Chapter 5: Consolation

Disclaimer: I don't own anything by Namco.

…Well, I said that I didn't consider the conversation from Chapter 4 to be an argument. However, that particular type of conversation does need consolation of a type. Right now, Kratos and Anna are both sad because Kratos doesn't know what's going on with his mind and Anna thinks Kratos should have told her the consequences before they did anything.

At this point, I think I've accomplished something that perhaps no one's noticed: neither the women from Hima (there are two, but there could be three) nor the healer in Luin has a name, and yet both parties have had sufficient character development. This talent comes from having absolutely no skill in remembering peoples' names. If you possess that talent, you would be amazed at the number of conversations you can have without knowing someone's name. If you're like me and you can't remember someone's name five minutes after you've met them, then you know already.

Fehize, TheLonelyPixie, Baby Kat Snophlake, and Shippounsangouffe for all the great comments!

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Anna hugged Lloyd for a minute simply because she needed to hold something; then she looked into his wide, innocent brown eyes and knew that she had to talk to Kratos.

So, she lay Lloyd down on the bed and walked into the main room of their house.

"Anna… I don't want to talk right now. I have no idea what to do…"

"That's why you need to talk! You've spent two thousand years on your own, and it worked for you. But now, things are different. Now that you have emotions, you need someone there for you! You need to say something about it. Telling someone always helps."

She sat down next to him and he lowered his head even further.

"You don't understand."

"Not at all."

Pause.

"Why are you trying to?"

"I love you, Kratos. I would do anything for you. So, I want you to be happy. And you can only be happy if you realize what's happening to you."

"Anna, I can't! I've been trying to!"

"Kratos… Calm down, Kratos. How long have you been thinking about this?"

"All this time."

"With who?"

"I talked to Yuan once…"

"I think you need to talk to a mortal."

"You're right… Why is it that whenever it doesn't matter, you can have a hot temper, but the one time I get mad, you're perfectly calm?"

"Exactly."

"Huh?"

"See, you've done just about everything, so your reactions are perfectly predictable. You have everything down to a science. But there's something in my mind that tells me what I can do and what I need to do. You needed me to be calm right then, or we would have gotten into a huge argument and we would think we were too different and split up. We can't yell at each other now. This is too important."

"That still makes no sense."

"Maybe you've made too much sense for too long."

"Huh? What are you saying, Anna?"

"Emotions are nonsense. They affect our actions in weird ways. They're the reason we cry, and fall in love, and do just about everything. But, being mortal is having emotions. They can be so much fun! …And you've made them better. Now, when I'm sad, I feel happy that I'm sad. …But then I feel sorry for you. When was the last time you felt sad, Kratos?"

"When Martel's exsphere was merged with the Great Tree."

"Really? And you haven't been sad since then? Think, Kratos."

"Just… Just now."

"Mm-hm."

"But, I thought that wasn't sad. I thought it was confused and angry."

"'Sad' is a pretty general emotion. Usually, if you're both confused and angry, you're sad. If there's ever anything you want to know about impulses or feelings or anything, I can try to explain them to you. Then you'll know what's going on and we won't have conversations like that one a minute ago."

"No."

Then there was a pause as they both thought for a second.

"You know what? I'll go make us some lunch. Food always makes me feel better."

"Heh. Okay."

"What do you want, Kratos?"

"Don't care."

"C'mon! Pick something!"

"What are you having?"

"Noodles with stuff."

"Okay. I'll have that."

So, she set a pot of broth on to boil and got out her ingredients. They were both relatively content for the next few minutes. Then they heard bawling from the bedroom.

"Oh! Lloyd! It's okay, sweetie, I'm coming!" Kratos could hear her murmuring to her child, then a couple minutes later, she came out holding a happy Lloyd.

"He needed to be changed."

"Mmh."

She went into the kitchen to check her broth, saw it was boiling, and put all the vegetables, meat, and noodles in with one hand.

Then they waited a few minutes for the soup to be done. Anna cuddled Lloyd, Kratos went into their bedroom to get a book, and everything was okay again.

Kratos, in his reading, managed to forget everything that was horrible about his life: Mithos, being on the run, even Anna and Lloyd's future death was of no concern to him. But he found that reading was different than it had been before. This time, when he read his book (he had read this particular one hundreds of times) he found that he wanted the main character to be triumphant.

Was this really what he had lost nearly two thousand years ago?

Now that he could identify emotion and feelings, he didn't ever want to be without them again. He had understood, in his reading, what the character was feeling, but now he felt that he understood it better. When the hero was in mourning for his sister, who died in the beginning of the book, Kratos felt vaguely sad.

He was brought out of his reading by Anna saying, "If you don't come to the table, Kratos, I'm going to dump your soup on your lap. I've been sitting here for about a minute and I want my food."

He closed his book, set it down, and walked to the table. "Thank you, Anna. It smells wonderful." Anna smiled, blushing a bit. She had Lloyd in her left arm and had to eat with her right hand, which looked so awkward that eventually Kratos took him from her so that she could eat in peace, reminding her that he couldn't feel hot or cold. The soup would be the same no matter when he ate it.

"Thank you, Kratos. I guess I'm still really new at this."

"It's expected."

"Hehe… Yeah, I know."

He played with Lloyd (Of course, you can't play too violently with a newborn child, so this consisted mainly of bouncing him up and down) while Anna had her noodles, then Lloyd was hungry so Kratos passed him over, then proceeded to eat his food.

.-..-..-.

It had been a little over a year since Lloyd had been born. He could walk exceedingly well, but he didn't talk. He cried, yelled, and pointed, but he didn't talk.

"I think he's dumb."

"No he isn't, Kratos. He's smart. If you look into his eyes, you can tell he's intelligent. I think he's just content. Maybe he doesn't feel the need to talk."

Lloyd nodded his head and made a sound like "uh."

"See? He talks! …Just, not the way we do."

"Heh. That's –" Anna heard a series of beeps playing a melody and Kratos pulled from his pocket a small metallic box with symbols on it, which he pulled in half (it was hinged on one side) and talked to.

"Yeah? … Yuan? … What?! Really? … Okay. We will. Thanks, Yuan. … Okay. We'll be there. … Yeah, bye."

Then he turned to Anna.

"Mithos knows."

Anna had to think for a few seconds, trying to recall the name, then something clicked in her mind. She ran into the next room and he heard a shelf bang open.

"Only pack necessities. No more than that. Yuan's going to meet us outside of town. I'll pack food."

A minute later, Anna came back into the room.

"I've got my stuff and Lloyds, and some of your things." Then she picked up Lloyd and walked to the door. Kratos followed behind her, then they left and Anna asked Kratos how long it would take.

"Not long." So she started running in the opposite direction. Kratos yelled after her, but she didn't stop.

She soon returned, however. "I've told the healer. She can be out of town in a few minutes. We have to go to Hima."

"The Desians are on a specific mission, not a general one. If they wanted prisoners, they wouldn't all have been sent out. Hima will be safe."

"We can't take chances! They've been my friends for years!"

"Anna, I promise you: Those women will be perfectly safe come morning. But, we might not be. We have to do this as quickly as possible!"

So, without another word, Anna followed him out of town.

Sure enough, Yuan was there with two birdlike contraptions. Both were big enough to hold two people.

"It's about time you got here! Get onto the rheairds! Kratos, can you call on Origin to get them to fly? I've just about used up my mana getting them here."

Kratos did a summoning spell and a man with four arms appeared. Then he turned into an odd, sphere-like ball of what Anna could only assume to be mana and Kratos made Anna sit on one of the bird-things. Then he and Yuan boarded the other and the two began to fly, heading for the Triet Desert. They landed directly outside of a big, round, turquoise-colored building and entered it.

When they entered, Anna screamed.

"Anna, it's okay! These people work for me. They're not Desians."

"Yuan runs an organization called the Renegades, which actively fights Cruxis."

"But… They… They look like…"

"I know. It's so that we won't be discovered. Many years ago, me, Kratos, and a select few others were given human ranches. We could do with them what we willed, but we had a certain quota of exspheres to produce."

"Kratos, you run a human ranch?!"

"Not anymore. A few years ago, I gave mine to a half-elf named Kvar. It's the one recognized as being near Luin; it's just north of Lake Umacy. Yuan's was the one near Iselia. After awhile, we realized that it wasn't worthwhile to produce exspheres."

"So… You stopped enslaving and killing people because it wasn't worthwhile?!"

"I had better things to do with my life. Also, the half-elves who worked for me only respected me out of fear. I could tell they disliked me because I was a human."

"But… Yuan…"

"As a half-elf, I used to have a lot of hatred towards humans and elves. Then, I realized that it was my fault, too, because I hated humans and elves more than they disliked me, so I started to fight it."

"Wow… That was such a strong thing to do!"

"Yeah. But, it made sense. I mean, anger just leads to more anger, so I handed over my ranch. And, I'm glad I did because then I realized what human ranches did and formed the Renegades."

"Wow… Do you do anything like that, Kratos?"

"No. I just fight as a mercenary sometimes."

"Oh…"

All of this time, they had been walking deeper into the turquoise igloo. Now, Yuan opened a door. Inside, there were elegant furnishings including a desk, a chair, a plant, a rug, and wallpaper.

"You two should stay here. I'll act as though I'm looking for you and sending my renegades out to look for Kratos in Triet. They supposedly don't know what you look like, Anna."

"I'm fine with that. They scare me."

"What? Why?"

"Because I've been taught my entire life to be afraid of Desians. So, now, there's something in the back of my mind that tells me to fear them even when I know I'm not supposed to."

"Oh… I'm sorry."

"It's okay. You're doing your best to undermine Cruxis, right?"

"Heh… Yeah."

And Yuan left Kratos and Anna on their own.

There was a pause, but then Kratos was worried about Anna because she didn't usually go that long without speaking.

"Are you okay?"

"No." He hadn't expected to hear that come out of her mouth.

"Why not?"

"Isn't it terrifying? Aren't you scared, Kratos? You and me and Lloyd are stuck in a room together and we have no idea what's going on outside. Yuan could be betraying us right now and we wouldn't know it."

"No. Yuan would never do anything like that. He would have to have us outside of one of his Renegade bases, and then he'd have to admit that he knew where we were and hadn't immediately reported it to Mithos, which would make him a traitor and his punishment would be at least as bad as ours."

"You're really afraid of Mithos, aren't you?"

"Have been for thousands of years. No reason to stop now."

"Mmh."

Lloyd, who had been left to his own devices, had climbed up onto the desk. He was standing on the edge of it, and Anna noticed. "Lloyd!" She ran over to grab him before he fell and reached him just in time. "Thank goodness. It's okay, sweetness…" She continued to croon to him as Kratos walked over to them.

Then she looked up at him, saying, "Well, I can't say I'm not happy that he's strong enough to climb all the way up there, but he's going to hurt himself one of these days if he keeps doing things like this."

"He'll do worse."

"Huh?"

"He's adventurous. He's going to cut himself to ribbons over the course of his childhood. We can only accept it as something he does."

She clutched Lloyd closer. "What?!"

"It's just something little boys do. Don't think anything of it."

"Oh…" Se put Lloyd back on the floor. He immediately headed for the desk and was halfway up it when she pulled him off.

"No!"

Anna gasped. "His first word! Kratos, did you hear it? It was his first word! Great job, Lloyd! That was really good!"

Kratos smiled smugly to himself. "His first word was 'no' because you kept him from climbing up a desk. I'm not really sure that's a good thing."

"Oh, come on. There's a situation for everything. I'm just happy to know he's not mute or anything!"

They heard footsteps. "Ssh." Kratos quietly drew his sword. Anna could hear it ring faintly as she went, with her hand over Lloyd's mouth, to crouch behind the desk. She hadn't thought to bring her chainsphere since she hadn't used it in a year anyway, but if she had, her first thought would have been to protect her son, so she would be behind the desk anyway.

After several minutes and no other suspicious sounds, Kratos relaxed. Anna followed suit and started to play with Lloyd to help calm him down.

After awhile, Yuan came into the room. On hearing the door open, Kratos unsheathed his sword and Anna tensed up, gazing like a deer into a hunter's lamp. Then they realized it was Yuan and calmed down. Kratos replaced his sword. Anna picked up Lloyd and stood up. They both walked closer to the door.

"Mithos isn't coming. If he were, he would have come here immediately."

"Well, he would have had to have gone all the way down those stairs, and climbed over the mountains, and come into the desert. It could definitely take longer than a half-hour!"

Yuan revealed his wings. "Not with wings, he wouldn't. He could have flown down through the center, as Kratos and I do, then flown over the mountain and into the desert. It wouldn't have taken him more than fifteen minutes, and as you've said, it's been over half an hour."

"What should we do then?"

Kratos and Yuan looked at her sadly, waiting for her to realize what had to happen.

"You mean…? …But I can't leave Sylvarant! This is my home! I've lived here all of my life!"

"Anna… Would you rather you give up your home, with your friends all perfectly safe, or your life and those of Lloyd and me?"

She looked down. "I guess… we have to leave. I'm sorry, Yuan. I know we've been a lot of trouble to you…"

"Think nothing of it. Now, if you leave with the rheairds, you can use the transporter at the top of this base to get into Tethe'alla. I would suggest that you stay in either Flanoir or Meltokio. If the Desians find you, go to either the Temple of Darkness, the Temple of Earth, or – if you're in Flanoir – the Temple of Ice. The Desians won't go into them."

"Is there anyone in the other base?"

"Yes. I have a friend, Lord Botta, who helps me run the Renegades."

"Botta? Wasn't he a…"

"Yes. But then, we were, too. He's the one I gave my ranch to, all those years ago."

"I remember that! He was ruthless back then."

Anna realized that she had no idea what the heck the two were talking about.

"Well, he isn't anymore. I'm certain that he would give his life to the cause."

"Ah, to be young again."

Feeling completely excluded, Anna whacked Kratos on the head.

"Ow! What the – Anna?!"

"What the heck are you talking about? Shouldn't we leave now?"

"Heh… You're right. Show us to the rheairds, Yuan."

"Okay."

The rheairds were the odd, birdlike things that Yuan had taken them from Luin on. They rode into the sky, and in the next series of moments, Anna saw snow. Snow all around. A huge field covered in white flakes.

And it suddenly struck her that she might never see her homeland again.

Being the stoic she was, she held Lloyd closer to her – the air was horribly cold – and followed Kratos. They kept going straight, and soon she could see green fields, just like the ones at home.

Then she saw the city, and she knew for certain that she wasn't at home.

They landed just outside the city gates. Kratos talked to the guards outside. Anna could hardly take in the splendor of it all – stone walls, a city with paved streets, even a castle – she had seen it before they had landed. The whole place was so grand, she didn't know how she would ever be able to fit in.

As they walked through the ginormous stone gates, she looked to her right and noticed the only un-grand part of the city. Kratos noticed. "Those are the slums," he said.

"They look like Triet. You know, with the box-type houses?"

"Well, it's nothing like Triet. Those are the people who live in poverty."

"I can't imagine what someone from this world would think if they went to Sylvarant!"

"We think it impoverished."

"Oh, thanks for saying so, Kratos." She noticed that they had been walking up a lot of steps, but as they came up the last flight, Anna couldn't believe her eyes. There was a large area, paved without any cracked or haphazardly-cut stones, and there were marble benches and potted plants and people walking about in clothes made of cloth that was the quality she had never thought she would see in her life.

And suddenly, she felt horribly out-of-place.

A few people came up to him, but the women were the loudest, and therefore the most noticeable.

"Kratos! Is that you? I haven't seen you in over a year! Who's that country girl you've got with you?"

Hearing this from the obviously bratty women made Anna extremely mad, so before Kratos could give a tactful reply, she yelled, "Who are you to call me a 'country girl'? I oughta bash your head in for that!" She didn't say anything too harsh because she was still holding Lloyd and didn't want him to be exposed to overly harsh language.

"My, you're ferocious. Why would you ever want to associate with her?"

"Be –"

"I'll have you know we're married!"

"Anna –"

Another woman cut in, this one with a softer voice.

"Oh? Kratos, I thought you said you would never marry."

"Well, I –"

"You all seem annoying. Come on, Kratos, let's leave."

"Anna! Will you listen to me?"

"Sure."

"These people happen to be nobles of Tethe'alla."

"Oh? Like in a story book?"

"Yes, like in a fantasy from your world. And I can understand how they might seem rude to you, since Tethe'allan culture is very different from yours, but please try to be polite to them. They're very important to the social structure of the Tethe'allan Empire."

"Oh. Okay." Then she turned towards the mass of people. "I'm sorry. I come from a very different culture from yours, you see, so what you probably saw as a comment seemed like an insult to me. I'm sorry for getting mad." Then she smiled her most sickly-sweet fake smile and she and Kratos, after a short discussion with a few of the other nobles, went up the stairs and into the castle – Kratos seemed to have a lot of influence in this world, too – and talked to the Chosen of Tethe'alla, a five-and-a-half-year-old boy with adorable red hair. He seemed to have an overwhelming air of suppressed sadness, however. Anna felt sad just looking at him.

When they left and went down the stairs, Anna asked, "That boy… who was he?"

"Zelos, the Chosen of Tethe'alla."

"No, I mean… He seemed so sad…"

"His mother was killed by Desians a couple of years ago. She said then that she hated him. It's the sort of thing that ruins people for life."

"How can you say that so casually?!"

Kratos didn't respond to that verbally; instead he looked at her. In his eyes, she could see death, pain, sadness, and the knowledge that he was going to live with it for the rest of eternity.

She looked down and hugged Lloyd closer.

When they checked into the inn, all was going well. They let Lloyd play in the room until he just about collapsed on the floor. Then they woke him up just long enough to get him tucked into bed.

Then they went to bed themselves, although Anna wasn't awake when Kratos went to sleep. He stayed up reading long after she had dozed off.

In the morning, she had a drink called "coffee" for the first time ever.

If you were expecting her to become completely consumed by it and go hyper and become a caffeine addict, you would be forgetting what I said at the end of the first chapter (heck, even I forgot it) about how she's a lot like me. She's developed her own character and strayed a bit from the path, but that's the easiest way for me to make believable characters: if I were in there place, would those words come out of my mouth? …And, I hate coffee. It's bitter and disgusting.

…So, coming back to the story:

"Eew! Kratos, how can you drink this stuff? It's all bitter!"

"People all over Tethe'alla enjoy it every morning. Sometimes, they add milk, cream, sugar, or chemical additives. I, personally, like it plain. In this state, it's called "black coffee." I like it. It's nice knowing there's something that can affect my body even though I'm immortal."

"Mmh. I think it's yicky."

"No one's forcing you to drink it."

So, she didn't. Kratos ordered something called "hot chocolate" for her instead, which turned out to be a warm, rich, sweet drink. She loved it. However, she wouldn't have called it "chocolaty" because, living in Sylvarant, she had never experienced the joys of chocolate.

But she definitely liked this.

After breakfast, Kratos decided that he should go and battle some monsters – after all, with his offensive skills, the three of them could afford to live in the inn for a long time. Anna, as stated earlier, didn't like killing monsters, but she did understand the concept of random regeneration, which ensured that monsters weren't going to go extinct anytime soon.

So, she took Lloyd back up into their room and played with him for awhile. She cleaned the room (already having a high level of competence at this) and went outside with her son to enjoy the beautiful day and to learn about the city.

She was intrigued by all of the shops in the town, but they made her feel simple. She was content to look, certain that things that fine must be very expensive, until she looked at the price tag on a pair of gloves made out of fabric that seemed to have perfectly even thread and a perfectly even gauge (they were knit). Also, the knitted stitches were so small that Anna could hardly see them – it was like magic! And they were priced at only G50.

This was mind-boggling to her, that a pair of gloves obviously made by highly advanced magitechnology would be priced at only 50 Gald. The shop clerk didn't seem to think that that was unusual, which puzzled her even more. Anna realized then that this world was impossibly far beyond her own in their way of thinking and of doing things. So, she went back to the inn.

When Kratos came back to the city, Anna was there.

"Anna? What's wrong?"

"This whole place is strange! Today I saw these gloves, and the thread was as fine as on your clothes, and the knit stitches were so tiny I could hardly see them, but it was only fifty gald! What's up with that, Kratos?"

"In this world, there are magitechnological machines that can do that. You see this?" He pulled the metal box from his pocket that he had been talking to earlier. He unfolded it. There was glass on it, and it lit up, and Anna jumped back. Then, Kratos started laughing. "It's nothing to be afraid of! It's a cell phone!"

"What… what is it?"

"It's a highly advanced, magitechnological device that transmits messages through the air. They were created in Sylvarant a few Cycles of Regeneration ago. Only Cruxis has been able to sustain them, so they're not available in either world. However, they're extremely useful to me and Yuan."

"Why is it so bright?"

"That's the screen. And these buttons down on the lower panel are numbers. If you tap them, the screen changes to show you what numbers you've pressed. Then, you tap this green button – it looks like a traditional telephone from before cell phones were invented – and you press the red button to end the call."

"Call? Wha…? Kratos, you're not making any sense."

"Talking to someone on a phone – that's generic for either a telephone or one of these devices – is called a 'call.' In the time when these were made, everyone in Sylvarant was literate, so the numbers themselves weren't a problem. It's just a way of making communications easier."

"So… if you punch in a code, then you can talk to Yuan, however far away you are?"

"Right. And, because they run on Volt's mana, we can call each other between the worlds and the call will still go through."

"That's amazing!"

"Mm-hm!"

"…Can you do anything else with it?"

"No." This was a lie, but he could tell that Anna was the type who would be easily taken in by repetitive cell phone games.

"Well, it's still amazing."

"Actually, this is exactly the kind of thing that Mithos is trying to prevent. You know of the Desian Rebellion?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, that was when Mithos ordered the Desians to destroy some of the factories that Sylvarant had in order to keep Sylvarant from advancing any more. He actually transported armies from Tethe'alla to Sylvarant in order to keep it from figuring out that Tethe'alla existed."

"That's horrible!"

"Yup. But, it's true."

"Mmh." Anna looked down.

"What's wrong?"

"I know it sounds silly – I mean, we just got here yesterday – but… I'm starting to feel homesick."

"Why?"

"Well… everything's so different here. I mean, there's this huge monarchy system, and I have no idea where I fit in it, and then there's all this magitechnology… It's so weird, Kratos! I'm seeing things that I could never even conceive of owning back home, and they're being offered to me at discount!"

"It's just the thriving world. It's created its own culture far beyond that which is necessary for survival. You'll get used to it someday."

"But I don't want to! Everything seems so complicated here! It's like, everywhere you turn, there's a way to mess up. I don't like it here, Kratos!"

"We don't have a choice!" She was completely silent, wide-eyed with fear at the angry Kratos. "If we want to survive we have to live here. And, y'know, it isn't up to either of us, now is it? But, it's what we have to do."

Her voice was soft when she spoke to him next, not wanting to ignite any other fuses. "I know it's what we have to do. And, I'm sorry that it's making you so upset. But, you've been here before. And, I'm sure that I will get used to it, or at least understand it, after awhile. I was just frustrated because it's so foreign. And, my entire life, I've had someone there to help me get through these things – sometimes it was my family or my friends in Iselia, sometimes it was the girls from Hima, and sometimes it was you or the healer in Luin. But, I don't know anyone here. And, I think that was why I was so upset. I'm really social, and there was no one there to talk to."

"Nnh."

"Are you having trouble with your feelings again, Kratos?"

"Mmh." He nodded his head a bit, so that even Anna, with all of her perceptive skills, could barely see it. She put her arms around him.

"What's the problem, Kratos?"

"I don't know. That's why it's so frustrating."

"What does it feel like?"

"It's bad. It feels like anger."

"When does it happen?"

"It was yesterday, when we were talking to those women… And, when the one called you a county girl, I wanted to slice her up! I've never had uncontrollable emotions like that before!"

"Heh… I think you were just mad like normal. Heck, I wanted to gut 'er, too. But, that's not the sort of thing you're supposed to do. That's part of having emotions, too, Kratos, remember? I think you just didn't get many new experiences in Luin because it was all the same. We were sort of just living in an unchanging town with our son, who was one of the few things that actually did change."

"No, remember? That's when I got my sense of humor back!"

"Oh, yeah. But, my point is, part of having emotions and stuff is to know when to just shove 'em all into a box and ignore them for a few seconds."

"Oh."

"Yeah. It can be hard sometimes, but I think you'll get used to it."

They sat in silence for a couple seconds, until Lloyd tried to stand up using a small table, knocking it over and nearly shattering the vase on it. Kratos caught the vase, Anna caught the table while at the same time wrapping her other arm around Lloyd. She put him on the bed, which she knew would amuse him for a few minutes at least. Then she got a towel and Kratos started shoving the flowers back in and it was all okay.

Then Kratos picked Lloyd up and started to play with him, and although he was a generally serious person, Anna could tell that he was happy.

This made her overjoyed.

.-..-..-.

They were the most unusual customers the inn had ever had, in that they had been staying there for three months. Anna still wasn't used to magitechnology, but she had simply accepted it as something she would never understand. Lloyd talked a little, too. At night sometimes, Kratos would read to him, and Anna wished that she could, but she was still glad that her son was being educated in a way.

What would it be like, being the only illiterate person in her family?

So, she asked Kratos to teach her to read.

"Kratos, will you teach me to read?"

"What?"

"I want to be able to read."

"It'll be hard; it's easier to learn when you're young."

"I'm willing to learn. Is it hard?"

"Well… not once you're used to it."

"Okay. Then I'm going to learn."

She sat down next to him.

"You won't understand this."

"Why not?"

"Well, the way that our language is written, the combinations of letters – those are the separate symbols – make different sounds. And, there are supposed to be rules to how the letters sound when they're combined, but they're hardly ever followed. A 'C' and an 'H' (he pointed to the letters on the page) can make any of three sounds. It's extremely confusing if you don't already know the words."

"Oh."

"Plus, I would start by teaching you letters. You have to know what they look like before you can expect to read them."

"Okay."

"Heh. Give me until tomorrow."

"Okay!"

She worked on her latest project, a pair of shoes for Lloyd. She had asked Kratos for leather and, his work being to kill monsters, he brought her some. She could have bought some from one of the stores – its entire stock was shoes! – but she wasn't so sure that she trusted magitechnology. So, she made them.

Having been one piece away from being done already, she finished. She laced them and yelled, "I'm done! Lookit, Kratos!" She held up the little shoes for him to see. "Here. Give me Lloyd."

He passed Lloyd up to her and she put the little shoes on his feet. She tied them and felt the ends, and they were perfect.

"Oh, aren't they adorable, Kratos?"

"Yes."

She took them off of him and, it being late, put him to bed.

"There you go, luvvy. There you go. Good night, sweetness." She talked softly and his eyes closed.

And Kratos worried for all three of them

.-..-..-.

Seven months later, (they had been in the inn for ten months) Kratos came home in the middle of the day.

That was unusual, and Anna doubted it was a good thing.

"Kratos, what's wrong?"

"Mithos has located us."

"What?!"

"We need to leave. Now!"

"Okay!" She got all of Lloyd's things together by the time Kratos had packed all of their other belongings (packing up quickly is a skill you never lose) and checked out of the inn. The innmaster was surprised, but he could tell they were in a hurry.

They took their rheairds up to the Renegade base, where they talked to Lord Botta about where they should go. Botta also did something with Kratos' cell phone, which he said would make it easier to hide. Kratos thanked him and they spent the night in the Renegade base.

In the morning, Kratos said they had to go back to Sylvarant. Anna was overjoyed and hugged him, because even though they were fugitives, she understood Sylvarant. She had gotten used to living in Tethe'alla, but she still didn't trust magitechnology.

So, they took their rheairds (which were easily compactable into small, lightweight packages) and began journeying around Sylvarant

I'm sorry this took so long to get up! I discovered this hilarious anime called Ouran High School Club, about these kids who are in a host club. The basis of the host club is, since all the kids at their school are filthy rich, they all have a lot of time. So, the Host Club is a group of guys who throw parties for all the girls. My favorite host is Honi-senpai, because he acts like a cute little kid!

This chapter moves pretty fast (heck, Anna can probably read children's books by now) and it shows how Kratos' emotions have become developed. He still gets frustrated with them, but you can tell that he has kindness now because of how he treats Lloyd.