Where… am I? It's so dark… so dense… did I fade? Isa sat up, staring at the darkness around him, head turning slowly. "Nrgh!" The bluenette rubbed his neck, massaging the tense pain from it. Off in the distance, a soft violet light shone. Shielding his eyes, Isa stood and began walking towards it. The closer he got, the larger and paler it grew. Hesitantly, he stepped through the light, pulling his collar above his nose as he started coughing, dusty air filling his lungs. He fell to his hands and knees as he was bumped from behind, a large, bulky figure offering to help him up. "Sorry, kid – didn't see ya! What's your name?" Stunned, Isa thought for moment before taking the offered hand, pulling himself up as he mumbled "my friends call me Moon…" Laughing and performing his ridiculous jape, the large man introduced himself. "I am Captain Justice, fearless defender and hero of this town!" Isa couldn't help but laugh, shaking his head at the ludicrous display and his circumstances for being there. "Where are we, anyway?" Captain Justice gave him an incredulous look. "You don't know? But surely you've been here your entire life?" Massaging his neck again, Isa kept his head down, eyes searching the dirt and grass for answers; he knew it wasn't often a good thing when someone let out the truth when in a different world. "Well, yeah, but…" Looking up, Isa beamed. "Guess I musta hit my head earlier!" With an amused look, Captain Justice started laughing, the bluenette following suit. "You're a good kid. Let ol' Cap'n Justice show ya 'round. See if we can jog ya memory, eh?" Comforted by the speech patterns, noting them as similar to Lea's with a small pang of loss and guilt, Isa nodded, allowing himself to be dragged around the fair. "This here is Disney Town! You're just in time for the annual Dream Festival! Oh, almost forgot – you dropped this." He shoved a parcel into Isa's hands, closing them over it. What the-no… how? He was staring at the Codex in shock.
Lea coughed and spluttered, waving the dust away with one hand, palming his stinging eyes with the other. "Stupid books…" he grumbled. "U-u-um… e-excuse me…" A small voice sounded behind him, causing him to turn slowly. Before him was a small head topped with slate-blue bangs, a single cerulean eye peering up at him from behind the hair. "H-h-how did you get in here…? Past the… guards?" Green eyes blinked twice, a clear look of shock on his face. "Guards? I don't… There were some strange events, then when I went out of my house I was just here…" The young child continued. "Do you… even know where we are?" Red spikes bounced as their owner shook his head. "I am still in Radiant Garden, right?" Young blue eyes closed and the child nodded. "We're in the palace library. No one is… allowed… down here…" Rolling his eyes, Lea nodded, pulling his scarf over his nose. "You can show yourself, you know! I'm sure I'm in more trouble than you will be. I'm Lea, got it memorized?" The redhead extended his arm generously, smiling. Slowly, a hand reached out and hesitantly shook his. "I-Ienzo…" Grinning, Lea gestured toward the stacked shelves behind him. "You read?" Ienzo smiled timidly, stepping out from behind the doorway to reveal a white lab coat, loose casual clothes underneath covering his small frame. "It's the only thing I can do… According to everyone else…"
Lea frowned, watching Ienzo carefully hold a finger out in front of him as he used it as a cursor, reading the spines it pointed to. "Were you after anything in particular?" Green eyes hardened. "Yes… tell me what you know of the…" he hesitated, trying to recall what Isa had said. "…Codex, I think it was?" He noticed Ienzo stiffen, frozen in place, eyes wide. "Ienzo?" Lea snapped his fingers in front of the boy's face a few times, not earning a response. "Codex?" Ienzo drew in a great, shuddering breath as though surfacing after almost drowning; he was panting just as heavily, too. Blue hair shook as the boy crouched and trembled, arms over his head. "Where did you… come by that name?" The redhead looked away, trying to hide the tears he felt forming. "My…" he swallowed hard, trying again. "My best… friend… before… some stuff…" Ienzo surged upwards, tightly throwing his arms around Lea's waist, head against his chest. Lea nearly took a step back in reaction but stayed put, bringing a hand up to run it through the child's hair, comforting him. "M-may t-the heart… of f-friendship… stay true and bright, even in your darkest of times!" Whoa! Where did that come from? The teen rubbed the boy's back, realising he was crying. "Are you lonely, Ienzo?" Question hitting hard, Ienzo flinched before nodding sadly. "Hey… you can stop crying, kid. Tell ya what – you teach me to read, and I'll let you come with me when we go to get my friend back. We got a deal?" Slate-blue hair nodded, shaking Lea's hand vigorously.
"Can you start by reading these?" He pulled a scrap of paper from his shirt, handing it to Ienzo. It was covered in runes that Isa had written down for him, the respective letters beneath each one. "This is the last I have of my friend…" Carefully taking the parchment from him, the boy looked it over, scanning the code into his memory. "Interesting set of runes… Do you have the book here?" Lea nodded, reaching under his shirt in the same place Isa had stored it previously. The teen handed it to the boy, who stepped back and wrenched it open, trying not to drop it as he stood shaking. "Uh… need to sit down?" Lea asked, pointing to the wooden desk and chairs in the corner. Ienzo nodded absentmindedly, walking with Lea's guidance as he had his face to the book, carefully examining the contents. As he sat down, he jumped, dropping the book on the table. "Has it always been half blank?" What does he mean? "Huh?" Green eyes flicking over the page, Lea stared in shock, realising half the text was missing. "Oh, no…"