Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think another 4 weeks have elapsed since my last update. Sorry guys, I wanted to get this story finished and written before I lost my full interest in this, but that hasn't worked at all for me.

There are some school things that have been occupying me at the moment, like projects, and reading books, and studying (which I need to get accustomed to this year because I never really had to study for classes before because of my good memory. And me having a slight case of senioritis.)

Someone (who will be remained anonymus unless they would like me to announce his/her username) requested another Fire Emblem fic. I am currently working on that one and concurrently working on this one. (getting ideas from time to time.)

And then there are other things that have been occupying me at the moment. Like Final Fantasy XII coming out and me playing it every free time I get XD. And my brother hogging my PS2 for him playing Guitar Hero. (I observe him playing since he's in my room. I play once in a while, but my brother has surpassed me a while ago.) Me having a comic idea in my head (Because of my friends, I am now interested in Shounen-ai, and the comic I'm thinking of is a shounen-ai as I hate to admit it. Sorry if you have to read this people who dislike shounen-ai.) Me just drawing a picture because I have something in my head. And then there's me just watching TV and doing my daily stuff on the internet. And the last but maybe the most important, me procrastinating..

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Chapter 12: Recover

Caden was unconscious. Even when she was traveling with Lord Eliwood and the others, she wasn't knocked out as much as she is now; but this time, the enemies were going after her too. But since they were going after her for revenge because of Nergal, that would mean that those two would go after the lords too. "I need help. And no ones around… I think. Where is everybody?"

Caden decided to open her eyes when she had the strength to. Regaining her strength already? She must have been sleeping for a couple of days… or even weeks. Weeks?! That means that Nergal's son must have made his way in Lycia already trying to get to the three Lords! This isn't good! With that thought, she quickly opened her eyes and sat up, which she regretted right about when she did it. She felt a searing pain all over, especially around her lower body. She felt like she was it with an Elfire magic many times.

"Ow," she groaned. When she had the time to look around, she saw that she wasn't outside. She woke up in a small house, on a bed, and it this house didn't look one bit familiar.

"Huh? Where am I? Are we in Etruia or Lycia?" On that note of observing, she looked at her arms, and she saw that her arms were bandaged, and she felt part of her face bandaged too. "What happened to me? Last thing I remember… oh yes… Dugan… and Robbin…"

She heard a door open, so her eyes followed the sound. She saw a little kid walk by, along with Matthew right behind him.

"Caden!" Matthew said, "You're alright!"

"Heh, not right now I'm not," she said with a weak smile, "I just sat up, and I'm sore all over."

She averted her eyes from Matthew to the kid. She looked at him as if he was familiar. A memory clicked in her mind as she looked at his wrist and saw the bracelet she gave to someone.

"Hey, you're that kid I helped a few weeks ago in Caelin."

"Really? No wonder this kid helped you. I was carrying you around, and then he passed by. He looked at you, and tugged me to follow him. Then he took me here, to his home."

She looked around the room she was in again, and looked at the kid.

"Do you live here by yourself?"

The boy nodded.

"What's your name?"

He stared at her and then looked depressed and looked down. She looked up at Matthew.

"I found out that he is a mute, so I don't know his name yet."

"Oh, I see. Well, thankfully for me, I know that language that I can use for him. Since you can't talk, can you sign?" Caden asked signing the last sentence. (1)

The kid looked surprised, but in a good way. He started signing back to her, he seemed really happy that he could talk…sign to someone.

"'Yes! …I'm happy you can understand me and these hand signs… I've been…' …? H-Hold on, sorry. I can understand your signs; I just can't catch up with what you're signing since you're signing a little too fast than what I can process. Can you go a little slower?"

Matthew was looking at the two signers. There was another thing that surprised Matthew, another thing that he, or anyone else knew about her. He felt a little out of place, but Caden was generous enough to translate it for him.

"'I remembered you as this man passed by… I saw the necklace I gave you, and I remembered what you did for me. He asked me for my name, and I showed him that I couldn't talk.' I see. So what is your name anyway?"

The boy lifted up his hand again and started spelling out letters.

"K… A… I. His name is Kai. Oh? 'I can hear you just fine. You don't have to sign back to me.' Haha, sorry, I just wanted to do it. You don't mind, do you?... 'No, I don't mind. I'm just happy that someone understands me. The last time I talked to someone was three years ago.' Three years? Wow, you learned hand signs in three years? How did you do it? 'We had a book of hand signs. The place where my family lived had a few deaf people, so part of my family learned hand signs to communicate with them.' I see. Where's your family?"

Kai looked down again. He signed another sentence.

"Caden, what did he say?"

"… He said… All of his family members died… by him. What happened? When did this happen? Was something wrong?... 'This happened years ago. I felt like I was being used by another person. It felt like someone was controlling me. I used magic on my own family. After I killed them, this person silenced me so I would never speak of what he did to me, or use magic again.' Do you remember who did this to you?"

He was thinking and then he spelled out something. "N… E…" Kai went on as they were observing. He signed the last couple of letters, and Caden gasped, Matthew was curious.

"… Nergal… Nergal did this to him."

"What? Nergal? But we killed him months ago. I know I don't know that much about magic, but if they're dead, the caster's curses won't work anymore, right?"

"Well, that is true. Huh? … 'The curse HAS been lifted. I was able to talk again, but I don't talk now since I don't have anyone to talk to. My family is gone, and I had no other friends than them. I've been alone for years, but I've managed to survive and stay sane this whole time. After I met you, I became stronger and I taught myself how to fight.' That's good. But, we're here, why aren't you talking?" He stayed quiet, and looked at Caden with disappointed eyes. "'I have my reasons.' Well… okay. Um… about teaching yourself how to fight, that's pretty good! Have you used it on anybody? 'Once or twice.'"

Now as Caden was realizing it, she did see that he looked a bit different since she last saw him.

"Kind of like you, Caden; self taught and independent."

Caden looked at Matthew and smiled. Kai tapped on the tactician's shoulder to get her attention. She looked at him and Kai signed something.

"Oh… sure, alright then. Be safe, it's almost dark."

He snapped his finger and looked upset. He signed something else and Caden said, "Okay then, I get it. Just be safe; that is all I ask. … Yes, yes, I know."

Kai was walking down and Caden looked at Matthew, "He said that he's going to the nearby town to get some food and supplies."

Kai popped up beside Matthew and started signing again.

"Sure, we'd be more than happy to. We've been traveling a lot, so it's a good time today."

He nodded and made his way out of the door.

"He asked me if we could stay for another night. He said that he hasn't had anybody over in a while and he likes the company. Kai doesn't want us to leave so soon."

"Well, that's nice of him."

"Yes… he's very nice."

"But I was wondering, where did you meet him again and what happened?"

"I met him in Caelin, at a town. He stole something, but then I paid it off for him. He thanked me with this necklace, and I gave him gold and that bracelet he was wearing. By the way, where are we?"

"We're about an hour away from the borderline of Ostia and Etruia. So now that we're here, how much further are we until we get to your place?"

"About a week if we keep on moving. I haven't been there in five years, but I still remember where it is."

Caden lied back down trying to get that pain when she sat up too fast to subside. "Now that I think of it, Caelin is on the other side of Lycia. How did he…? Why was he…? Eh… I'll think of that later."

"It seems that… even though he's not here anymore, Nergal's spirit still runs around… during our travels, the enemies we face, and in our memories. I wonder why? Um… does… does Kai look familiar to you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean… that he looks like someone we know."

"You're probably confusing yourself with the first time you met him."

"No, that's not it. It feels like he's someone we've known for a long time. He's at the tip of my tongue… I just can't put my finger on it. Damn, this is going to frustrate me for a while, like everything else. There are a lot of things that are frustrating me now! Damn, why is that?"

"Don't think too hard, Caden. You just regained consciousness a moment ago. I don't want you to become unconscious again because of frustration," he said sitting at the edge of the bed beside Caden.

"Heh… actually, losing consciousness seems like a good idea since I always have so much on my mind."

"You can't joke around like that now since what happened. I was worried about you."

She looked at Matthew, "… Worried?"

"Yes! You were unconscious for a couple of days already. The moment you passed out, I gave you an elixir, but after that you didn't wake up. On that subject… you said something that didn't make sense to me."

"Err… what did I say?"

"'Like father like son' or something like that."

"Ah, yes… about that. Before they attacked me, they revealed themselves to be Nergal's children."

Matthew looked slightly confused. "… Say that again? I think my ears have deceived me."

"I'm not joking. Dugan said that he was the son of Nergal, and Robbin was Nergal's daughter, too."

"That's… are you sure?"

"I couldn't believe it myself too, but I studied Dugan and Robbin's appearance closely, and they both did somewhat look like Nergal. What's more of a mystery to me is how old they are… and who their mother is."

"I was thinking the same thing."

"Yes, and if you remember Lord Athos's story, he's more than 500 years old! I wonder how old Nergal was when he had those kids." (2)

"I agree…"

When the pain in Caden's lower body went away, she slowly sat up.

"Caden, you should get some rest."

"I've already had enough time to rest. I want to get up."

"It's too early for you. You had burns and magic residue on you. They don't look like they'll be disappearing for a while."

"I can see that I'm bandaged up, but as you've said, I've been lying down here for a couple of days. I feel like stretching, or standing up… I just want to do something instead of lying down," she complained.

Matthew sighed. "Alright then, I'll help you around."

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"I still don't get why you spared the woman when you said you were going to kill her at that time," Dugan's sister said as they were walking.

"All in due time. You'll find out later about my plan, but right now, I'm going to get more information about this woman."

"And how will you do that?"

"When I said that I had my own 'group,' I didn't say that they would be traveling with me. They're scattered around Elibe just in case I need to get information about them. I had a friend stationed in Caelin, and you know him too, Robbin."

They walked near the Caelin castle, but not going up the hill that it was on. Instead, they stationed themselves in the forest filled area so that they can have a space for privacy. They knew that they weren't going to get any closer, so they used their magic to bring out whom Dugan needed. A young trainee appeared in front of them, he looked to see what was going on, and then he saw the two familiar faces.

"Ah, Dugan… how nice to see you again. And Robbin, it's a pleasure to see you again as well."

"Cut the crap, Bayle. There's something I need to ask you."

"What is it?"

"There are these people who we are trying to look for. We've passed this one woman with reddish-brown hair with a robe that looked like she was a traveler. Have you met her before?"

Bayle looked the other way with a disgusted face. "… Her name is Caden. She was the tactician for Lady Lyndis's army when they went to destroy your father."

"Caden… so that's the brown haired one. And Lyndis… she must be the one with the long green hair. Were there other nobles on the journey?" Robbin asked.

"I'm surprised you haven't heard of this army. They were traveling around in Lycia, Bern, and in Sacae. Caden especially is famous for her tactics for keeping everyone alive while they were fighting. You must've been sleeping under a rock if you didn't know that."

"Stop it with your quick remarks and answer the damn question," Dugan snapped.

"Looks like you haven't changed one bit, Dugan. Yes, there were two other nobles: Lord Eliwood of Pherae and Lord Hector of Ostia."

"Now that I think of it, you sounded like you have a grudge against Caden. I noticed how you mentioned her name," Robbin said.

"That bitch won a spar against me and her. I even took the initiative."

"It's not like you to be beaten by someone else other than us."

"I was hiding my true power against her. Even if I didn't show her my true strength, I still don't like losing."

"That's just like you, Bayle. It looks like you haven't changed at all, too."

"Yeah, if you want to take out me pretending to be 'sworn to protecting Caelin at all costs.'"

"I didn't tell you to become one of Caelin's ranks. You did that to yourself."
"It's a good cover-up, I think. They would not expect me to be against them. So, Dugan, why did you call me out here? I know it's more than me giving you information."

"This might grab your attention. How would you like to have another go at Caden?"

"You serious?"

"Yes. We passed by her a few days ago. She seemed like she was going to Etruia. If we find her, and anyone related to her, we can destroy her and that would be the end of her tactician career."

"Why not go for the nobles first?"

"You idiot. If we kill the nobles, it would be controversial. As you said, Caden is popular, but she's not a noble. If she dies, it won't have as much as an impact as if we killed Lyndis."

"That makes sense. This might prove useful then too: I overheard my 'trainers' talking about Caden going to Etruia to meet her family."

"My, that is very useful."

"And when we were fighting, she was surprised when she heard my name. It turns out that she used to love someone named Bayle. If I remember, your father knew how to bring people back to life and under his control. Maybe reviving the Bayle she knew and loved will weaken her when she sees him."

"That's a great idea… but we'll wait until the time comes for that. Right now, let's get this tactician. I have a plan."

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End of Chapter 12: Recover

Author's Note:

Ah, screw putting this story on hold. I'll probably just update when I get a chapter typed up now. They might be coming at month's intervals though if you guys don't mind. Whelp… that settles that for now.

1) Here's one thing I actually know! I'm taking a sign language class and I'm learning how to sign. I'm on my third year.

2) I don't remember the exact story that Athos told, because I forgot how long ago it was when Athos and Nergal were friends.