Seeing how many hits I got yesterday, I have the slightly guilty/slightly ecstatic feeling that people have been checking back in for the next chapter...Or I'm suddenly getting much more popular.
Rhino600:
Thank you! You have apparently moved higher on the imaginary list of addicted readers. It will probably be a while coming, but I'm not done throwing twists into Letha's real and cover stories. I will, however, be easing back a bit for awhile because there's actual plot that needs to be done. I'll try to make sure it's as interesting as all my original developments for everyone who has played the game already.
x x x
Chapter 17: Sleep Talk and Introspection
x x x
"Well you girls are up early."
"Woah! What happened to you?"
"Ugh...Rita had a dream that she was fighting a monster...and she cast Champagne." I was sitting on the step at the inn's back door, wringing water out of my long sleeved black shirt. Everything I bought in Nor Harbor had been soaked, so I was dressed in my Earth clothes again. "At least it wasn't Fireball."
"Would you let it go already? I said sorry!" Together we had hung up all the blankets and sheets that the mage had doused in her sleep. Rita was putting up another line to hang our own clothes from while trying to make sure her researcher's robe from Aspio covered her properly. She hadn't cared enough about appearances to carry a spare set of clothes with her, and was probably regretting that. At least I'd given her my vest to wear buttoned up under the robe.
Karol commented that he'd been hearing a strange noise for awhile, and one of the inn workers (who was still a bit ticked about Rita's sleep casting) told us it was the barrier blastia acting up. Rita dropped the blanket she'd been holding and started to run towards the door. Fortunately Yuri stopped her before she got far.
"Hey, hold your horses!"
"I can't!" Rita seemed to have even forgotten how she was dressed in her anxiety for the blastia.
"Commandant Alexei is there, isn't he? He should be able to take care of it."
"Rita, if we let you go out on your own, it'll just be another repeat of Ehmead Hill," Karol admonished, clearly enjoying the chance to chastise the hot tempered mage. She looked like she wanted to hit him, but for once had to accept that he was in the right.
"Well, if you want, we could at least let Flynn know about it." Older Brother Yuri soothed her. Come to think of it, Yuri is actually younger than both of my brothers. My brothers...whose names I can't remember. I began to brood again, feeling very alone now that I'd discovered these holes in my memories.
My brothers both had very good senses of humor, I especially loved joking around with my oldest brother. There were some occasions where something I said even made him pat me on the head and tell me how proud he was. Like when he heard about my Halloween costume one year, a hodgepodge of colorful robes (grandma brought them back from one of her international trips), feathered mask, and chains of gold jewelry. When asked what I was supposed to be, I said I was "eye-catching."
Thinking back on home, I hardly even noticed the others until Rita shoved my denim vest back into my hands. "Stop dreaming already, we're leaving now!" Huh? Apparently Rita had employed a controlled fireball in order to dry off her own clothes (mostly) and got dressed again. Not even wet clothes would keep her from a blastia, but she hadn't bothered drying any of my clothes and had singed some of the blankets in her impatience. I sighed and put my vest on again as I followed the others to look for Flynn. Though Rita still insisted on stopping by the blastia on the way for a quick check, so that was where Estelle found us.
While the others convinced Rita to have just a little faith in the knights own handiwork with the blastia, and agreed to let Estelle tag along for a little while longer, I thought about upcoming events. Despite the "repairs" the knights did, the blastia still becomes unstable and goes berserk. ...Or could it be because of the knights? Alexei's here after all, maybe he ordered them to tamper with it a bit. I don't know what he'd expect to accomplish with that, but it seems like too much of a coincidence.
...It's gonna suck isn't it? I remember people nearby suffered from aer sickness, and I get that worse than anyone else. I'll have to try and keep my distance, there isn't anything I'll be able to do to help anyway. I looked up at the towering blastia. ...It does look kind of cool, like abstract art. All twisty...and I think I see what Rita calls formulas shining inside...
Yuri gave me a little nudge to get my attention, and I fell in line with the group back on its way to pay Flynn a visit. I felt uncomfortable inside the knights' headquarters, and only slightly more at ease once we reached Flynn's office. Maybe it was a temporary office while he was in the city...
When we got there...Flynn had a confused and troubled look on his face while trying to deal with an intruder. A man with blue hair that flipped up away from his face, red and white apron, white chef's hat, oversized frying pan on his back...
"Oh, Wonder Chef!"
"Letha, you know the Wonder Chef too?"
"Yeah, Uncle Ludwig and I found him in our house one day. We were wondering where the carved wooden duck had come from, and then poof! there he was. What about you guys?"
"Met him the first time we were in Aspio, just before we met you in the Shaikos Ruins."
"If you're all acquainted with this...man...could you please do something about removing him?" Poor Flynn seemed at a loss. The Wonder Chef huffed and began gesturing wildly at us.
"Can you believe this man? He says he won't let me teach him any recipes! Instead he insists that he must work!" It sounded like Wonder Chef considered actual work to be something obscene or even blasphemous...
"What did you want to teach him to cook?" Estelle asked politely.
Wonder Chef straightened and stood with his chest puffed out proudly. "A recipe I have perfected after years of experimentation and trials, Fish with Miso Sauce." I couldn't hide my slight gag, and he glared at me. "You! Do you have a problem with my cooking as well?"
"No! No, that's not it!" I quickly protested. "I just had some fish when I was kid that made me sick, and since then I can't bear to eat any sea food. Even the thought makes me a bit nauseous." I'd have to be pretty desperate to eat fish.
"What! How can it be possible to dislike any food! I shall rehabilitate you and introduce you to the wonders of sea food dishes!" So saying Wonder Chef grabbed my arm and tried to lead me off.
I frantically tried to pull away and gave the others the most desperate look they'd probably ever seen from me. "GUYS! HELP ME OR I SWEAR TO GOD, I'LL NEVER FORGIVE ANY OF YOU!" After a period of confusion and my panicked shouting, the situation was sorted out when Flynn actually ordered Sodia to go attend the Wonder Chef's cooking lesson. She agreed as crime preventive measures: preventing me from doing serious physical harm to the Wonder Chef.
"Oh thank God," I sighed in relief once he was gone. I stood by the window in the back of the office, watching the dark gray clouds going by while contemplating the close shave. The others left me to calm down on my own while they talked about the barrier blastia. Which Flynn was refusing to allow Rita near.
Suddenly there was a sound of an explosion somewhere outside, and the whole building shook. Dust even fell from the walls and ceiling.
"What was that vibration?" Yuri looked to Flynn.
The knight looked troubled, "Don't tell me that was the blastia..." "Blastia" had barely left his mouth before Rita was sprinting back out the door. Estelle watched her leave with her hand delicately over her mouth before Flynn's words seemed to register.
"Maybe something's happened to the blastia!"
"Let's get outta here!" Yuri and Repede led the charge after the blastia crazed mage. Flynn turned and stopped Estelle before she could follow.
"Your Highness, you must stay here!"
Karol and I looked at each other (Me: "I dun wanna go!" Karol: "I don't either but I don't want them to think I'm a coward!"), and then followed the knight out the door. I'd barely put a foot outside before I felt a terrible pressure in my chest and breathing became painful. Ugh, so much aer... I somehow managed to follow the others closer to the blastia, so I could see it glowing a bright and angry orange.
I stopped further back down the street, hoping I was far enough away to keep from passing out while I watched. Yuri had caught Rita at the end of the street, where she was about twenty feet from the blastia.
"Rita...!"
"Let me go! I can't just leave him like this!" She tugged at Yuri's grip, trying to pull away and reach the blastia. "The aer is just pouring out of this thing! At this density it might kill someone!" Rita's words were starting to sound oddly muffled...
"And what about you?"
A shockwave of aer blew Yuri back, and Rita crawled forward towards the blastia. That was all I could hold on for. I thought I had stayed far enough away, but the pressure from the aer kept building. Rita reaching the blastia and opening that weird magical monitor thing they all seem to have was the last thing I saw.
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Mmm? It hurts less... My eyes slid open. There are people running around everywhere... My back feels cold. My groggy mind eventually identified the hard surface at my back as a wall. Someone moved me to a wall...so I'm outta the way... A person wearing red, black, and well polished armor stopped near me. I slowly lifted my head to look up at him. Hmmm? Gray hair...almost white...Alexei? He was talking to someone else, not paying attention to me.
Haa, his back is open. ...A lot of trouble could be avoided...if he died now. One hand drifted slowly to a dagger on my belt. If I got up and attacked now...I'd probably get him by surprise. I thought about this for awhile, my semi-functioning brain creating a path of logic I wouldn't be able to follow again once coherent.
"If you died now, we won't have to suffer. But if it's not you, then another will." Hmm, Alexei looked down at me in surprise. Did he just realize an unconscious girl is sleeping at his feet? "Zaude is a fool's dream, and the world has no lack of fools..." Alexei's talking again, but he's still watching me sleep.
Oh wait, I'm not asleep yet, my eyes slid closed, though I will be soon...
x x x
I woke up for real in a soft bed. Nearby I could hear voices speaking softly.
"I can't believe she had to go and do something like that."
"Yes. Once Rita chooses to do something, she won't listen to anyone else..." Ah, Yuri and Estelle were talking to each other. I remembered this scene from the game. The barrier blastia nearly exploded but was stopped in the nick of time by Rita and Estelle's joint effort. Rita collapses and is tended to by the equally exhausted princess at the inn.
I tried not to eavesdrop on what they were saying (even though I pretty much knew the gist already), but there wasn't anything to distract me.
"You're one to talk! You were just as bad as she was."
"...I'm sorry."
The sound of someone walking a few steps. I judged from the sound of the boots that it was probably Yuri. "I'm going to stay here. You should go rest. Aren't you tired from using your healing artes so much?"
"I'm jealous of Rita. She has something she cares about so much..."
"And so can you, if you spend enough time looking for it. But you need to go and get some sleep now."
"No, I'm fine. Yuri, you should get some sleep, yourself."
"Flynn will get mad at me if you pass out."
"So let him get mad at you."
A very heavy sigh, definitely sounded like Yuri. He started walking away, towards the door, but stopped. "Look, don't come asking me to take your place when you collapse from exhaustion!"
"I can't ask you to take my place if I've already collapsed, can I?" Haha, nice Estelle. Your wit seems to be particularly sharp for some reason.
Another small sigh. Poor Yuri, the princess is throwing him for a loop, Rita went and did something stupid, and I just became a piece of dead weight when things got bad. I heard his footsteps again, and then the door opening and closing.
...Yuri has to be strong in situations like this. Estelle is naïve and inexperienced, overreaching herself because of her need to help others. Rita's anger can get in the way of her judgment, and her love of blastia is equal to Estelle's need to help others. Both could quite possibly die because of how strongly they feel. Karol is the youngest, and it's understandable that he's frightened. The fact that he's hanging in there is pretty impressive already. I'm trying my best, but if I keep moping then even my best won't amount to much compared to them.
I need to pull my own act together.
There was a soft sounding thump nearby. I opened my eyes and turned my head to look over at the bed Rita was sleeping in. Sure enough, Estelle had slumped over and fallen asleep while sitting at the edge. I quietly slipped out of my bed and gently draped my blanket over the pink haired girl. Eighteen, and Rita's fifteen... They're so young to be risking their lives, but this world forces you to be responsible at a young age.
Estelle sighed a little in her sleep. I smiled, and went to sit out on the (ridiculously huge) balcony. My body felt sore in several places, probably from the overflow of aer earlier. Judith will come here... Eventually she'll join the group. Before that, Raven will come and go a few times. They're responsible enough, even if they come with their own sets of troubles. But it won't hurt if I try to act my age and be an adult.
But it's not like I can just stop feeling homesick. I had idly grabbed my bag, and now I fished through it until I found my mp3 player. For caution's sake, I dropped it down the front of my shirt to hide it and made sure the wires for the headphones were concealed by my clothes and hair. As further precaution, I moved to the very edge of the corner where I was mostly hidden by a pillar, a blind spot to most of the rest of the room.
The player was set to random selection. I skipped a few songs and arbitrarily left it on one. "Akatsuki no Kuruma" by Fiction was a wonderful song, and I'd always meant to try and learn the Japanese words and what the translation meant. Mostly all I remembered from looking it up online was that it was about singing in grief for someone who had been lost, and mentioned a carriage of the dawn and orange petals. Though the image in my own head was always a tree's silhouette in a sunset.
I barely heard Rita's voice over the last verse. Ah, she's awake, and Yuri must be coming back to check on us all again. I paused the player, listening in case I needed to hide it in a hurry, but reluctant to risk drawing attention to myself while it was still out.
"Glad to see you're awake." A brief pause. "Letha's not here...so she woke up too?" I slowly eased the ear buds out and down the collar of my shirt.
"She was already gone when I woke up."
"Karol didn't say he saw her leave at all... Hm?" I closed my eyes and tried to relax my body posture naturally. I'm pretty good at faking sleep.
Yuri's foot steps...I was going to be a master at identifying their particular sound before long. "Huh, here she is. Asleep again."
"Hmph, making us worry over nothing, she's a real pain."
"Oh, you were worried about her just now?"
"I never said that!" I kept my expression natural, but I wanted to smile. Rita might not like me much, but she's a nice person. She says she only cares about blastia, but she's just awkward around people.
Again the sound of Yuri walking, back in the direction of the beds again. I opened my eyes again and watched the rain that had begun falling as I listened. "...And after I told her over and over to call me before she collapses."
"You didn't think she'd really listen to you, did you?" Estelle murmured a little in her sleep. There was a moment of silence, as if they were waiting to see if she'd wake up. Then the short tempered little mage actually giggled. "She looks happy." Another pause. "Hey so...what do you think Estellise thinks of me?" A rustling sound of someone moving, and, "Why are you making that face?" Probably a "who are you and what have you done with Rita" type of face...
"I just didn't think you were the kind of person who cared what other people thought."
"F-forget it. You can go now."
"Compared to those formulas of yours, she should be easy to figure out."
And Estelle finally woke up (amazingly perfect timing), and promptly threw herself on the recovered mage while exclaiming happily. "You're awake!" Then the slight ringing sound of her using her healing artes. Hmm? I see a slightly different shade of blue gray moving through the clouds. "But be careful! It's just when you think you've recovered that you're in the most danger."
Ah, here comes an important part.
"It's all right, I'm fine. Also, you don't need to pretend to be using that blastia anymore."
"I... What do you mean?" You're terrible at keeping secrets princess. And I think I recognize that blue gray spot
"It's pretty cool that you can use healing artes without a blastia." And Yuri's like a freakin' lie detector.
"B-but how did you...?"
And then Ba'ul the steroid dolphin dropped down out of the sky and stopped directly in front of the open balcony. I looked up at him and knight-in-shining-white-armor Judith passively. "No blastia to see here, move along now."
"What the?" The screech of Yuri's sword leaving its scabbard.
"Hey, it's that dragon freak!"
Ba'ul shot a blast of fire at us, but I couldn't tell if it was in response to Yuri running forward towards them or the other way around. But by the time the swordsman recovered from defending himself, Ba'ul had already begun flying away.
The door slammed open and I heard Karol shouting. "It sounds like the sky's falling in here. What's going on? ...Huh?" Ba'ul and Judith made one last pass by the balcony before swooping up and away. "Aaaah!"
"Haha, priceless..." I murmured. My eyes slipped shut again. What was this? I had a nagging feeling that I'd forgotten something important, something bad...
"W-What was that thing?"
"Just when the conversation was getting interesting." Rita sulked a little.
"That's enough talk about Estelle's healing artes for now."
"Fine by me. I've pretty much figured it out anyway."
"Don't look at me like that. Do I really look like that much of a bad guy to you?"
"Do you really want us to answer that?" I called back, stretching my arms and forcing my aching muscles to let me stand up. I'd managed to move my mp3 player back into my bag, and hopefully no one would develop an interest to see what I like carrying around in there any time in the future.
Yuri turned and glanced at me as I walked up to join the group. "Just how long were you planning to sleep anyway? You didn't even react when that dragon attacked."
I shrugged, "That barely qualified as an attack. More like an unexpected 'hello'." I massaged the back of my neck with a hand. "Though even if s-he really meant to hurt us, I don't think I would have been able to do anything in time. Still kinda achey from the aer sickness earlier..."
"You doing okay? You were passed out longer than last time."
"Yeah, and I'll work the kinks out once we walk around a bit."
"Then let's go."
x x x
We spent the rest of the afternoon restocking supplies and seeing how the town was doing after the close shave earlier. Wanting to make sure we were all (especially the princess) well rested we then checked in for another night and slept. Estelle shared a room with Rita and me, and I made sure Estelle's bed was between me and the mage.
I was the last one up the next morning (no longer dressed in my Earth clothes, the others had long sice dried), and everyone was already waiting outside. When I came out the inn's door, the rest of the group had just decided to go drop Estelle off with Flynn for her escort back to Zaphias. The princess looked around at us with some uncertainty. "U-um, what are all you going to do after this?"
Yuri rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he considered the next move. "Hmm. Well we did lose track of the Blood Alliance..."
Karol looked up at him eagerly, "That's easy, we can just go to Dahn...grest," his face fell. "Or not." He looked down and scuffed his feet. "Man, if I go back there now, they'll all just laugh at me..."
"Dahngrest? That's the guild city, right?"
He looked up again. "Y-yeah. I thought we could find out about the Blood Alliance there..."
"That's some pretty good thinking," I folded my arms behind my head.
Yuri nodded and asked Karol about directions. Which I didn't pay attention to. What am I forgetting... I'm pretty sure I know all the major plot developments that happen here, so I don't know what's bugging me.
"Let's check it out then. Might be helpful for anybody thinking of starting a guild, too." Yuri knows how to play people, doesn't he. Scam artist. Good things he's serving the side of happiness and justice.
"Huh? For starting a guild?" Karol of course perked up just as one would expect. "Well let's go, then!" Then he spun over to look at me, still nearly bouncing with new excitement. "Hey Letha, you're coming with us right?"
I shrugged and nodded. "Sure thing. Besides, none of you have given me the okay to wander off on my own again."
Rita stood by, observing us quietly.
So we went to wait for Flynn near the barrier blastia, apparently where he'd told the others he'd be waiting for Estelle. He wasn't there (I knew he wouldn't be), and I found a spot as far away from the blastia as I could be. Rita and Estelle may have tamed the savage beast of ancient technology, but I didn't trust it entirely to not start spitting aer at me just to make my day worse.
"It doesn't seem like that Flynn character is around here." If I weren't busy giving the blastia dirty looks, I'd be trying not to laugh about Rita using the term "character."
"Does that mean you're staying with us for now?" Karol looked to Estelle hopefully.
"Well, I... Would that be all right?" The princess looked unsure of herself, hands clasped and fidgeting very slightly.
"Karol, don't fill the princess' head with ideas." Don't you use that tone, Yuri. You leave the decision up to her, but whenever she's wavering you always give her advice that subtly pushes her to keep traveling.
"You cannot simply do as you wish. Your Highness must return to the capital." Alexei's deep voice came from the other side of the blastia as the Commandant showed up out of nowhere. Woah, secretly a ninja. Seeing him sent cold shivers down my spine. Huh, funny. Can't just be because I know what he's up to. Didn't bother me so much last time I saw him.
Alexei stopped in front of us as he continued to address the princess. "Flynn has already set out to tend to other business." ...You don't want Estelle with him, do you Commandant? He turned and walked across the square with the manner of a drill sergeant. "Now then, Rita Mordio," he stopped in front of the mage, "we would like you to investigate yesterday's blastia malfunction."
"...That's pointless. I looked at him this morning but I couldn't figure anything out."
"No, we would ask that you go to the forest of Keiv Moc." Is he using the royal we?
Karol looked downwards as he mentally matched name to place. "...Keiv Moc, huh? Oh yeah, the plants affected by the disaster here look just like the ones in the forest." He looked back to us, and the Commandant stood by as the boy explained.
"We have reports of tree mutations and of monsters increasing in both numbers and aggressiveness. Messengers have gone to the capital, but much time will be wasted finding a gifted mage."
"I specialize in blastia. Plants are out of my league." Not even a Commandant can boss Rita around if she doesn't want to listen.
"Consider their connection to the aer. I imagine that is within your league." Compliment, patronizing almost-insult, or both? A new thought struck me. ...No, it's none of those. He's a man who knows how to use his resources most efficiently, just like any good organization needs on top. That's why he's so impressive.
"Besides...I... If Estelle is going back to the capital, I want to go with her." And there was the moment Rita first calls Estelle, well, Estelle. It was likely also the moment she first accepted that the pink haired girl was more than just a clue to an obscure formula theory.
"What do you mean?" Estelle looked from the mage to Alexei, green eyes wide with surprise.
"You are a researcher in an imperial blastia laboratory. You must undertake the tasks assigned to you." He sounds annoyed that she isn't just jumping to do his bidding. But he still expects to get his way in the end.
Estelle rushed up and tried to soothe them both with a "reasonable" compromise. "Um...then there should be no problem if I accompany her to the forest, right?" NOT right! There's plenty of reasons Alexei wouldn't agree to that, and some of them are VERY reasonable! PRINCESS.
"Princess, please do not make suggestions that are simply out of the question." Alexei shot her down. She's getting shunted off to the side. They all just try to herd her around without letting her learn anything about thinking for herself. I'm glad she met Yuri back at the castle, or she might never have had a chance to spread her wings and actually grow into a competent woman. I probably sounded like I kept flipping between sides...
"If this does have something to do with aer, then my healing artes would prove useful." Thinking for herself like she is now.
"Yes, they would..." and you know it. ...Maybe you're also seeing it as useful for her to be out using her power more. Dammit, Alexei wins either way...
"Please Alexei! Let me do my part to help."
"Your Highness, I simply cannot you to go to such a dangerous forest." Alexei was still firm in his decision, despite the new tempting reasons to let her go that must have occurred to him.
"Well, what if..." she turned to look back at the idly listening swordsman. "Yuri, would you come with us?"
He straightened a bit and looked back at her. "Me?"
Estelle returned her attention to Alexei. "If Yuri were to come, you wouldn't be worried right?"
He considered, probably making mental calculations and adjustments to his master plans, before turning his attention to Yuri. "Young man, please escort the princess. I ask this of you only because you once sought to join the Imperial Knights." That's not the tone of someone asking, it's the tone of someone giving an order.
That wasn't lost on any of the others, and certainly not on Yuri. "...Of all the underhanded... I didn't ask anybody to count on me." You might not ask for it, but the really dependable ones rarely do. "Your pushing me into this." He turned away as he growled.
"It seems I can take that reply as indication of your agreement." Alexei sounded satisfied and a touch smug.
"But there's something I have to do as well. We go to the forest after Dahngrest."
"Very well." Now Alexei turns and leaves...why isn't he leaving? Instead, the Commandant had turned to look at me. "Letha Vitae." Snap, not good. "I would like to speak with you in private, about the matter you mentioned during the difficulty with the blastia.
While I impersonated a fish in a bowl, the others looked from Alexei to me in surprise. "What? But Letha was unconscious at the time, from the aer sickness." Estelle was the only one who could outright question the Commandant.
A vague, almost memory was surfacing in my mind, and I started to guess where my nagging feeling of bad had been coming from. "Uh, you can ignore anything I said then. I've been known to say some strange things when just waking up. Once I was even convinced I was a dowager queen."
"Nevertheless, I would ask that you accompany me."
...Alright, I don't care how presumptuous I sound, I am not going to let him isolate me from any help. "There's really no reason I should do what you tell me to."
"What? You are refusing a request from an officer of the Imperial Knights?"
"See, the thing is, I'm not a citizen of the empire." I held myself tall and confident. For short periods of time, I can bluff. Stared down my health teacher once and he looked away first. He never even realized how jittery I'd been inside. "I grew up without living under the empire's 'protection' or laws. I have no obligation to your empire at all. So if you please, I've already made plans to go to Dahngrest with the others. The sooner you let us be, the sooner we can get around to that research you want done."
He stared at me, and I felt like I was waiting for him to give the order for a firing squad to shoot me. I wasn't sure how long I could keep the strong, self assured pose, or if he could read the underlying fear. But finally he nodded and said, "If that is the case, then that will be all." I waited until he had left before falling weakly to my knees.
"What was that all about?" Yuri asked me, probably wondering what I could have possibly said that would interest the Commandant. And wondering how crazy I was to essentially say "screw you and your government" to his face like that.
"I'm not really sure, I just figured I already have enough on my plate without getting involved in imperial matters." Though depending on whatever I said to him before, he might come back and try again. And now that he knows I'll actually stand up to him, he'll try to get me when I'm alone.
x x x
It just kept going, and people just kept talking, and Letha just kept listening so I couldn't cut any more dialogue out! I hope this chapter didn't bore anyone to death...