"Tear, Tear! Ion's been kidnapped!"

This was part of my brilliant strategy to get Tear to go back to Engave. Van had told the Fabres that Ion had gone missing, so he should be able to back me up. All I had to do was say I overheard someone at the port say they heard Ion had been taken to Engave. Then I could get them to head there and meet up with Ion (who hopefully could explain he wasn't actually kidnapped). Then we could help him take care of the cheagle problem and get things back to normal. Or at least, as normal as they were going to get anyway.

"Fon Master Ion!" asked Van. "Where did you hear this?"

"I heard it at the port. Some guy said Ion had been taken to Engave. We have to help him!"

"Who told you this?" asked Tear. "We need to know if he has more information."

"I, um, err..." I guess I didn't think this through completely. "I don't know. I just overheard someone talking about it. I didn't really even look at them, I just ran here to tell you guys." I'm a bad liar.

"Which area were you in?" Damn, she's persistent.

"I don't know…over there…behind the crates?"

10 minutes and some unsuccessful questioning later, Van decided to just head for Engave. Apparently whoever I overheard already left or wasn't going to say anything. And we were wasting time just standing here. Thank you for convincing lies.

"Let's go to Engave. Whoever it is isn't talking and were wasting time standing here. We should be able to make it to Saint Binah in a few hours and Engave's not far from there," he said.

"Alright." Tear turned to me. "You stay here. There are monsters out and we don't want you getting hurt."

What! Seriously! Are you kidding me! I go through all this work to set things right and they're going to ditch me! Talk about fair.

"I want to help. If I just stand here doing nothing I'll worry myself sick."

"You'll only be a burden and we can't afford to be slowed down," Van said. "Besides, you're safer here with guaranteed meals and a bed to sleep in."

I hate logic. I really do. All it does is bite me in the butt.

"Van's right," Tear said. Come on Tear, you too? "You can take the ship back yourself, we probably won't be back here on time. We'll leave a note explaining things and head back later.

"But..."

"No buts. You're staying here." Van had a brief chat with one of the guards outside and Tear scribbled me a note. "Here. Give this to the captain." Then they left.

So. Not. Cool. They get to meet up with Jade and Anise and I'm stuck here. Fine. I'm just going to follow them. I waited about 10 minutes to be sure they had left and then slipped out the door. I didn't get very far though, before a guard stopped me.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked me. Oh, I don't know, trying to catch up with Tear and a sociopath?

"Nothing. Just going for a walk." Believe me, believe me.

"There are monsters out; it's not safe for civilians. You need to stay here, we told General Grants we'd keep an eye on you."

Seriously! Just. Flipping. Great. It's not enough to just leave me here, they had to make sure I couldn't go anywhere else either. Now what am I supposed to do?

"Oh, um, okay. I'll just go back to my room." I ran out of there before he could ask me any further questions.

So that's how I came to be sitting on my bed with nothing to do. There weren't even any books in this place. I was alternating between thinking of how to catch up to Tear and counting the patchwork squares on the quilt (I think I lost my spot after 257). I decided my best chance would be to wait until nightfall. Then hopefully no one would notice if I tried to sneak out. Until then, I had nothing to do. Except to try recounting the squares, I guess. One, two, three, four…

I never did figure out how many there were (I got to 465 before I got a headache) but eventually it did get dark out so I guess it didn't matter anyway. I waited about another 2 hours, just to be safe, before I tried to slip out again. There were only a few guards on duty and it didn't take me too long to slip past them. Then I started walking to Engave. Or at least, I think I was walking to Engave, it's been awhile since I actually had navigate. (The Albiore's autopilot made things so much easier.)

I don't know how long I was walking for (an hour? Two hours? 45 minutes?) before I found out the hard way that this was a bad idea. A very bad idea. Because I ran into bandits. (Really, I should have counted myself lucky that I didn't run into any until now, but that wasn't exactly the first thought on my mind.)

Aw, crap. I have no allies, no weapon, not even any armor. On the other hand I have no money, so maybe they won't bother? Bandits don't just kill people for fun do they?

"Well, well, what do we have here?" one of them said.

"Looks like a little girl, out all by herself."

"Not just any girl, a maid! What's she doing all the way out here?"

"What a waste! Maids have no money!"

"I bet this one does, why else would she be sneaking out in the dark by herself?"

What do I do, WHAT DO I DO? There's no way I can fight them, and there's too many to outrun. But it's not exactly like I have another option. If I leave while they're arguing I can get a head start. That seems like the best plan. I took off while I had the chance. It didn't take them long to notice though.

"Hey, after her!" They all started chasing after me. And let me tell you these shoes were NOT made for running. My feet were killing me, my side felt like it was going to explode, and they were gaining on me. I was going to die here.

"HELP ME!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. I was practically out of air, but I figured I didn't really have much to lose. It was get help or die. But who would be out here to help in the middle of the night was beyond me.

Then the worst thing happened. I TRIPPED. There's a horde of bandits chasing me and I TRIPPED! What a great last day of my life. I curled up into a ball and, sobbing, prepared for the worst. I heard a sound like metal connecting with flesh, but a felt no pain yet. I guess I was in shock.

I heard it again and someone started screaming. It was probably me, I've heard of people hearing screams and not realizing it was coming from them. But then I heard another scream, different from the first one. And listening closer, the cries sounded male. I must be going delirious.

I opened an eye to see what exactly was going on. Bandits were falling all around me. What the hell? I died. I died and wound up here was the only thought going through my mind. But eventually the screaming stopped. Probably because there were no more bandits. I looked up to see who had killed them and was met with a shocking site.

LARGO? LARGO the BLACK LION saved me? This day was just getting too weird. I'm dreaming. I fell asleep waiting for it to get dark and I'm dreaming. Or maybe I'm dreaming that I'm in Tales of the Abyss in the first place. It's the only explanation.

"Are you alright?" I looked up to see a liger standing in front of my face. "AHHHH!" I screamed and tried to run, but my legs weren't exactly cooperating with me so all I managed to do was scoot away a little on my butt. I was sparred from bandits only to die by ligers. Why me, why me?

"Arietta, you're scaring her." That voice sounded familiar and decidedly female. "Get off the liger if you want to talk to her."

"He's not scary," she said, but still did as she was told. I could now see Legretta was the one who had spoken to her. The God Generals? I got saved by the God Generals? I think it was at this point that I decided to just stop thinking. It wasn't exactly getting me anywhere anyway.

"Now Largo, do you care to explain why exactly you dragged us into this?" Legretta didn't look pleased. Actually, she looked like she might shoot me if I said anything. So I kept quiet and tried to understand what was going on.

"It wasn't just my idea, Asch and Arietta took off as well. You seemed to be the only one who wanted to simply ignore it," Largo said with a smirk. She glared and said something, but I wasn't really paying attention.

Asch? Asch was here? I took a look around. Sure enough, he was standing to the side, cleaning the blood off his sword. He was watching me, but turned away when I looked at him. I got saved by Asch! That's like every fangirl's dream!

"Well what exactly do you propose we do with her?" Yep, Legretta definitely didn't like me. I don't understand why though, it's not like I did anything to her.

"Well I'd start with asking her why she was out here in the first place." Largo turned to me. "Don't you know it's dangerous go be out by yourself, especially at night?"

"Uhhh," my vocal cords were not exactly functioning. Actually, pretty much nothing was functioning. Which was probably a good thing as it kept me from blabbing about Asch.

"She probably got lost," Arietta said sitting down next to me. "That's why I always travel with my friends." Her 'friend' was standing not to far away watching us. "Where were you going?"

"Engave," I said before realizing how stupid that was. I was practically leading them straight to Ion. "I mean St. Binah," I stammered, figuring I could make it from there (not going to try night traveling again though).

"Which is it?" rumbled Largo.

"St. Binah," I answered. "Yep, definitely St. Binah."

"Now I suppose you're going to say we have to take her there," sighed Legretta looking resigned. "At least it's not too far out of our way, let's just hurry up before we waste anymore time."

"Okay," said Arrietta getting back on her liger. "Come on, you can follow me."

I wasn't exactly looking forward to following a liger, but no one else was offering so I guess I didn't have a choice. I went to stand up but promptly fell back down again. My ankle was killing me.

"And to top it off she's injured." Legretta looked really pissed right now. "We're not stopping for her." She started to march off.

"H-here." Whoa, when did Asch get so close? "I'll help you up." He grabbed my hand and yanked me upwards sending me crashing into his chest. "A-Arietta could you…" he didn't finish his sentence.

"She can ride with me!" she said bringing her liger over. Asch helped me on the liger and then we started to follow Legrertta out. Arietta was babbling about something to do with Ion and Anise, but I wasn't exactly listening. My mind was in la-la land and I liked it that way.

As it was we reached St. Binah close to sun-up. Legretta was more than happy to ditch me there, but Largo wanted to make sure I got someone to take care of my ankle. He was willing to go to the inn and pay for a room and some gels for me, but Asch volunteered instead. Not just volunteered either, he insisted on doing it and without Largo's help.

All the un-Asch-like behavior should have clued me that something was up, but like I said my mind was in la-la land. He helped me hobble over to the inn and paid for a room and some gels while I flopped down on the bed. Let me tell you riding a liger with a bad ankle makes you sore.

Asch walked into the room with the gels and then shut the door He sat down on the edge of the bed and glared at me. I had no clue what was going on. "What are you doing here?" he asked. That was a good question, too bad I didn't have a good answer. I opened my mouth to try to come up with one, but he cut me off. "And don't try to lie either. I recognize your uniform, care to explain what one of the Duke's maids is doing all the way out here?"

Oh. Shit. Of course he would recognize it, he used to live there. How the hell was I going to explain this. Nothing really, Van's sister just tried to kill him, but he stopped her and caused a hyperresonance. Then we got warped here, I refused to listen to Van, and I snuck out. Then I got attacked by bandits, you saved me, and now we're here. That was so not going to go over well.

"I, um, err…" Way to go, that totally makes you sound intelligent. But what was I supposed to say? The truth would cause more problems than it was worth, and it's not like he was going to believe me anyway. I needed to come up with something though, because he obviously didn't like waiting.

"I came here to pick up something…for Duke Fabre." Sounds believable right? At least, I hope it did.

"What was it?" he asked. Yep, he was still in a bad mood. And now I had to come up with something else.

"Mushrooms." Don't laugh, it was the only thing I could think of. There was that side quest where you had to get some for Luke's mom, so it shouldn't sound like I'm totally crazy.

"And where were you supposed to pick them up from?" He's smirking now, I bet he totally knows I'm lying. It's not like I could say Mushroom Road either, there's now way he would believe that. Why did the game make you go all the way out there for mushrooms in the first place?

Wait, I remember now! The mushrooms came from Saint Binah, but after the outer lands fell, they couldn't get them anymore. "I'm supposed to get them here. I thought they would be in Engave because it's a farming town, but Saint Binah's better with medicines."

Well that shut him up. Only for a bit though. "How do you know about that medicine? Only Suzanne's doctors know about that and they have it shipped there. They don't send maids to get it. I bet you're a spy from Malkuth aren't you?"

That was definitely not what I was expecting. "I'm not a spy! This is just a big misunderstanding!" I bet he's going to kill me…

"Tell me everything you know and I just might let you live. Of course, I can't promise anything…" He had his sword to my neck, and I didn't doubt that he was serious.

"I'm not a spy! I don't know anything!" I screamed. "I only knew about that because I heard someone talking about it! That's it!"

"And how am I supposed to believe you when you've just admitted to telling at least one lie? Sorry, but I don't buy it." He slammed me into the wall and pressed his sword into my throat enough to draw blood. "Now why don't you tell the truth this time?"

Suddenly the door swung open and two very familiar faces came in. Asch swung around to see what was going on, which gave Tear just enough time to raise her staff and smash it down on his head. Asch turned his sword away from me and towards her, and they probably would have started killing each other if Van hadn't stopped them.

"That's enough!" he screamed, and it was enough to make everyone more afraid of him than they were of anyone else in the room. "Just what in Lorelei's name is going on here?"

"He's trying to kill me!" I said pointing a finger at Asch. I probably sounded like a two year old at this point, but I didn't exactly care. "It's her fault!" Asch yelled. "She's a lying, good for nothing spy. You should have her executed!"

"So says the would be murderer," said Tear looking at Asch coldly. "As if we would believe anything you say."

"Asch calm down. She might be a little odd, but I can assure you she's not a spy," said Van. He turned to me. "I thought we left you in Kaitzur. How did you get here?"

This led to Asch screaming, "You know her!" at the same time Tear screamed at Van, "You know him!"

Van sighed like he didn't think it was possible that this day could get any worse. "I guess some introductions are in order. Tear, that's Asch, one of the God Generals I'm in charge of. Asch, this is Tear, my sister. The girl you thought is a spy is a maid of Duke Fabre's. She was blasted here along with Tear and myself during a hyperresonance accident. Everyone there is fine."

It was about this time that the innkeeper showed up. "What in Auldrant is going on in here? I heard people screaming something about murder and now there's twice as many people in here as there's supposed to be. And that girl looks even worse than she did when she was brought here and that sword's dripping blood on the floor. What the heck happened?"

"Everything's fine," said Van. "Just a misunderstanding."

"Well in any case I'm going to have to ask all of you to leave. My other customers don't feel very safe after hearing all of that racket."

"All right," Van said. "We can talk about this outside." Everyone headed for the door, but when I tried to stand up, I fell right back down.

"Are you okay?" Tear sat next to me looking very concerned. "He didn't break anything did he?" Tear glanced at Asch as if she was still thinking about killing him.

"It's not that, it's my ankle. I hurt it on the trip here."

"Here let me heal it." She closed her eyes and concentrated on an arte. "First Aid!"

Within seconds, my ankle felt much better. She also healed the cut on my neck. I stood up and thanked Tear. "Don't worry about it," she said.

"You're a seventh fonist?" Asch asked Tear, sounding surprised. That's right, seventh fonists were rare, but I kept forgetting about that because you meet so many during the game. "Yes, but considering you're in the Order, I would have thought you'd have seen seventh fonists before," Tear answered.

"They're scorers, not healers," said Asch said. "It's not the same thing." Then deciding he'd had enough of this topic, he headed out the door. The rest of us followed suit.

We went outside and stopped a bit north of Saint Binah. Van still wanted to know what happened so he took Asch off somewhere to interrogate him, and left Tear to deal with me.

"So what exactly happened?" she asked. So I told her about leaving Kaitzur, running into bandits, being saved by God Generals, and Asch thinking I was a spy.

"So he actually helped you," she said almost to herself. "But why did you lie about why you were here? That doesn't make any sense."

"I didn't think he would believe me if I told the truth. If this hadn't just happened to you, would you have believed me?"

She smiled and shook her head. "No, I suppose not. I'm glad you're alright though."

"What were you two doing in Saint Binah?" I asked. I thought you would have made it to Engave by now."

"There were a lot of monsters," said Tear, "and, of course, bandits. I guess we didn't get all of them. You shouldn't have been out by yourself at night; that was extremely dangerous."

"I know," I said. "I'm sorry."

"Care to explain what happened back there?" asked Van.

"We were looking for that landship like you told us too. Then we heard someone screaming and Arietta just took off. We found that girl being attacked by bandits, so we got rid of them. Largo wanted to take her to an inn and get her injuries treated, so we took her to Saint Binah."

"That still doesn't explain your lying spy comment."

"If she's really my dad's maid, she shouldn't have been out here. When I asked her why she was here, she said something about buying mushrooms."

"Mushrooms?"

"Now do you get why I called her a liar?"

"I'm going to have to keep an eye on her. I don't think it's serious enough for her to be a spy, but that girl has been acting strangely this whole time."

"Strange how?"

"That hyperresonance should have only warped me and Tear. When she saw what was happening, she hung on for the ride."

"Do you think she manipulated it somehow?"

"Unlikely. Although she football tackled your replica, so it's possible."

"About time someone did that."

"In any case, I'm going to ask some of the other God Generals to search Engave with us. Legretta for sure since Tear trusts her."

"You know, you never told me you had a sister."

"You never asked."

"So that maid isn't your spy?"

"Of course not. Let's get back to the others."

Van came back a little later with Asch. "We should head to Engave to see about the Fon Master, if you weren't lying about that also," Van said.

I guess Asch would have told Van about that whole I'm here to pick up mushrooms thing. Now I have two people who don't trust me. "I'm positive that Ion's in Engave," I said. At least I wasn't lying this time.

"Why do you keep calling him Ion?" asked Asch. "You act like you know the Fon Master personally or something." Now everyone was looking at me.

"I don't know…I guess it's just easier to say. And that pink haired friend of yours called him Ion too, so what's wrong with it?" I asked.

"Arrietta does know Ion personally," said Van. "And it wouldn't hurt to address him with proper respect," added Tear. Great. Now they'll all be on my case.

"Let's just get to Engave," grumbled Asch. "We're wasting time just standing here."

We reached Engave late in the evening. When we got there the other God Generals were waiting for us. "We received word that the Fon Master was in this town," said Legretta. "We were just about to search it."

"Major Legretta?" said Tear sounding surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"Fon Master Ion has gone missing," she said. "We're searching for him."

"So are we," said Tear. "He shouldn't be hard to find with this many people."

"Legretta, Arietta, you two search this place with us," said Van. "Asch, Largo, you to keep looking for that landship."

"I don't think it would be wise to look now, it's almost dark," Tear said. "Why don't we stay at the inn and look into it tomorrow?"

So we got two rooms and split up between guys and girls. (Plus the liger. Arietta snuck it in somehow.) Apparently I was the only one who thought it was creepy that Van decided to bring all the girls with him and have the guys do something else. Tear and Legretta didn't mind working together and Arietta kept insisting I was her new friend, so I guess it made a weird kind of sense. And I don't think either of us really wanted to be with Asch after the earlier incident that morning, and it's not like Van was just going to let him go off by himself.

"I bet Anise kidnapped Ion. She knows he'd rather have me as a Fon Master Guardian," said Arietta.

"Who's Anise?" asked Tear.

"She's his new Fon Master Guardian. I had to give the position up after I became a God General."

"Arietta, I highly doubt that Anise had anything to do with it. Don't listen to her Tear, those two are the biggest rivals you'll ever see," said Legretta.

"Let's all get some rest so we'll be fresh for tomorrow," said Tear.

Tomorrow we'd meet up with Anise, Ion, and Jade. That was certainly going to be interesting. Hopefully we don't all get arrested like Luke and Tear did in the game. Still, it'd be great if Van got thrown in prison.

But if we don't get arrested, then we won't be there when the Tartarus gets attacked. And none of us have any overwhelming rank in Kimlasca, so they might not ask us to help them with the peace treaty anyway. Why didn't I think of this stuff sooner?

Not to mention the fact that Guy might not even show up since Luke wasn't kidnapped. But since Legretta and Arietta are coming with us, that'd be less God Generals for Anise and Jade to deal with.

And then there's the liger issue. I don't think Arietta would be very happy if we killed her mom right in front of her. But if we don't, the ligers will eat all the cheagles, and maybe the townspeople once they're gone. Everything seems so hopeless.