Okay Chapter eight is up. Sorry for the delay, but meh I have too much stuff going on around here. I don't own anybody, but Ilex, Ganesha, and Luke. and I don't own the game, man don't I wish. Enjoy.


Chapter eight

"I told you that that guy was coming on to you, why didn't you listen to me?" I rolled my eyes at Luke who was walking beside me. We were walking back to our home from the temporary mercenary's office, and he was grilling me about some guy that had been in there.

"I didn't pay you any mind because I knew exactly what he was doing, but I wasn't allowed to say anything. You shouldn't insult potential paying customers Luke; it's not a good idea. Besides he got what was coming to him. He's going to walking a little funny thanks to my tanto." I ruffled his hair as we came around the side of the governors building.

I stopped when I saw who was standing at the entrance to the town. Granted it had been almost a month since I had last seen Emil and Marta, but just by looking at them I could tell that they had grown even more since we parted. I couldn't help the grin that stretched out over my face as I continued to walk toward them. I managed to catch snippets of conversation the closer I got.

"It's been six months." I could hear Emil talking to Marta. No doubt he was reminiscing about the blood purge that had actually happened seven months ago, but something told me that they hadn't been keeping up with time on their travels.

"Let's not get sentimental. We need to find out if Lloyds come through here first, right?" Marta replied as she turned to look at him.

"Yeah, your right." I felt proud for Emil. Obviously he probably wasn't as bold as some people but he didn't seem to be as timid and held back as before. Traveling around with Marta had been good for him.

"We both know the town so let's split up. We can meet together later at the pub." Marta was saying. It didn't surprise me that they both knew the town, but it probably was a little different then they were used too. The Lezerano Company had been spending a great deal of time and money here in order to try and get the town back in order. Despite being Tethe' allan in origin they were a very popular company among Sylvaranti. It didn't even surprise me that I had seen Regal here just a few weeks ago so that he could check up on how things were going on this end. I learned that he was traveling around Sylvarant anyway to get a feel for the Market.

"But watch out for Alice." I almost choked when Emil said that. I stopped myself from thinking right there. There was no way in hell they were talking about the same Alice.

"Oh right. Tenebrae can you keep an eye on Emil?" Now that made me laugh, and apparently Emil wasn't to keen on the idea of having to be watched over while Marta got to roam freely.

"That's not what I meant." He said panicked.

"You best just stop right there Emil and let the little lady do what she wants. Otherwise she won't be happy." They both turned to look at me and Mr. Kitty gave me the evil eye. "How ya'll doing?" I waved my hand to wave at them as they continued to stare at me in shock.

"Ilex, what are you doing here?" Emil finally asked once he retaliated from seeing me.

"What are kind of crap are you spewing silly, I live here." I could feel Luke hiding behind my leg. "Hey Emil, you remember when I told you about my kid? Well I want you to meet him."

I stepped to the side and shoved Luke from behind me. He jumped forward on one leg before balancing himself enough to stand straight. When he turned back to glare at me I sent him a big cheeky grin.

"Nice to meet you." Emil held out his hand. I whacked Luke on the head when he didn't take it.

"Could you be anymore socially inept?" I chided him softly. His parents hadn't been the best roll models a kid could have and with my not being around for 6 months he had regressed a little when I returned.

"Emil, just remember to meet me at the pub when you're finished." Marta gave me a smile and a wave before she took off to search the town.

"She won't find anything, and neither will you." I said after she had disappeared around the bend. "I asked everyone as soon as I got back, to see if there were any updates on Lloyd; I couldn't find a thing, and it's not changed since then."

"And why pray-tell didn't you tell up this before we let Lady Marta go off on her own?" Tenebrae glared at me.

"Just to piss you off kitty cat." I told him without looking at him. "I don't believe in making people like you happy, because then you just talk and talk and talk; it gets really monotonous after about five minutes, so if we piss you off there is a higher chance of you not talking then anything else."

Tenebrae glared at me before disappearing into his cloud of dust.

"Was that really necessary?" Emil asked.

"Absolutely, see I have this quota of people I must piss off in one day, if I don't then I get really grumpy and we go through that whole it's your fault and well…you just don't want to be around."

"Do you realize that you're rambling an offal lot right now?" Emil hesitated before asking.

"Yes…yes I do. You see we've also discovered that if I don't get to ramble about random nonsense at least an hour per day I get really livid; so my sister designated from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm my "official rambling time". I ramble for a solid hour about things that people don't care about and then I laugh when I find out later that I said something to somebody that pissed them off." Emil just nodded. "So anyway do you want me to help you locate Marta? I probably need to go anyway to make sure that you kids aren't drinking illegally."

I could hear Luke laughing at Emil's expression and I couldn't blame him. He nodded and we started walking towards the church.

"So what all happened when I wasn't with you guys?" I asked.

"We went to Asgard and we met the chosen there." Emil replied.

"Oh, so Colette was there; searching for Lloyd no doubt." I stopped walking and looked straight ahead at the familiar red headed half-elf walking out of the chapel.

"Emil, is that you?" Richter asked.

"Oh wow, this is the first time in almost a month that you've seen us and the first thing you notice is that Emil is here. I mean it's not like I saved your life or anything." I threw my hands up as I spoke. Emil looked at me like I was crazy, while Luke and Richter stared on in amusement.

"I'm aware of that and I thank you, but I still don't understand why Aqua told me what she did…" I cut him off when started off about the butt pouch thing.

"I don't think you should worry about, it doesn't matter anyway." I turned away from them.

"Richter, what are you doing here?" Emil finally asked.

"I should ask you two the same question, what brings you two to Palmacosta?" Richter asked in reply. I turned back around.

"Well for you information Mr. I'm to good for the world, I happen to live here and been here for the past month, so feast your eyes on that!" I slapped a hand on my butt that was currently facing him and said no more.

"Thanks for the view, its lovely." He told me whilst staring at my ass. I gasped out loud.

"I knew it!" I pointed at him. "You really are a stalker and you stalk people while having sexual fantasies about them and then when you're alone with them you have prowess problems in the bedroom!"

I backed up a few steps when he stepped closer with a murderous aura, and he looked like he could strangle me and not really care.

"Why do you constantly have to get on my nerves?" He asked when he stopped moving.

"Well its kind of just this reflex I have. I have to say stupid things to guys with long red hair, because they remind me of someone that I live to piss off. That idiot chosen will regret taking up with my sister, I'll strangle him with his own hair." I started laughing a little strangely and they just stared at me. I cleared my throat when I was finished. "I'm sorry; I'll try not to make any comments about your prowess anymore."

"Anyway, Emil what are you doing here?" Richter restated the question.

"I'm on a journey looking for Lloyd and the Centurion's cores. Anyway are you okay you were injured pretty badly?"

"There is still some pain but I have only myself to blame." I looked at him through squinted eyes.

"You know if you would take just two or three days, and just not worry about anything it would do wonders for you." I stated looking at him pointedly.

"I don't have that amount of time that I can afford to waste." He shrugged. "Besides it's not the physical pain that gets to me; it's the fact that I lost to such a fool that pains me more."

I clenched my fists at the insult to my friend. "Okay I'll admit that Lloyd isn't the greatest cookie that was ever made, but he has done a lot of things for humanity and for the world, both sides of it; he and his friends are the ones that liberated the half-elves that were held captive in Tethe' alla." I knew it was a low blow, but I was feeling rather mean today. Richter glared at me in understanding. "Lloyd is a hero and you know what, he has never expected anybody to do anything for him in return except to try making themselves a better person."

Emil looked at me in confusion. "You sound like you know a lot about Lloyd."

I sighed when I realized that I couldn't keep the truth from Emil anymore. "I do know him, personally. I traveled with the chosen's group two years ago when they were still trying to regenerate the world. I was one of the first Sylvaranti people to step foot on Tethe' alla since the separation 4,000 years ago. My sister and I appealed to the Tethe'allan court for the release of the enslaved half-elves and with her fiancé's help we obtained it for them. Now, I don't know what's happened to Lloyd since then because unfortunately we all split up to help the world in different ways, but I think that for whatever reason Lloyd is doing these things, it's a good one, and it probably has it's merits."

Emil looked at me in shock that I hadn't told him these things earlier. He turned back to Richter. "I'm sorry about your defeat against Lloyd."

"It was a joke." Richter said in reply.

"What the hell, that was a crappy joke." I said.

"I'm sorry." I smacked my forehead.

"Didn't I tell you to stop apologizing without reasons?"

"Oh, I'm sorr- I mean yes you did." Emil stumbled over his wording.

"Oh Richter there you are." It felt like someone had just dumped me in a bucket of ice water when I heard that voice. Maybe they were talking about that Alice.

I turned slowly to look at her, and closed my eyes. It was her; the Alice that I had been friends with so long ago in Hima.

"Richter, are you looking for MartMart to, hey!" She hadn't noticed me yet, but she seemed to recognize Emil. "You're MartMarts pet."

As she started towards Emil, both Richter and I jumped between him and her. She stared at me, her eyes wide with shock.

"You." I could barely hear her voice it had gone so soft.

"Hello Alice."

"Well well, fancy seeing you here, what's it been a couple of years?" She asked.

"Ten years, you haven't changed at all."

"You haven't either, still protecting everyone else, but never yourself." She stared at Emil once again; who, along with Richter was looking to me for answers. She started walking forwards again.

"Alice, he's an acquaintance of mine." Richter stated.

"You're on his side? You know if you just let me play with him a little I'm sure he'd be more then happy to tell us where MartMart is." She giggled. I drew my long sword and unhooked Ganesha's old Tanto from underneath my shirt.

I perched them, ready to attack. "I can't let you do that Alice."

"Take my advice kid, I would run away if I were you, the last friend she had ended up dead because of her." Alice said to Emil.

"Well that can't be right, as far as I can see you're still breathing. That makes me sad." She lashed her whip at me, I held up my arm to let it wrap around and I had to bit my lip as it ripped into my skin and blood oozed down my arm.

Richter had taken out his sword and axe and cut the whip much to Alice's distress. "I said that they are my acquaintances, if you don't understand what that means…" Richter moved to stand in front of me and Emil now, at the ready to fight Alice at a moments notice.

She looked at him for a moment before speaking. "Ooh, so scary. Fine, but all bets are off if I catch the little pet with MartMart." Her face took on an evil look. "And since you're here that means MartMart is here too, I'm so lucky." Richter and I sheathed our weapons as she walked away.

I turned to Emil. "Where did Marta tell you to meet her, we have to find her before Alice does."

"What I want to know is, is why Alice didn't include you in that threat she made?" Richter asked me.

"Alice knows she can't defeat me, she has never been able, and never will be."

Emil looked at me then said to Richter. "Richter, you're a member of the Vanguard too?"

"I am." He said in reply.

"What are you planning to do with Ratatosk's core?" Emil asked.

"Revive the Sylvarant Dynasty, or that's what they say." He shrugged carelessly.

"That dynasty ended over 800 years ago; there is no way to bring it back. That would involve destroying all other forms of government and anyone that opposed the idea, which would be a lot of people." I told them.

"You all need to forget about Ratatosk's core, about all the cores, about all of this." Richter said.

"Why?" Emil asked.

"The Vanguard isn't just looking for Ratatosk's core; they're looking for all the cores. I don't want to involve you in all of this."

Emil said nothing and I wasn't even paying that much attention.

"At least you no longer agree with everything I say. But I won't give up either. I will take Ratatosk's core from Marta, even if it means her death." He told us before he walked off.

Emil turned to look at Tenebrae. "We have to tell Marta about the sadist…" I started laughing. That was perfect for Alice.

"Emil, her name is Alice." Tenebrae said over my laugher.

"Does it matter? Anyway where's Marta?" He asked.

"In the pub."

"I'm going with you okay, I don't trust Alice as far as I can throw her and she has this habit of coming back to take a bigger bite." He nodded and we walked off towards the pub.


Okay wow that was dramatic there towards the end. So now you know a little bit more about Ilex and her past, don't expect to hear anything about her best friend that died because that won't be brought back up until that whole Asgard side quest that you can go on with Richter and that's a decent while a way. I think the next chapter is going to be one of my favorites because you will be officially introduced to Ganesha in that one and see what the relationship between Ilex and Ganesha's fiance is like. If anyone can guess who her future husband is and you leave a comment you win....well I don't know. But it's not that hard.

Please comment and review and I'll see you in the future.