And so, continuing, about two months have passed. Things have been going well so far, but things are about to take another crazy twist.

Angel's vitality, loyalty, courage and spirit have all been questioned; but now her strength and wit are about to be put to the test

Sefi's stripes have yet to be proven, or even seen yet. She's about to surprise everyone around her with a few tricks that not even Angel knew about.

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Chapter 8: A New Challenge for the Baron Royalty

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Kain was looking for twins one afternoon, but was having difficulty doing so. At first he'd guessed that Sefi would be in the ship yard, helpping Cid with the new airship (it's name still being brainstormed), but she wasn't there. He had no idea where Angel was either, and he didn't want to go about the entire castle searching for them. Castle Baron was a pretty big structure; who would want to treck across it several times looking for two girls who couldn't stay in one place for five minutes?

Fortunately, he ran into Rosa, who he thought would have an idea of where they could be.

"Do you know where the girls might be? I wanted to show them something," He asked her.

"They're both in the courtyard, I think," Rosa said. "Cecil's still teaching Angel things, and I'd like to say that Sefi's watching them today," She explained.

"Thanks a ton. Got to go," Kain said quickly and bolted down the hall.

"Kain, wait!" Rosa called after him.

"I was going to teleport us both there," She added, lowering her voice. She sighed when the dragoon didn't come back, snapped her fingers, and she was gone in an instant.

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Angel was practicing vibe-work, as she liked to call it. It was the art of being able to pick up smaller vibes by just seeding through the air, looking for the one she wanted, and being able to find it quickly. Cecil and Rosa could do it with ease: Angel was still working on it. Small vibes weren't easy to catch.

The basic idea was that she stood in the middle of the courtyard, with her sword at the ready, while she waited for Cecil (or Sefi, if she was there) to charge her. At the last moment she was supposed to block the attacker and launch into a duel where she used vibes to tell what her opponent was going to do next and plan her next attack accordingly. She still hadn't won a match yet, but she felt like she was finally getting somewhere.

So there she stood in the middle of the courtyard, waiting for someone to attack her. Nothing had happened for about three minutes, and she wasn't sure if anyone was going to attack in the next three either. But that thought ended abruptly when she felt a vibe telling her that Cecil was running towards her. She invisibley braced herself an waited for her father to get close enough for a good attack. Once he was within her range she whipped herself around and blocked his impeding attack.

"Nice block," Cecil commented, but then went right on into the duel. The duel was once Angel's least favorite part of vibe-work; now she loved it. It still irked her at time though, because she had yet to beat Cecil in any way, but he assured her that she was getting better, so she continued with it.

Angel wished that Sefi had attacked her instead. A duel with Cecil didn't last for a very long time, but a duel with Sefi could go on for a while since Sefi was as good as she was instead of better by many years.

After several minutes of fighting Cecil finally managed to pin Angel to the ground.

"Good fight. You're deffinetly getting better at this," He said, standing back up and helpping Angel back back on her feet.

"Sef, how long was that?" Angel asked Sefi, who's been watching from a corner and keeping track of the time. Sefi checked her watch and a surprised but impressed look crossed her face.

"Six minutes and a bunch of seconds. It's a new record," She said happily.

Angel looked disapointed. "That seems so far from my goal," She lammented. "I don't know if I'll ever reach it." "

What is your goal?" Sefi asked.

"30 minutes, for now," Angel said passively.

"30 minutes? That's a pretty big goal for a start," Sefi noted.

Angel shrugged and said, "It's not like I wanted to start small, or anything. I've always been an overachiever, and you know it."

"Well I'm pretty impressed," Cecil stated. "When you started practicing vibe-work you could barely keep up with me for a second. Now you can last for a full six seconds and... What was it, Sefi?" He asked.

"Six minutes and a bunch of seconds," Sefi corrected. "Not six seconds, six minutes."

"That's right, six minutes and a bunch of seconds," Cecil repeated, sounding very proud of Angel (he'd been doing that a lot lately). "You've come a long way. I think that you'll reach your goal in no time if you just keep working," He said to Angel.

Angel beamed. She loved it when Cecil showed that he was impressed with her. Even though he'd been her hero since she was a small child, Cecil hadn't always been the best dad in the world. In fact, it didn't seem like he'd taken much interest in her until now. Now that he was paying more attention to her she was the happiest girl on the Blue Planet.

"What's going on over here?" Someone asked behind them. Everyone turned around and saw Rosa standing nearby. Angel and Sefi jumpped, always startled when she suddenly showed up places, but Cecil was uneffected.

"Hello, dear," He said. "How are you?"

"Oh, I'm fine, but Kain was looking the girls. He said that he had something to show them. He was running this way when I last saw him and should be here in-" She was cut off when Kain burst through the door, panting heavily.

"Um... Never mind," Rosa said.

"There you two are," Kain gasped between breathes. "How'd it go... today, Angel?" He asked.

"It went alright. I'm staying in combat longer and longer every time I do this," She said, grinning widely.

"Ah... Good. I... came up with something... earlier today and... I thought you two might like to see it," Kain said, finally getting his breathing in check.

"What is it?" Sefi asked excitedly. She loved it when Kain came up with a new trick of some kind.

"I came up with a new technique for the sword. I thought that knowing it might benefit you both, so I've been looking for you for an hour or so," Kain explained.

"Cool!" Sefi exclaimed, jumpping up from the box she'd been sitting on. "Can I see it?" She asked.

"Certainly," Kain agreed, and drew his sword.

The routine started with Kain simply twirling his sword about in his hand. He began speeding the motion up and suddenly thrust the blade forward and back very quickly. Then he jumpped in the air and when he landed he stuck the blade into the ground. It looked pretty easy, but also physically demanding at some points. Swords were heavy, and twirling them at that speed and then jabbing them forward and back like that would have left Sefi's arms either a limp as overboiled noodles or broken. None the less, Sefi was mezmorized by Kain's new creation.

Poetry in motion! She thought.

"I wanna learn it now!" She cried, dismayed that she was still a learner and wouldn't be able to handle things like that for some time yet.

"You'll learn it at some point, I assure you," Kain said, making an attempt to cheer Sefi up. Sefi was about to say something else, but a servant walked in the door at that moment and made a small curtsie.

"I'm sorry to interupt, but there's a mage from Mysidia here to see you," She said. "All of you," She added when she saw that all of the royalty was there. She sighed, happy that she too had been spared a scavenger hunt all over the castle, and turned to leave.

She turned back and added quickly, "I left her waiting for you in the library. Hurry along with whatever it is you're doing, if it's not too much trouble." Then she left.

"I wonder what's happening," Angel said quietly.

"I'm sure we'll all find out soon enough," Cecil said, sheathing his own sword and heading for the door. "Go put your sword away and meet us in the library," He directed and left the courtyard.

"What your father said," Rosa said and began walking to the door. "Come on, Kain," She said, grabbing Kain by the wrist and pulling him along with her before he was fully aware of what was happening.

"Wha-? What'd I do? It wasn't me, I swear!" He said, aware that if he went with Rosa it meant that he might have to stay in one place for a longer time than he'd like. Rosa began arguing with him, but what they said was coming only in vague echoes since they were so far down the corridor.

"Well, you heard what they said," Sefi pointed out. Back to our room we go."

"You don't have to come, you know. You can go on to the library and I'll meet you there," Angel insisted.

"No, I want to go with you. We'll find out who it is together, the way God intended," Sefi said stoubornly.

"Okay, then let's get going," Angel reasoned and headed for the door.

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About 15 minutes found the twins standing outside the library door. Angel knocked on the library door, happy that it had taken her a minimal amount of time to be there (for once. She was getting better and better at being on time and pleased everyone greatly).

"Who is it?" Rosa asked from the other side of the door.

"It's just us. Can we come in?" Angel asked.

"Come on in," Rosa answered, and Angel opened the door. Only four people were in the large, book-filled room. The first three were Cecil, Rosa and Kain, and the fourth was a familiar brown-haired mage with a long red cape and shining green eyes.

"Porom!" Angel and Sefi cried at the same time.

"What are you doing here?" Sefi asked.

"Come over, come over," Porom said, beckoning to them. "There's something we need to discuss," She said, sounding worried. Her tone of voice was rather unnerving, so the twins hurried over.

"What's going on?" Angel asked, hoping that it didn't have to do with her paladin trial two months earlier.

"Something's wrong back home," Porom said saddly. "We don't know very much about it, but it has something to do with the sea surrounding our island," She explained.

"How so?" Angel asked. "No one knows. We thought that you all might be able to help us somehow," Porom said.

"Why us?" Rosa asked. "I don't know; the elder told me to go and get you because he thought you'd be helpful. So here I am," Porom said with a shrug.

"What kind of help did you have in mind?" Kain asked.

"Whatever help you can give us, I suppose. I have no idea what the elder's planning this time. It's not that I don't think you can help; I'm just not sure if you'll be able to help in any way," Porom explained.

"What's happening, exactly?"Cecil asked.

"The water around the island has turned several different colors in the past week; since it started. It turned a dull blue, and then dingy green, and then gray... We didn't really worry that much about the color for a few days, but when it turned purple and then orange, we began to worry," Porom explained. "The water is raging constantly; it's never still, or even mild. It always moves like a storm is going on. You can't put a boat to the water for miles in every direction: they suddenly crumbble like sand, or burst into flames, or melt like ice. And..." She cut off there, and didn't say anything more.

"Go on," Rosa urged.

"I can't..." Porom struggled.

"What's wrong?" Rosa asked, sencing that something was troubling the mage.

"...It's the dead things," Porom said slowly as her eyes filled with tears. "Dead fish, seaweed, and other... things. They float on the water everywhere. I just can't stand it," She explained, looking away so the others couldn't see the tear that slid down her face. Like any other white mage, she hated to see things like that; to far down the line to be helpped by their magic. It hurt Porom like a knife to know that she couldn't help them.

"It's alright," Cecil assured the mage. "Of course we'll help you," He said.

"We'll all help you," The twins said together.

"When can we leave?" Kain asked eagerly, anxious to be on another adventure. Porom looked back at everyone, now smiling brightly.

"Tomorow, we make for Devil's Road!" She said happily.

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And so, off to Mysidia, once more.

My great idea for this story was that Angel had a story, where she had a big personal adventure, and then Sefi had her own story as well, where they both get what they want. Angel's story wrapped up last chapter, and you've just crossed into "The Sefi Zone"! (duh-duh-duuuuh)

The water problems don't really make for a big challenge (any scientists who are reading will prabably try and blame it on some kind of seaweed mating season or something), but trust me: this problem goes more than skin deep. I've been brain storming this part of the story ever since chapter three. I've got my ducks in a row, I assure you (I think I've used that phrase a bit too much in this chapter...).

That out of the way, Devil's Road in a few days. I'm sorry for the update delay; I was grounded for toying around with some musical equipment of my uncle's that I should have left alone. I'm off on probation, and can write again! Yay!

Suggestions always appreciated. R&R... I think that's about it for now. Check you later, y'all!