New chapter is up fast! Because I just had a hell of a fun time writing it.
Rhino600: I recall a quote of some sort, "If I don't laugh then I'll cry" or something like that. In other words, if Letha wasn't random she'd turn emo and angsty. Much more fun to write random silly stuff, and believable as some subconscious defense mechanism she doesn't even realize she fell back on.
As for the Letha picture, I've put the deviantart link in my profile (though here it is again, be sure to remove the spaces: http:/sylph writer .deviant art .com/ ) and there's another (BETTER) picture of her up. Every now and then I'll get the itch to draw and might make something else to add there. But really, it's just so anyone interested knows what she looks like, I'm much more confident in my paintings.
x x x
Chapter 19: Black Widow and Cats
x x x
I ran as fast as I could but still ended up falling behind Yuri and Repede. I managed to keep even with Estelle though, and was faster than the younger (and shorter) kids trailing behind. The streets and courtyards were in chaos, people fleeing in all directions with monsters running them down. There were already pools of blood and broken bodies lying here and there. A woman with a trampled bouquet of flowers was nearest to me and one body looked to suspiciously small to be an adult.
Horrified, I couldn't help but stop for a minute to take it in, and the others stopped beside me. Well, most of them did.
"This is crazy. Where are all these monsters coming from?" Yuri growled and lunged forward to slash open the side of armored boar thing (looked like one of the monsters I'd "met" in Ragou's basement).
Shaking off my own shock, I leaped onto the back of a giant crab (it was facing away). "Pierce!" I stabbed both green glowing daggers in up to the hilts. It made a high pitched squeal and tried to grab me with its pincers, but couldn't reach me. Of course next it tried to throw me off by thrashing around, but the daggers provided some nice handles to hold onto for the impromptu rodeo.
Umm, this probably won't work, but I wanna try something. I'd gotten enough practice with controlling aer for my strike artes that I didn't actually need to use breathing exercises anymore, but I took a deep breath like I was going to. Instead of blowing out a stream of air I hummed a low note instead, and tried to imagine the energy I was forcing into my daggers to vibrate the same way.
It felt surprisingly like holding onto my PS2 controller when it was set to vibrate. Though unlike the controller the daggers kept vibrating for as long as I concentrated aer into them and on humming. I jerked both in separate directions, opening long gashes in the crab monster's back. I jumped off, gasping for air a little. That move took more energy out of me than my other artes.
The crab had rounded on me, its pincers snapping at the air angrily. I sheathed my right dagger and whipped out my dao. "Star Stroke!" Now that the monster finally fell dead, and I'd somehow gotten through the fight without getting hurt, I took a moment to see how everyone else was doing.
Yuri wreaked havoc everywhere with his sword, working in tandem with Repede to double team monsters. They were easily killing more than any of the rest of us.
Estelle was dividing her attention between fighting with sword and shield and casting First Aid. She'd Star Stroke or Pierce Cluster something, and then spin away and heal either the nearest fighter or a fleeing noncombatant.
Rita, of course, was flinging spells in all directions. Fireball, Splash, Stone Blast, I didn't think she was even paying much attention to what she was hitting as long as no one yelled at her for killing someone.
Karol was getting in hits of Dragon Upper and Destroying Rock against any monster that got too close, except for the giant flying bugs. He'd just run away from those flailing, until someone else killed it or he got drawn into fighting an armored boar, feathered lizard, or giant crab.
It took only a few minutes to assess this, during which I was trying to drag people out of the way and shoving apple gels into the hands of anyone who looked hurt. After eating an orange gel myself, I leaped back in and started working on a trio of lizard monsters.
"Piercing Afterimage!"
It was tiring, continuously fighting monster after monster, and I soon lost track of how long we'd been fighting. At times I'd find myself fighting a monster or a group together with one of the others, sometimes even with some members of the guilds also involved in this free for all, or covering Rita while she was casting, or separated and on my own again.
I'd long since run out of apple gels and had only a few orange ones left. Estelle and Karol tried to keep up with our more serious injuries with First Aid and Nice Aid Smash. But we were all still pretty banged up. I personally sported numerous cuts on both arms and my back (I'd have to mend my shirt and coat later). At one point my arm had been broken, and if Estelle hadn't been quick to fix it I probably would have passed out from the pain.
Bent over a stitch in my side and trying to breathe normally, I held my daggers in front of me defensively. I'd gotten cut off from the others and backed up against the wall of a building by a pair of armored boars and some giant bugs were hovering nearby. A boar charged and I dodged to the side, humming and tearing its side open with slashes from my vibrating daggers. Blood poured out onto my arms and boots.
As the monster gave a dying squeal I tried to raise my guard again before the others could attack me. But the bugs were already diving at me and the remaining boar pawed the ground as if about to charge as well.
I slashed at the air wildly, trying to drive the bugs back but not really hitting anything. Suddenly one jerked in the air and fell to the ground with a short arrow between its wings. I didn't hesitate to stab it to make sure it stayed down and dead, finishing off more bugs that were shot down with more arrows soon after.
I rolled out of the way when the boar actually charged, and looked up to see a claymore sword come crashing down on its head. The man holding the sword also had a crossbow swinging from a cord tied to his belt, so it was safe to assume he'd been my helper. I didn't recognize him, so I figured he must be another guildsman recently arrived to the fight.
My knees protesting that they didn't want to support me again, I stood up with a groan. Nodding thanks to the man, I rushed back into the courtyard where the rest of my group was trying to use a lull in the fighting as a chance to regroup. Yuri was watching something with amazement plain in his face. I turned to see what, and saw the Don roaring into the face of a group of monsters and waving his sword.
"Come see how it feels ta get beat down by an old man!"
Yuri took an uncertain step forward, as if thinking he should go help but seeing the Don didn't need it when he practically trampled a lizard. "That old guy is really going after them. Who the hell is he?"
"It's the Don! That's Don Whitehorse!" Karol was nearly bouncing in place, for once not seeming to care that we were surrounded by monsters.
"So that's him, huh?"
Estelle stood up again, the people she'd just healed thanking her profusely before running for shelter. She looked a little shaky on her feet so I passed her one of my remaining orange gels. She accepted it with a tired smile. Then her eyes focused on something past my shoulder, "Flynn!" I looked back and did indeed see the young knight running at the head of his brigade.
"We've come to help subdue the monsters!" he called to the Don.
"Hold yer horses, knight-boy!" Whitehorse grunted and stepped to make sure Flynn couldn't get between him and the monster he was fighting. "We couldn't live with ourselves if we let the Knights do our dirty work. Now get the hell outta here!"
"Pride and upholding your principles is all well and good," I grumbled, "But you shouldn't turn down help that's already here." Fortunately, no guild members were near enough to hear me.
Sodia looked like she wanted to chew the Don out for turning down her superior's offer of help, but kept her mouth shut. Instead Flynn was the one who responded, "Is this really the time for that?"
"Each and every one of these people left the empire of their own free will and joined a guild!" The Don punctuated this with a heavy chop of his sword that nearly beheaded a boar. "There ain't a soul in this town so spineless they'd go runnin' ta you guys fer help."
"But!"
"These're the rules of the life we've chosen. It's up to us to make sure those rules don't get broken."
"Holding to your beliefs no matter what's at stake..." Yuri murmured, listening to the Don's speech with new respect. "So that's what a real guild is like." Hmm, in the movie that's supposed to precede the game, Yuri's first contact with guild members is a bar fight he starts after hearing how they'd cheated an old man. He gets on pretty well with their guild leader afterwards, but the experience probably still left him a bit biased.
"Hey, you there! Lead the way." Rita threw a bit of magic at Karol to get his attention back from watching the Don with starry eyes.
"I have a name you know!" He protested while beating a bit of flame out of his bag. "Wh-where are we going, anyway?"
"We're going to repair the barrier blastia. If we don't, the city will be overrun with monsters!" I blinked. I only just realized this is the same solution from Halure. Estelle really is learning from past experiences: fix the barrier and the people can be saved.
Karol nodded and ran off towards the blastia, Estelle on his heels. Rita grabbed me by the wrist and yelled, "You're coming too!" at Yuri while dragging me after her.
"Guess that's my only option," he said, watching me stumble after the smaller mage.
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What's Going on Here?
Yuri: The barrier failed right as the monsters appeared? What the hell is going on in this city?
Letha: Not fun, not fun at all.
Karol: I've lived in Dahngrest my whole life, but I've never seen anything like this.
Rita: So why the hell do we have such terrible timing?
Karol: How should I know?
*Karol and Rita stare at Yuri*
Yuri: What? You don't really think I'm cursed, do you?
Letha: Raid any mummy tombs lately? That might explain it.
x x x
When we reached the blastia Rita found her second wind and sprinted up the stairs ahead of us to see it. "Hmm, I might be able to do something with this," she began mumbling stuff aloud that I couldn't begin to follow.
"Rita, watch out! Behind you!" Estelle cried. Yuri and I (I'd just remembered the Red-eyes were responsible and waiting to attack us) got there first and blocked the waving curved swords of the assassins.
"We won't let you fix the barrier," one hissed at us.
"What the hell! It's just one thing after another! I'm sick of this!" Rita started powering up a fireball to blast someone with.
"Leave them to us, just get the damn barrier back up!" I shouted at her and tackled the nearest Red-eye. I was pretty pissed. It's your fault I'm all covered in blood and feeling nasty!
Despite my new burst of I'm-Pissed-Off energy, we were all tired and the Red-eyes were fresh for battle. Yuri was still in pretty good form, he was having fun after all, even if he was just as grim about the situation as we were. Estelle looked like she was tired of holding her sword and shield up, but still blocked and returned blows fairly well. I didn't see what Karol was doing before having to return my attention to my own opponent, but he'd manage somehow or pull back where it was safe. I wouldn't blame him if he had, he'd already done his fair share and then some (in my opinion).
I, however, wasn't sure what I was going to do about the man I had picked a fight with. He'd gotten up again and was circling in closer to me while brandishing his sharp gleaming weapon. My arms and legs felt rubbery and hard to lift, even with adrenaline in my veins. I also just couldn't think clearly enough to try formulating strategy. Some tired part of my brain suggested, "Do something unexpected."
I stood up straight and threw my arms out wide, "George! It's been ages since I last saw you!"
He stumbled a bit and though I couldn't see his face clearly, I'd bet good money his expression was one of hilarious confusion. "What?"
I wagged a finger at him, "Shame one you, you never return my calls!"
"I don't know you, woman!"
"What?" I shrieked. "How can you not know your fiancée!" I narrowed my eyes at him, "It's Mary Sue, isn't it? You've been seeing that bitch behind my back!"
"Listen, lady, I don't know who this 'George' is, but I'm not-" before he could finish explaining that he wasn't the bastard who was cheating on me, I flung myself at him in a flurry of daggers. "Shit!" For awhile he managed to keep up, and even grazed my knuckles and hands with his weapon, but I managed to force my way through his guard.
I stood over his body and a rapidly spreading pool of blood, panting, and finally gasped out, "I think I probably just added more to the 'reasons I'm probably insane' list someone must be keeping. I just killed my fiancé who never actually existed. Cheating bastard." It was a poor attempt at humor, but killing a person makes my sense of what's funny go out of whack. Estelle and Karol (there he was) were looking at me with wide eyes and edging away a bit.
Rita was typing away at the blastia controls and everyone else watched with a wary eye for any more Red-eyes. "Looks like we have those guys to thank for the barrier blastia failing on us," Yuri nodded at the bodies lying around us.
"But why?" Estelle wondered.
Wanting to sound intelligent without giving away that I knew what was going on already, I tried to think of the situation in a hypothetical and generic point of view. "Stopping the barrier from working is a surefire way to cause widespread panic. So it serves as a pretty effective distraction if you need to do something without being noticed."
That earned me some surprised and considering looks "A distraction? To cover up what?" Yuri asked. I shrugged and leaned wearily against a brick wall.
"If I knew, then the people trying to distract us wouldn't be doing a very good job." Actually, Barbos(sa) wants to get everyone worked up so a war can start. He wants to take out the Don and take his place... Yuri didn't seem quite convinced that I'd said all I knew about the matter, but I was saved when Flynn and his knights arrived to check on the situation.
"Looks like you've got your hands full over here," he observes while noting the bodies scattered around us. Glad he has enough faith in us (in Yuri) to not jump to the conclusion that we just went on a murdering spree for the hell of it.
Yuri switched his attention from me to Flynn. (Glad about that, my breath wasn't recovering and I could feel a build up of pressure in my chest that signaled I was having another bout of aer sickness.) "So, the Don's little lecture didn't stick?"
"I'm just doing what I can to help. How's the repair of the blastia barrier going?"
Yuri tilted his head to direct attention over to Rita. "That'll depend on our genius mage, here." She didn't even notice the collective attention on her as she typed and muttered to herself.
Something about cores and an amplifier...and, "And this formula again... The same as they were using back on Ehmead Hill..." The wall was all that was keeping me from falling over. Estelle apparently noticed, and placed a hand on my arm to help support me. I nodded my thanks at her discrete help.
Closing my eyes and focusing on breathing normally through the aer sickness, I didn't pay attention to Yuri and Flynn discussing how too coincidental it was for the barrier to fail and an army of monsters to attack immediately afterwards. And Yuri tried to fish for more information on how the Empire fit into it all.
Rita gave a triumphant cry, and the answering ones of relief from all over town told me that she'd fixed the barrier. Moments later I felt the pressure in my chest ease up and disappear.
Flynn was addressing his knights, ordering them to fight the monsters outside the barrier to honor the letter (and ignore the spirit) of the Don's command that the Knights leave the guilds to defend their own city.
Yuri turned back to us (I thought it was funny how him taking lead of our group at this moment mirrored Flynn's actions so well. It probably had gone entirely over the man's dark head). "We'll leave the monsters to Flynn. Let's go to the Union and ask about Barbos." He looked over at me and Estelle by the wall. "You think you can keep up?" Ah, he noticed anyway.
I straightened and nodded. "I'm fit for more walking. Told you it's usually not a problem, just needed a moment." So off we went to look for the Don and the Union, and I squashed a slightly lightheaded urge to sing "Follow the Yellow Brick Road."
x x x
I totally did not pay any attention to what Yuri and the guard at the Union's headquarters talked about. Already knew the gist of it: we didn't have an appointment, we weren't a guild, Don wasn't there, Don was cleaning out monster nests and might not be back for a long time.
We walked further away so that the guard's eyeballs wouldn't pop out of his head from giving us the evil eye and had a little pow wow.
Rita crossed her arms and said, "Since it seems like you won't be making progress anytime soon, I'm going to go check out Keiv Moc."
"How selfish!" Karol cried.
"I just want to get it out of the way as soon as possible."
"Yeah, it's not her fault Alexei breathing down her neck to get her work done," I added. If my less than complimentary tone when saying his name was noticed, nobody said anything about it.
Karol looked from the mage to the princess. "Then does that mean Estelle's going along with you?"
"Yes. I told Alexei I was going to go, after all..." Catching Yuri's reluctant expression, she added, "Don't worry. We'll be fine between the two of us."
"Sorry, 'fraid not. If you got hurt or anything, Flynn would hunt me down and kill me."
"And my ghost would come back and haunt you." Yuri's eyebrows rose as he looked at me. "What? You thought I was gonna let the healer and the mage go off alone without another fighter backing them up? I'm going even if they tell me not to."
"You're both going?" Karol looked back and forth between us, the little sibling afraid of being left behind by his big brother and sister. Aww, he's like a puppy.
Yuri shrugged at him, "Well, we don't really have any good leads around town that we're following, anyway."
"Then it's decided! Let's go to the forest of Keiv Moc." Estelle clapped her hands together and turned to Rita, but then swayed a bit.
"Tomorrow," I said.
Yuri nodded in agreement, "We've been walking and fighting all day already. We won't get far without rest first."
x x x
We got rooms at the Arcturus Inn, two like usual. First thing I did was lock myself in the shower room (yes, they had showers, but very simple public ones in stalls like in campgrounds I've stayed at). An idea occurred to me while eating dinner (something barbecued), and I caught Yuri's eye with a mischievous grin. Afterwards he found me talking to the inn keeper.
"What are you up to?"
I smiled winningly at him and held up a stack of paper and stick of charcoal (I hate drawing with charcoal, don't ask why, but using it was necessary). "I just thought I'd practice my sketching again. In the mood to draw a few...cats."
He grinned at me. "I think I'll go see if there's anymore of that sauce left from dinner."
I spent the next few hours sitting by a fire alternately sewing up the tears in my clothes and drawing cats in various poses. While I carefully filled in the stripes of a tiger, I sensed someone walk up to stand in front of me. "'Scuse me, but are you Letha Vitae?"
When I looked up the person in front of me was a tall man around mine and Yuri's age, with longish sandy brown hair tied back and a heavy brown coat. "You are...?" He shifted his weight a bit and I caught sight of the claymore on his back. "Oh! You're the one who helped me before!" I twisted around to put the papers and sewing kit in my lap on a nearby table so I could stand. He blinked at me before recognition flashed in his eyes.
"Oh, I didn't realize you were the same person." I shrugged a bit. My coat and black shirt were left draped over the chair's arm. Instead I was wearing my Vesperian leggings and shorts with my Earth tank top, so I could understand. "My name's Chase Lyall. I heard you met my dad, Arcas Lyall."
"Back in Halure. He mentioned he had a son." I fought hard not to think of what else Arcas had said so I wouldn't start blushing again. Though that reminded me. "Ah, he also told me he'd pay my uncle a visit! Was Ludwig doing okay?"
Chase pulled off his claymore and propped it against the wall, then dropped down into one of the other chairs by the fire with a groan. He seemed nearly as wiped as we were. After a moment he twisted and pulled out his crossbow (must have been hidden under his long jacket) and dropped it next to the chair. I sat down again and tried to be patient.
"Sorry, long day. Yeah, dad and I went to see Ludwig. He didn't seem happy to see us, actually, but his mood improved when dad gave him your letter." Chase winked at me (goddammit, when I was a kid I always winked back when someone did that, and I had to fight down the old habit), "Bet he misses his pampered little princess."
"Pampered? Me? Oh no, you've got the wrong girl after all. You must be looking for a different Letha Vitae," I joked. Then as my own words registered in my mind, I felt depression sinking in. The wrong girl indeed... He chuckled though, and I kept smiling as I picked up the charcoal stick and went back to drawing.
Chase reached out a hand to grab some of the finished sheets. "Why are these all cats? Your favorite animal?"
"Nope. Wolves are, actually. But cats are pretty awesome too."
"These pictures are..." he trailed off as if looking for a polite way to say I sucked at drawing. Well, I'm not bad, I'm just better at painting, and wasn't trying so hard this time.
"Crappy. Doesn't matter if they're not so great, the point is they just have to be recognizable as cats and that there's a lot of them."
"Why?"
I grinned at him. "'Cause Yuri said there's plenty of sauce leftover." I didn't explain any further and just began humming while starting the mane of a lion.
"Uh huh..." Letting it go, Chase stretched in his chair and cracked his neck (It freaks me out a bit when people do that...). "So we didn't stick around your uncle's place for long. My dad did try to get permission to have me marry you," the charcoal slipped and made a heavy line across the page and I made some weird strangled squeaking noise, "but no one ever takes him seriously when he tries to play matchmaker." He was smirking at me, and I glared at him. Ha ha, revenge for me being confusing is yours.
"What, you're already engaged to another guy?" Ninja quiet Yuri had come up behind my chair while Chase and I were talking. "Didn't you kill your last fiancé just this afternoon?" Chase snapped an incredulous stare from me to Yuri and back. I rolled my eyes at the black haired swordsman.
"George was cheating on me with Mary Sue. He had it coming."
"Scary. You're a real Black Widow."
"It doesn't count, we weren't actually married yet." Finally I couldn't keep a straight face anymore, and burst out laughing at the horrified look on Chase's face. "We're kidding! Some guys attacked us earlier and I started yelling something random at them to get them by surprise."
"'Surprised' is an understatement. Hell, when you started acting like you actually knew that guy, I almost missed a counter and got stabbed," Yuri gave me a mild glare and I smiled back sheepishly. "The guy you were screaming at must've had no clue what happened. Do you even know anyone named George?"
"Nope." I looked back at Chase. "Yuri, this is Chase Lyall. He's the son of another former Protectors guild member. Chase, this is Yuri Lowell, one of the people I'm traveling with."
"Yuri Lowell? I saw some wanted posters for you not that long ago, for ten thousand gald..."
"Misunderstanding. He was pardoned," I was quick to tell him. I didn't miss the look of disappointment, and I'm sure Yuri noticed it to. He sighed at the mention of wanted posters, and then gathered up my finished cat drawings.
"Karol's already asleep, so I'll take these now. Remember to wake up early tomorrow." So saying, he left me a bottle of the sauce from dinner and took his leave.
Chase watched him leave, "Getting up early to go somewhere?"
"Yeah, but that's not the only reason I need to wake up early."
"Why else?"
I just smiled and held up the sauce bottle. The sauce was thick and a good shade of red. "I'm a terrible person."
x x x
Aaah, somehow despite all the fighting and blood, this became another chapter that focused more on jokes than plot. And here I thought I'd squeeze Raven in before the end... Well, he'll be in the next chapter!
Anyone guess what Yuri and Letha are up to? I've probably given enough clues.