AN: I'm making up stuff as I go. Don't be surprised if this goes weird.

Chapter 3

Darkness had fallen well before they staggered into Altamira's gates, Aster was exhausted, but the thought of an actual bed indoors and a bath kept his feet moving well past the point when he normally would have begged for a rest. Richter looked nearly as tired, but he was hiding behind a grim expression. Emil kept striding ahead, realizing he was leaving them behind and slowed to let them catch up with a guilty hang of his head.

Aster had to wonder about this girl Marta if she was the one who convinced Ratatosk not to destroy all sentient people in the world. He was looking forward to meeting her, even if she didn't remember Ratatosk's current form.

Today had been filled with questions for Emil about Ratatosk. Aster just wished he had been sitting down so he could write down the answers he had received from the Avatar of Ratatosk, since it had confirmed many of his theories, and disproved others. He planned on writing everything down when he next got the chance. Probably on the ship to Palmacosta. What had been more fascinating was getting to witness Emil making pacts with monsters and building up something of a small army of creatures. Thankfully they all didn't follow behind them in a pack. Tenebrae would summon two to assist in battle, but after the fight was over, they would disappear into mana, which was reassuring as they got closer to town and Altamira's local police took care of the monsters on the road.

"There won't be any ships leaving tonight, Emil," Richter said as he continued towards the hotel, though he had begun to show a decided limp.

"I know," Emil said dejectedly. "But at least we won't be sleeping on the ground again tonight."

"You don't like it either?" Aster asked.

"It was nice of you to give me your blanket last night, Aster. Thank you."

Aster smiled in return, then smiled wider as he found Richter's displeased expression had lightened considerably. The half-elf had paused on the first step to the hotel and looked back at them. Turning, he held the door for the other two. Emil went ahead again, and where Tenebrae had been walking sedately beside him the whole day, the black Centurion was nowhere to be found. Aqua had disappeared much earlier in the day after an argument with her fellow Centurion. Aster shook his head as Emil held a key out to him. "What?"

"Your room, fourth floor," Emil repeated then handed Richter a key.

"You didn't have to pay for all that by yourself..." Aster objected, though part of him was glad that Ratatosk's Avatar understood the concept of money in the first place.

Emil shook his head. "Its okay." He smiled at them. "We'll talk more in the morning." Leading the way to the elevator, as if he had been here before, Emil held the door for them and selected their floor, guiding the way to their set of rooms. Aster opened his door and stepped in, blinking in the mana light that automatically came on as he entered. They weren't the fanciest rooms in the hotel, but they afforded a nice view of the moon glowing over the ocean and the casino and amusement park across the bay. Dropping his bag, he tiredly pawed through it for a change of clothes before heading for the bathroom to get a proper wash.

Halfway through his soak, someone knocked on the door.

"Aster?" Richter's voice called.

Climbing out and wrapping a towel around his waist, Aster limped to the door and opened it, he hadn't realized his shoes had rubbed blisters on his feet. Richter stood in the hall, holding a tray.

Pulling the door open wider, Aster breathed in through his nose gratefully at the scent. "You didn't have to bring me dinner," he said as Richter set the tray on a nearby table. Aster returned to the bathroom and found his clean pants, then toweled his hair a bit before limping back out.

"Are you all right?" Richter asked.

"Living in Sybak didn't exactly prepare me for walking all day like that." Aster sat at the table and pulled his feet into the chair. He pulled the plate Richter served for him closer and started eating. "I've been thinking," he said between bites. "About the timeline. It's important that we get the Centurions awakened, but we also need to find out what happened. Was it only you and Ratatosk that came back? Why did Tenebrae and not Aqua remember the events you do? Maybe it was some kind of weird vision and none of it actually happened?"

Richter shook his head. "If you're looking for a way to convince yourself that I'm not a horrible person..."

"I know you're not," Aster interrupted and sighed. "And... in a way its kind of flattering that you'd burn the world for me." He reached across the table to grip Richter's hand where it rested beside his plate. "I'd just prefer that you didn't, that's all."

A ghost of a smile touched Richter's lips and he left his hand where it was. "It did occur to me that you would have that opinion..." He stared at his dinner in silence and Aster could nearly hear the words that he knew were caught in his friend's throat.

"I love you too, Richter," he said and squeezed the half-elf's hand again before returning to eating.

Richter's face turned nearly as red as his hair. "I... Just..."

Aster burst out laughing. "I know," he said. "You like ladies. I do too. But men can love each other too. We're family. More than family. Soul brothers. I knew it the moment I met you."

"Is that why you kept bothering me?" Richter took off his glasses, setting them on the table with a soft click and used both hands to rub his temples.

"Of course," Aster agreed. "You're pretty good at taking care of lost puppies, after all."

Richter surprised him with a soft chuckle. "That must be why I put up with Emil following me around so often... Even though we were supposed to be enemies."

"He seems like he's got things together. Much better than Ratatosk. I still... can hardly believe I almost died. Richter. What would you do if the timeline you remember reasserts itself and I..." When Richter didn't immediately answer, Aster shook his head and continued. "I don't want you to resurrect me. Okay? Not at that price. I don't even know if demons could even do it right. We know so little about them."

"They're pretty powerful, but honestly... anything was better than letting Ratatosk revive and destroy everyone. I was looking at it from a numbers perspective. A few thousand as opposed to everyone. Though I'm glad a compromise was found." Richter picked up his fork and toyed with his dinner.

Aster shook his head. "I'm still having a hard time believing... If it weren't for Ratatosk's sudden change in temper, I'd think all of you were just making it up to mess with my head. Well, that and Emil wearing my face and being so knowledgeable about Summon Spirits and Ratatosk and the flow of mana in general."

His chatter was rewarded with a smile from Richter. "Going to write a book about it?"

"Of course I am!" Aster tapped a finger firmly on the table. "Your name will be on it too, Richter. I couldn't have gotten nearly this far without you."

"Now if I could just get you to use a weapon I might not have to worry about you so much..." Richter sighed.

Waving a hand, Aster snorted. "Emil's done a good enough job of upstaging me with all that fancy jumping in the air and swatting things out of the sky."

"If only he were slightly smarter," Richter said with a hint of a smile again. "Though I'd blame that more on Ratatosk for being so completely out of touch with the world."

"We can't have everything in one package," Aster raised both hands with a shrug and tip of his head.

"Have I mentioned that you're egotistical?"

"Dozens of times. Finish your dinner and get some sleep. Its already well past midnight and I doubt Emil is going to let us sleep in. I have to admit I'm terribly curious about this Marta girl, though. I hope she remembers him."

Richter frowned again as he stirred his half-eaten dinner on his plate. "It would break Emil's heart if she didn't."

"Well, let's you and me make a plan then," Aster leaned forward, both fists on the table. "If she doesn't remember him, we'll make sure to get them together."

"Like you or I know anything about how to... hook someone up," Richter groaned. "And are you sure you want to get involved in that?"

Aster nodded firmly. "She was the reason Ratatosk changed his mind about us mortals. I think it's very important that we make sure Emil is shown how great the world is so Ratatosk doesn't change his mind again. Especially after we go through all the trouble of awakening his Centurions."

Richter set his fork down as he stared at his plate. "That is a good point." He closed his eyes tightly and rubbed them with his fingers. "I spent five years trapped in the Ginnungagap with Ratatosk, but even I can't say whether he would swing back to hating us all if provoked even minutely. He has very little patience."

"I kind of got that impression," Aster said with a nod. "Finish eating and get to bed."

"Let me cast a healing arte on your feet first," Richter objected. "You'll be complaining about it tomorrow if I don't."

"What about you? You were limping too."

"I've already tended to myself." He knelt next to Aster and sighed when the younger man stuck his feet out towards Richter. "Why didn't you mention this earlier?"

Aster stared down at his friend with wide eyes. "I was too busy talking to Emil."

"Of course." Muttering under his breath, Richter's hands glowed and mana poured between them. He applied the spell to Aster's sore feet for a moment before standing and dusting his hands against his pants. "Sleep well."

"Do you think I was bothering Emil with my questions? He's a little hard to read. Does he get excited about anything?" Aster blurted. "We need to find things that will interest him. We should take him to the park." He pointed towards the window.

Groaning, Richter picked his glasses up from the table and put them on. "Good night, Aster." He left before Aster could demand answers to his latest questions. Sighing, the human wiggled his toes and turned one foot to look at. The blisters had been healed, but they would still peel later. He grinned cheerfully. Scabs were the best part about getting wounded.

...

Marta grumpily tapped the spoon against the rim of the pot to knock sauce off it before setting it aside and returning to her seat. Wandering town for the rest of the day had given her very little reassurance that her time with Emil hadn't been a dream. The only thing she could find was that the weather had been entirely strange since the world regeneration, which matched with what she remembered from her "dream" but no one knew why there was snow in Triet. In a fit of depression she had picked up a journal at one of the shops and was now working on writing everything she could remember about Emil, all the little things that irritated her and made her so happy she cried. What she missed the most was the necklace he had given her as an engagement gift and the bracelet he had gotten from somewhere while out playing around with Richter.

She sighed at that. "I wonder when, or if Richter is going to show up," she said softly as she absently doodled in the corner of a page.

The front door opened and Brute entered, taking a deep breath. "That smells really good, Marta," he said in wonder.

"You're just saying that," she said and closed her book, setting it aside in order to start the noodles.

"No I'm not..." Brute said.

"You don't need to lie anymore," Marta said and looked at him over her shoulder with a slight smile. "I know my cooking was bad before, but I'm getting better. Tell me if it's not okay, please? I can't improve if I don't know what I'm doing wrong."

Brute's expression softened and he approached, putting his hands on her shoulders and kissed the top of her head. "The fact that you're trying makes me happy."

Taking a spoon, Marta dipped it into the sauce and held it up to him. "Taste?" she asked. "And be honest!"

Hesitating briefly, Brute leaned down and accepted the spoon. He blinked in surprise. "This is really good, Marta. Where did you learn this recipe?"

"Uhm..." She looked away, unsure of what to say, since Emil had been the one to teach her. Though her results weren't nearly as pretty as his, the sauce was watery and tasted a little too sweet to her even though she hadn't added anything extra. "Just something I picked up," she said finally. "Is it too sweet? I think it's too sweet, but I don't know how to fix that." Her heart hurt as she gazed at the pot, knowing that Emil would help her. He would know how to make it better. Turning, she put her face against her father's chest in order to hide her tears from him. The thought of living without Emil was just too painful to bear. "Daddy, I want to take a trip."

"You do?"

"I want to visit Luin," she said. "I've never been there before. I thought it would be fun to go somewhere by myself."

"By yourself?" Brute sighed. "I can't let you do that."

Biting her lower lip, Marta tried to think of come compromise that would let her do as she pleased without raising his suspicions. "Okay... What about if you sent Hawk with me?" He was competent enough that Brute would trust him, but would be easy enough to manipulate.

Sighing, Brute rested his arms around her shoulders and rocked gently. "You always did have your mother's adventurous side," he said regretfully. "What about your schooling?"

"I can take a week off," she said.

He drew back to look down at her with a frown. "Did you fail a test this week or something?"

She stared up at him in confusion. "Not that I know," she said, unable to remember. She remembered Raine drilling her on all kinds of subjects and being generally displeased with the results, but eventually pronouncing her educated enough. She had continued to be on Emil's case about his reading skills, though he had math down pretty good. Marta quickly blinked away her tears. "Even if I did, I could talk the teacher into letting me retake it and I'll study extra hard and pass the next test. Daddy, please, I just... Really want to go to Luin and see Lake Sinoa before it's gone."

Brute sighed and leaned down to kiss her forehead. "All right," he said finally. "If you make sure you won't be missing anything important at school."

Marta nodded. "Okay. Promise. I'll do that first thing tomorrow."