Canas-Nino A supports as well as Karel-Karla. There are some surprising things, and the not so surprising ones.

(Spoiler starts) I don't know if they told you that or not, but as it's a little obvious, Karel and Karla are brother and sister. Dart may be Rebecca's brother, you know Dan, the one that left with will about five years ago and never came backIf you would like to know what happened to him, I'll tell you: Wil and Dan first left Rebecca's village so they could make money for their family. They separated when they were at port Badon (I don't know if they gave a reason) and that was the last time they saw each other. Something happened to Dan, and he was bloody and everything, just laying there on the port, he couldn't move. Fargus saved Dan's life and in exchange for Dan's life, all of Dan's memories were gone. He forgot everything. So, I think Fargus started calling him Dart, that's why he became a pirate, because Fargus saved him. Or that's what the story says. N E ways, as for Canas and Nino's support, Canas might be Nino's uncle because Nino's real mother's name is the same one as Canas's wife's sister. Did that make sense? (Spoiler ends) Wow, this is a big note, haha.

2) Chapter 7 of Lyn's story, or that one chapter with all the shamans and when you get Nils. Hector is in one of those houses on the bottom of the map. If you visit it with Matthew, Hector actually has a conversation with him unlike if you let someone else visit him. Otherwise, he'll just talk to himself about why Eliwood is so late, haha.