Author's notes: I guess that since I made chapter two earlier than planned, it's only fair that this comes a bit later. It was surprisingly hard to write, maybe I should read the light novels again to get some more facts about Reconquista. Or maybe I should just read further, I've only read the first 12 after all.

To ToAruKagakuNoPersona: Thank you! I actually went through a dictionary, but there was no mention about using 'dry' when talking about a story. Now I can see about correcting that in the coming chapters.

To ResetTheWorld: Now I feel embarrassed. How did I not notice a mistake like that? In the first paragraph nonetheless! I was planning on finding a beta reader when this was about four or five chapters long, but thanks to ToAruKagakuNoPersona I think I'll look for one in the coming weeks. I don't think I can correct my 'dryness' without one.

To dan heron: Breaking down the paragraphs, thanks for the suggestion!

To everyone else: Thanks for reading! I hope many will review in the future!

End notes.

Thinking

"Speaking"

Spells, or setting

Flashback

=Change in POV=

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 3

First day at a new job

Flashback, minutes after the escape

"So this… Reconquista was it? What are they?" Marche asked the masked man as their griffin rose higher. It was actually getting quite cold, but the masked man didn't seem to mind.

"We are a… group of concerned nobles. We want to unite these lands under one banner and then take back the holy land from the elves" the man said, not bothering to turn around.

"Unite these lands? Take back the holy land? Isn't that like, the popes job or something?" Marche asked, while his mind raced: Okay, Cloak and Dagger group found. Are they heroes or villains? Or a third party?

"Yes… Normally it would be, but the current monarchs are mostly cowards who care for nothing else but their own gain. They fear they would lose their positions if they attacked the elves. Moreover, not one nation has currently the power to oppose the elves", the masked man explained. Cliché, no wonder I did not play this game, with a plot like this. Let's hope there is more to this than it seems. Could also be that they are the villains, they usually have corny lines. Although they are against the royals… Maybe I could use them to sneak near the Princess? Marche grinned.

"So what do you need me for? I have some experience in commanding small battle groups" And regicide Marche added darkly in his mind.

"We have an informant in the Princess's inner circle and he has informed us that she is going to send a messenger through the rebel –our– blockade to prince Wales of Albion. We do not know the exact contents of the message, but they should be something incriminating that we can use to show the people the true face of their monarch."

"Sounds like a plan. I am to intercept this message then?"

"No, that is my job. Your job will be handling the messenger's escorts. They might prove problematic if they all can reach the prince. You see, we have plans for the prince as well. It is critical for them, that the messenger reaches the prince."

"You mean to assassinate the prince and frame the messenger, I take it?" Marche asked, not quite sure what he should think. This Reconquista appeared to be a bit dark organization and Marche did not want to be on the antagonist side of any game, for it tended to end bad for them. I suppose I could use this chance to check out the prince of Albion, just to be safe. After all, monarchs tend to have some sort of secret knowledge with them. Maybe he is even one of the people who used the grimoire to create this place, Marche thought about the situation. The chance was remote, after all if they used a grimoires power to become monarchs, why not have loyal subjects? Of course, this world might have been around longer than Ivalice had. Maybe that meant something.

"Something along those lines, yes."

Flashback end

On the road to the port town La Rochelle

Marche stood on a cliff, inspecting the road below. He was wearing his cloak and Judge coat again, along with the Manganese saber and Terre rod completing his 'battle equipment'. He was also holding a lone Law card between his thumb and index finger. Marche inspected the faintly gleaming card with a stylized lightning bolt in its middle. Okay then. Plan A, Marche thought and released the Law card's magic, making it disappear in a bright flash. He looked over the area once more, but when he didn't notice any difference he casted a small Thunder spell on a boulder nearby. The bolt shattered the stone and the smaller pieces melted into glass. Marche waited for some sort of penalty for breaking the new law he had set upon the area, but nothing happened.

"Tch, too bad." Marche mumbled to himself and waved his hand, holding two fingers up as a sign for his comrades –no, these were mercenaries, employees– that the plan had changed. So the Laws are useless without the judges to enforce them. Plan B it is then, Marche thought and sighed, what should I do with the remaining cards now? Maybe there's a collector or something for magic cards. Who knows? I might even earn something. Marche then spared one last glance down at the road. The place was perfect for an ambush, the people at the road had no way to get up at the cliff easily. They would have to retreat back or try to push forward, maybe try to take a shot at him with bows or flintlocks. Were his targets not capable of magic, he would be sure winner.

But that was not the case, even if the Princess didn't trust the nobles. If what the masked man had said was right, then at least the captain of the Griffin Knights would be there. Marche really wasn't keen on the idea that he had to attack a group that had at least one square level mage in it, but according to the informant the Reconquista had in the Princess's inner circle, Wardes would be flying ahead of the group with his fiancée, some young daughter of a duke. Marche planned to use that for his advantage. Despite how the man appeared to Marche, he had a reputation as the model knight, so chivalry would no doubt be part of his package and that means Wardes would no doubt place his lady's safety as one of his top priorities. So, if a sudden thunderstorm were to appear, he would take her somewhere safe and La Rochelle was quite near for a flying mount. And then the ground team would have no air support. Marche could focus on raining spells on them from the cliff and when they would try to return fire, the hired mercenaries could ambush them from the back with bows. Simple, but effective plan.

Marche stepped away from the cliff so that the hired help wouldn't see him casting the Phantasm skill. It was a bit risky to use a spell with no local equivalent, but Marche was sure that even if the mercenaries saw him cast it, they wouldn't know enough about magic to notice or care. Other risk was that Wardes might take notice of the sudden weather change and become cautious, even if he wouldn't recognize the spell.

"Tempest" Marche voiced the skill and waved the Terre rod to keep up appearances for the off chance that somebody saw him. Yellow energy compressed into a ball before him and then flew off into the sky, where it assumed the form of a quickly darkening cloud, much like the ones already present. Marche then took cover in the woods, for his targets would appear soon.

Marche didn't have to scan the sky for long, because soon he saw a lone griffin in the sky. It was actually disturbingly close and Marche feared he might have compromised his ambush, but the riders didn't seem cautious at all. As a matter of fact, they appeared to be bickering about something. Marche couldn't hear what they were arguing about, but that really didn't matter to him. With a mental command, Marche activated the illusion spell he had thrown to the sky and soon enough, there was a loud rumble and an authentic looking flash illuminated the sky. That got the riders attention and Marche's eyes widened when he saw that Wardes's companion had a pink hair and a black cloak. Should've known this! She's some sort of aide to the Princess, just like Babus! Of course the Princess would send her along with this mission, Marche cursed, anyway this plan works on her too. Just have to hope she can't teleport like Babus could while he was in Mewt and Remedi's service.

Marche send some more lighting out from his Tempest, while decreasing the time between the rumbles and flashes in order to give an image of a storm coming closer. Just as Marche had predicted, the griffin took off for La Rochelle with new zeal leaving the ones on the road without escort. Marche kept the false thunder cloud in the air a while longer and when the griffin was but a blur against the sky, he let the spell fade. Phantasm skills were really powerful, but in return they were really hard to keep up, as the skills required intense concentration or they would unravel. That's why illusionists in Ivalice limited their illusions to small timeframes. Phantasm skills also drained a good bit of the caster's MP, but Marche had plenty to spare even without the Halve MP ability that cut the spell cost in half. Marche spared one final glance towards the city and then concentrated on the road.

It took surprisingly long time for Wardes's companions to arrive at the ambush spot. Why would Wardes keep such a distance on the others? Is he not supposed to protect them while they take the Princess's message to the prince of Albion? Marche wondered as the two horsemen finally closed in, revealing an unknown kid and a familiar face: the swordsman who had attacked Marche from behind when he had arrived into this world. Marche had a small grudge against the boy for that, since he had probably broken the rocket launcher when Marche used it to block his sneak attack. Well, it's payback time, Marche thought and waved the Terre rod in a raising motion.

"Blah blah blah, Sandstorm!" Marche chanted and a cloud of sand rose from the road, blinding and abrading the horses and their riders. Another interesting difference between color and element mages was that color mages had absolutely no need for any incantations, no matter how powerful the spell. Marche deducted that it had something to do with their video game origins, but he really didn't care since it worked in his advantage. He had still decided to at least pretend to chant for his spells, so as to mask his unusual magic.

The spell worked marvelously and Marche heard the horses pained screams when they lost their footing and crashed onto the rocks, not to mention the countless grains of sand that grinded their skin away, filling their eyes and mouths obstructing their breathing. The ambush was perfect; both riders were caught completely by surprise, no doubt too tired from riding nonstop all day. For a moment Marche actually thought that he had got them both with the opening, but then something popped out of the sand cloud. Marche recognized it as the unknown rider and soon his companion, the swordsman popped out too, the ancient sword in hand. Marche still felt a bit reserved about the weapon, but since there was unclimbable cliff between him and it, he shrugged it off.

Hmm. Is that guy a wind mage? Marche studied the unknown teen and noticed that he was moving without actually moving his legs. Suddenly spears flew from the sand cloud, but they hit the cliff wall and bounced off harmlessly. Marche raised his eyebrow questioningly at the spears, but then refocused on the mages feet. There were something curled around them and Marche could make out a dark humanoid form in the cloud. But there were no-one else there… Marche thought until he remembered a tidbit he had heard about earth mages: they were adept at making stuff through transmutation. Not only did they make all major buildings in this world, but they also made golems that could move and do simple chores when the mage watched over them. And currently the earth mage wished to be above the cloud, so the golems were holding him up. Nice plan but easily countered, Marche thought and pointed his rod towards them.

"Thunder!" A flash of yellow was followed by a lightning bolt that struck the humanoid shapes inside the cloud and the mage yelled as he fell back into the cloud. Marche then fired another bolt at the remaining one, but the swordsman evaded with an inhuman leap that left Marche gaping. What was that? Some sort of magic boots like the Galmia shoes in Ivalice? Or an enchantment spell like Dragon Force? Marche's mind raced as he threw another Thunder at the swordsman to keep him from retaliating. Of course! It's that sword! It must boost his physical ability like the Sequencer, only– Marche's thoughts were cut off when a fireball hit him in the back, almost pushing him down the cliff. He yelped in surprise as he felt flames caress his back and burning his cloak and hair. Panicking from the sudden attack, Marche almost dropped the Terre rod as he somersaulted away from the cliff and then begun roll down the cliffside to put the fire out. Not an easy job, when it was raining fireballs.

Through some stroke of luck, Marche managed to roll behind a large rock and get back up again so he could face his ambushers, who appeared to be rest of the academy students he had faced several days ago riding the icedrake. So that's why Wardes had such a distance between himself and the others. They still had air support without him, Marche cursed his carelessness. He was so sure the enemies couldn't get at him that he hadn't even used Dragon Force or Mighty Guard on himself. If not for the Judge coat, Marche would have lost already. The superb coat had not even caught fire despite taking a clear hit from a fireball!

"Are the little Princess's soldiers deserting when she only has students like you to send on missions like this?" Marche taunted his opponents, but to his surprise the two students' didn't seem to care that he insulted their liege. Maybe they had more combat experience than he thought. The redhead mage –Kirche or something– casted another Fireball spell, showing remarkably dull tactical mind. It was the only fire spell Marche had ever seen the woman use, and it hadn't been terribly effective unless one counted the recent ambush from behind. Marche evaded the flames easily and threw back a Blizzard of his own only to be countered with yet another fireball.

"Is that the only spell you have learned? What slackers you are, real disgraces of the Academy!" Marche kept taunting, angry enemies tended to make mistakes after all. Kirche answered with a new salvo of fireballs, though this time Marche didn't even have to dodge. The fireballs came in a loose formation and seemed to hit everywhere except the color mage. Marche snickered and was about to insult her again, but the thought died on his lips, when the flames did not recede, they actually grew and blocked his escape routes.

"Damn!" Marche swore and for a second debated in his head should he cast Shell or Mighty Guard to protect himself. That was too long and a freezing current of air slammed at him, followed by several ice spikes. Marche used the Terre rod as a club and swatted the first one like a fly and then hurled his body on the ground letting the spikes pass him over.

As soon as the spikes had passed, Marche saw from the corner of his eye that the flames were dying and tried to get back up and get clear, but the freezing wind had not yet stopped and Marche felt ice gathering around him. Oh, come on! This isn't fair, Marche tried to break free, but because his arms were in such a bad position, he managed to free his legs only. This is going to hurt, Marche sighed mentally and casted Mighty Guard.

=Kirche's POV=

"Finally, good job Tabitha!" Kirche congratulated her best friend for finally icing the barbaric thief. When she had snuck out of the academy with Tabitha to catch her Darling and that Zero Valliere, she hadn't thought they would end up fighting the master thief again. Truth to be told, she was first a bit reluctant to attack the man (not that she'd ever admit it) who had fought all four of them off seemingly with no trouble a few days ago, but Tabitha's cool and professional demeanor about it had given her confidence and everything had went perfectly. The thief had barely had any time to cast his spells and his movements were much lazier than she remembered. It was almost too easy to drive him into a corner, so that Tabitha could use her strong ice spells to capture him. It was a bit of a shame that she couldn't see Darling dealing with the thief, but saving his life made up for it. Kirche knew exactly how Darling could pay her back for this…

Kirche had already lowered her wand, but then she saw a something flash near the thief and she pointed it at the thief again. When nothing happened, she shrugged it off as a light reflecting from the ice and turned to the cliff to give an "all clear" to Darling. Tabitha would warn her if the fugitive was about to try anything, not that he could do much with his wand and arms encased in ice.

"Oh, Darling! The thief is apprehended now! Let's celebrate this by–!" Kirche's yell stopped short, when she saw that there was a fight going on down below. Some mercenaries were shooting arrows at Darling and that moron Guiche da Gramont. Or were at least trying to, as Guiche had those golems of his to shield himself and Darling was once again showing off his impressive skills, by dodging the arrows easily as he closed in to the archers at the edge of the woods. There were some defeated mercenaries lying on the ground already, probably ones that were supposed to keep Darling away from the archers. Hmph, as if they would be mach for my darling Saito! Kirche snickered at them, before turning around and walking towards Fouquet. A few kicks on the right places and he'll call the mercenaries off, Kirche planned nonchalantly. Although she still planned on giving him more kicks later, the guy had hit Tabitha with a lighting spell and cursed Valliere, although the curse didn't seem to have any real effect on her. And now he attacked Darling, Kirche thought darkly. Fouquet would be in a world of hurt before he would be handed to the authorities.

When Kirche was just a few feet away from the man, there was another flash and he exploded in flames.

"Suicide?" Kirche heard Tabitha hiss.

"What? The coward decided to take the easy way out?" Kirche asked, voice full of shock. Fouquet hadn't struck her as that type of man. She had expected him to try and escape at some point, not commit a suicide. A man of his type just wouldn't take his life because he was caught!

Soon the magic flames started to flicker and reveal Fouquet's charred corpse. Kirche shrieked in surprise, when she saw what was supposed to be a charred body stand up amongst the shrinking flames, looking actually not much worse for the wear. Fouquet's cloak had been reduced to ashen strips, but the black coat under it seemed to be a bit faded, but it wasn't in tatters as clothes usually hit by fireballs were. Didn't that coat also weather my surprise attack really well too? Kirche's mind raced as Fouquet painfully coughed in his hand. His face had some burns on it, but nothing that one really couldn't get from lying in the sun too long. Protection from flames maybe? How many elements does that guy control? Kirche panicked. Fouquet had now casted earth, wind, water and fire spells. That was supposed to be impossible! What next, the lost Void? Tabitha shook Kirche from her musings by casting a simple dot level wind spell to keep Fouquet from recovering.

"Withdraw" Tabitha told Kirche and retreated towards Sylphid. They had all three used many spells already and the two of them knew they wouldn't be able to keep up with Fouquet much longer at close range. Their best bet would be to take the air with Sylphid and bombard the thief from there. If they could challenge the thief in an endurance contest, they could win.

When the duo reached the dragon, Kirche whipped around and threw the weakest fire spell she knew towards the thief in order to buy them time to mount the dragon. To her surprise, Fouquet wasn't hot on their heels as she had thought. The man had actually moved near the cliff, where he shouted retreat orders to his men. Kirche didn't know if she should be impressed that the man had the wellbeing of his men in his mind or should she be insulted that the man didn't seem to want finish what they had started. She still climbed onto Sylphids back, as the chance was too good to let go. Soon the wind dragon was in the air, with both raiders preparing to take turns in bombarding the thief. The thief, who apparently had no intention to fight anymore, he swung his mace-wand and chanted something quickly, summoning a cloud of sand to hide himself.

"The woods", Tabitha stated, pointing her staff towards the nearest trees. Kirche understood immediately what her quiet friend meant and as fast as she could, she lit the nearest trees ablaze. Even if he had protection from flames, he wouldn't walk into burning woods where the falling trees and lack of air would be just as deadly as the flames. Kirche then methodically surrounded the cliff with fire, using up almost all of her willpower to stop the thief from escaping. After a few minutes the cloud started to settle, but when it disappeared, so had Fouquet.

"All that effort and he still escapes" Kirche growled in annoyance as Sylphid started to land beside weary looking Saito and Guiche.

"What did he want?" Guiche asked, tiredness evident in his voice.

"Didn't say. Maybe revenge from the last time?" Kirche guessed and looked towards her Darling.

"Hmm. Maybe so… But considering our mission maybe he had some other business. But what are you doing here?" Darling pondered and sheathed his rusty sword. Kirche didn't understand why he kept that piece of junk around. Sure, it was sturdier than it looked and could talk, but it didn't fit him. The sword Kirche had bought him was much more better looking, even if it had been useless in battle.

"Oh, I'll tell you all about it as we head to La Rochelle Darling! You see, me and Tabitha were…

=Marche's POV=

Camp in the forest near La Rochelle

The mercenaries had set up a crude camp in the middle of the forest, a good distance away from the road. It was there, next to the campfire where Marche moped. The mission had been a failure; retreat had been the only choice. Even if Marche had defeated the duo, his men would've been destroyed. Even if they weren't really his comrades, he still didn't want to lose them. He had decided it in Ivalice, he wouldn't send his men to death, even if the judges made sure there would be no real death. Except in Jagds. If mission was failing completely, it was best to retreat and devise a new strategy. That was Marche's way.

The mercenaries at least looked happy with his decision. It might've had something to do with their payment, but Marche didn't really care. They were alive and with relatively small injuries, that was enough for him. His own wounds were already healed, courtesy of Cure spell. His MP on the other hand was lower than ever before in Halkeginia. Not only had he used many spells in the fight, but he had had to use a Phantasm skill to escape the flames. A quick Prominence had ensured him a safe path through the forest, but he had had to keep the illusion up as long as he could, for if it had faded in the enemies' presence, they would know exactly where he had gone and that would mean round three too soon. Of course Marche could have recovered almost instantly with the ethers and potions he had, but he wanted to save them. No reason to use them, when he could simply rest to regain his powers.

But I still got my ass handed to me today, Marche went over the ambush in his head. His first failure was not to keep a back up for himself, he was too confident with his color magic. He had underestimated the element mages. He wouldn't do so again. From now on, he would always prepare Dragon Force and Mighty Guard before battle. Even if he was a spectator.

A griffins screech woke him up a few hours later. The masked man had returned, with new orders, no doubt.