"W-what the heck just happened?"

"Luke, are you alright?" Guy picked himself off the ground and ran to check on a very bewildered Luke. But you couldn't blame Luke, after crazy assassins and teleporting people.

"What happened to Master Van? I want that crazy chick arrested!"

"Don't worry, I'm sure they couldn't have gotten far. If they're anywhere in Kimlasca, we'll find them in no time." She called Van a traitor…does that mean she knows about our plan to take revenge for Hod?

"Why is she after Master Van anyway? If that stupid maid didn't get in my way, I would have taken her out myself. Remind me to have her fired."

The maid kept Luke out of the way…said she was stopping him from making a mistake. She disappeared with them too…are they working together?

"I'm informing my father of this right now. I'll make sure those psychos pay. I can't believe Master Van has to put up with this!"

"I'll be with you in a minute." If they're both working so hard to protect Luke, they're probably Kimlascan. That means they should still be in the area, at least.

"Lord Gardios, are you alright?"

"Pere!" Guy quickly glanced over the area, confirming that no one else was there. Luke must have left already. "I'm fine, how about you?"

"Nothing these old bones can't handle. I'm curious though. Do you know anything about that mysterious assassin?"

"She called Van a traitor, which leads me to believe she's onto us. She's almost certainly Kimlascan; Van said her name was Tear, I think. I'm also wondering if the maid had something to do with it."

"Yes, I'm suspicious of the maid myself. I wondered why she was just standing in the courtyard. She got all jumpy when I asked her about it. I also think she knew the melodist was coming, she was smart enough to have her ears plugged."

"They're together alright. Should we let the Duke know? I'm worried it will do us more harm than good."

"If they get a chance to talk, all of us will be under suspicion. Van's a respected general though, so I'm hoping they won't take them too seriously."

"Luke's on our side, anyway. He was just ranting about how he was going to have them punished, and you know how he idolizes Van."

"I'm going to ask around, see if I can get some info on the two of them. Keep your eyes and ears open, there's no telling how many people are with them."

"Yeah, I'm going to find Luke. I'll see if Duke Fabre has any information." With that he headed for the manor.

None of the Fabres were in a good mood. Duke Fabre was demanding information, and Luke was ranting to anyone who would listen. Suzanne was in hysterics. It was total chaos.

"How did she get in here!" thundered the Duke. "I demand to know who's responsible for this!"

Suzanne wasn't much better. "My poor Luke, they didn't hurt you did they? Why does this keep happening to us? It wasn't enough for Malkuth to kidnap my son, now they're trying to assassinate him! Will they never leave us alone!"

Only a few people seemed to be listening to Luke say that they were after Van, not him. When Duke Fabre noticed Guy, he called him over. "You were there when this happened, correct? Tell me what you saw."

"Well this girl jumped off the roof and started attacking. She must have been a seventh fonist, she was able to put the guards to sleep. She attacked Van and a hyperresonance occurred. It teleported them somewhere and took one of the maids with them."

"You mean they weren't after my son?" asked Lady Suzanne. "My Luke isn't in danger?"

"See, I told you they were after Van," said Luke.

"Send someone out to find them immediately. Have them arrested and then bring to the castle dungeons. I want to talk with them." The Duke was impatient.

"Right away, your Excellency," said general Cecielle. Yeah, she was here and so was Natalia. Natalia had seen the hyperresonance coming from the manor, and was worried about Luke. Being a princess, she always had an escort.

I wonder if I should go too. I'm worried about Van.

"Guy, why weren't you protecting Luke? I heard a maid had to save him," said Natalia, getting in Guy's face.

"She was a seventh fonist, I couldn't help it! Even the guards couldn't do anything!" cried Guy, running for cover.

"Natalia leave Guy out of it, he can't fight girls anyway," said Luke sounding bored already. "Besides the maid didn't save me, she tackled me to the ground."

"Well in any case, I'll have father up the security around here. Be careful Luke, I would be devastated if anything happened to you," she said with love struck eyes.

"Uh-huh," he said.

At least some things were normal.

I woke up to the arguing of a married couple.

"Tear if only you'd…"

"What's going on? What are you planning to do?"

"I'm not planning anything. You're jumping to conclusions."

"Then what were you talking about before? I know you're planning something horrible!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Answer the question!"

Or, at least, they sounded like a married couple. Their shouting woke me up, so I'm guessing they were getting nowhere fast. Van wasn't succeeding at calming Tear down, and Tear wasn't getting any answers. Basically, they were arguing in circles.

"Look, I don't know what you heard, but whatever it was, I can explain."

"Then start explaining."

"If you'd kindly repeat the discussion you're talking about."

"So you can use it against me?"

"You're not making any sense."

"Ugh!" She pulled her hair and turned around. She looked like she was about to storm off when she saw me. "Oh…I'm sorry. Did we disturb you?"

No, you were just yelling loud enough to wake up the dead. "It's okay, I'm fine," I said. I took a look around. Something looked…off. I couldn't put my finger on it, but something seemed wrong somehow. Besides the fact that Van and I were here and Luke wasn't, of course.

"Now that you're up, we can finally get moving," said Van. "We should be able to find a place to stay before nightfall, or at least cover some decent ground."

Nightfall…that's what's wrong! It's not dark! And I'm no expert, but this place doesn't look right either. Where ARE we?

I must have spoken that last question aloud, because Van answered me. "That hyperresonance blasted us pretty far. I believe we're in Malkuth, probably at Deo Pass."

Oh no. Oh no no no no. This was not good. We were supposed to be in Tataroo Valley. I guess having three people getting teleported instead of two threw the hyperresonance off track. And if it was light out, we either overslept or woke up early. This was bad. If we were a day behind, I had no idea how we were going to catch up to Anise and Jade. I don't even think we were near them.

"How far is it to the nearest city?" Tear asked.

"Akzeriuth's closest, but it's in the opposite direction from the way we want to be going. We can probably make it to Kaitzur and arrange a ship home the next day."

"Okay then." She turned to me. "We'll get you home safely, I promise. Just stay close, there could be monsters out here."

Monsters…I was so not looking forward to that. Especially with no weapon or armor. Or artes. And Tear's a caster. Oh, joy.

We did run into quite a few monsters on the way out, but Van killed them all before Tear could even finish casting. Having Van be the only thing between us and oncoming death was not a comforting thought. Seeing as I was useless, I mostly hid behind Tear and tried to keep up with them.

Tear seemed to notice I was kind of scared, because she slowed the pace for me and didn't mind me hovering around her. "Don't worry, we won't let any of them get to you. Van's an expert swordsman, and I'm an accomplished fonist myself."

"Thanks," I said. But in between monster attacks, I was actually kind of distracted. Jade and Anise had probably already left Engave, and I didn't think going to Kaitzur was going to get us any closer to them. I had no idea how to get them to change direction though, never mind the fact we'd be going completely backwards.

We reached Kaitzur at about sundown, and Van got us a place to stay for the night. He arranged for a ship, and had a discussion with them about when it would arrive and stuff. While I was listening, I heard them mention today's date. It was them same date you start at in the game! That meant Jade and Anise wouldn't make it to Engave for a day at least, and wouldn't hit Cheagle Woods for two days. There was still time!

"I've arranged for a ship, it should be here in about two days," Van said. "In the meantime, I'm going to get us dinner. Make yourselves comfortable at the inn." With that, he left.

We settled ourselves down in the room. Tear spoke first. "I'm sorry for all the trouble I've caused. I promise I had no intention of getting anyone else involved in this. My name's Tear. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Thank you." I tried to curtsy, but I tripped on the rug and ended up falling on my on my face. So much for that.

She laughed. "So cute…" I heard her say. I should probably mention I was still in the maid outfit. Needless to say, I got a lot of strange looks when we entered the place.

Van came back with the food, and we had a quiet meal before retiring for the night. They still didn't seem to want to talk with each other, which was fine with me. I still needed to figure out how to drag Tear to Engave.

Now Van was very bothered about something. Obviously he was bothered by Tear having suspicions as to what he was up to and how she new. But the maid also bothered him. She could have tackled Luke just to try and protect him. But when the hyperresonance started, she grabbed on to Tear and stayed there for no apparent reason. Not to mention she seemed comfortable around Tear and uneasy around him, which was completely backwards. Tear had broken into the manor, which should identify her as a criminal, while he was a trusted mentor of the Fabres. It made no sense. Something was up here, but he couldn't put his finger on it. At least not yet anyway...