Umm, do I have anything to say up here? No...I think the important notes all come at the end this time.

So, I'll just say, welcome to new reviewers! Unfamiliar names leaving reviews in my inbox always make my brain short circuit, then gives me the urge to write more!

Glad everyone enjoyed the seduction scene! And ever so sorry to Angelic for Yuri not doing it. I would have liked to see it too, but we can keep our fingers crossed! Letha is turning over all the suggested methods of revenge she's been receiving, plotting vengeance in the darkest, most evil depths of her mind! Though the whole dish best served cold philosophy will have to suffice, they're a little busy saving people and all that.

x x x

Chapter 28: Familiar Faces

x x x

We had to wait for the lift to return, during which we all snickered some more at Yuri in his knight uniform. For some reason, the game designers have him (or Karol, if that's who you picked) back in default costume once Rita joins the group. But that would defeat the purpose of having him dress up to give us an easier time sneaking into the laborer's camp, and he hadn't had an opportunity to change back yet anyway.

Ha ha.

Once we could see the area near the bottom of the lift was clear we pulled the lever to raise it back to our level and quickly went down while no one was around to see. Every worker around was filthy and had dull, tired eyes. Few payed our arrival any attention, soon losing interest and returning to their own work.

Even with the laborers indifferent to our presence, we still had to be wary of the knights roaming around. Following Repede's nose, we moved across the camp in short dashes using the tents, scaffolding beams, and stacked crates, bags, and barrels for cover. Yuri may have gotten stuck pretending to be a knight, but the general consensus was:

"If the knights before weren't panicking over Rita, they'd probably think you were pretty suspicious." (That was Karol.)

"That's right, even with the uniform, it's hard to believe you were a knight." (That was Rita, after giving Karol a quick punch for bringing up her recklessness.)

"So why the hell am I even wearing this?" (Of course, that was Yuri.)

None of the workers we passed was Teagle. I prayed silently that this was because he'd be with Cumore and Yeager like the game, not because he'd been one of the victims of the work related accidents. At one point we had passed a wreckage of splintered wood and stone. It hadn't escaped our notice that the ground was stained the familiar dark brown of old blood. I couldn't guess what had happened, but it had been enough to seriously injure at least one person. Repede only sniffed at it in passing, moving on with no further interest.

Finally we looked around the corner of another tent and pulled up short. "Hmm? Look who's here," Judith pointed out in a stage whisper. Yeager wasn't far from our position, and a row of his Red-eyes stood at attention before him. Most looked identical, but I noted one had a new scar across his right cheek and the bridge of his nose. Uh ohh...

"Oh dear, familiar face..." I groaned.

"Familiar?" Estelle questioned.

"The guy with the scar, he was one of the guys that kidnapped me. He's gonna want to give me one to match..." From the short time I'd known "Birdman," I knew well enough that he was likely to give me the same scar, and then more just to vent his grudge. I wondered if any of the other Red-eyes were from that group...

"Looks like Cumore's become their new client,"Yuri concluded. "But they might try to catch you again anyway."

"Ugh...I'm gonna stick real close to you guys, just in case." The Red-eyes nodded at whatever Yeager had told them, and split off to fulfill their orders.

"Hey," Karol looked around at the rest of us, "do you think that guy who talks all funny could be the Red-eyes' boss?"

"It sure looks that way from here." Even as he offered his agreement, Yuri waved us forward so we followed Yeager as he moved behind another tent. Cautiously poking our heads around this new corner, we saw the pseudo-German quietly conferring with Cumore. Their little meeting was interrupted by a passing worker stumbling, raising a small cloud of dust when he fell heavily to his knees.

Cumore grimaced in distaste at the commoner that had fallen at his feet. "Get to work! No slacking off, you worms!"

The poor worker lying prone on the ground tried to push himself up, but his arms gave out and he collapsed weakly. "Urgh, ugh..."

"Look, that's... It's Teagle." Karol bounced a little in place, but the sight of the knights and Red-eyes around kept him from jumping out and drawing attention to our fledgling guild.

"If it's money you want, you'll have more than you can use. Now work! Work!"

"Tch, of all the narrow minded-if more money than you need is all it takes for a person to work himself to death, Cumore would be in a grave himself already," I gritted through clenched teeth. "A single piece of gald is already more money than he deserves to have."

"Wait!" Yuri ignored Karol's plea and stepped out from our hiding place, bending down briefly to scoop up a handful of stones. He'd hardly stood up again before one flew through the air to smack Cumore in the head. Ten points!

The powder blue haired man's hand flew to his wound. "Wh-who?" He spun wildly to glare at Yuri, who tossed and caught another stone in his hand tauntingly. "Yuri Lowell! What are you doing here?" The disgust on his face quickly morphed into extreme shock when Estelle also stepped out of hiding. "P-Princess...?"

I pulled back behind the tent and cowered where Yeager wouldn't be able to see me. Dammit... He probably already knows I'm here, but I really don't want him to see me anyway.

"You have no right to call yourself a knight!" the pink haired noble admonished him. "Brute force is not the way to honor the prestige of the empire." I could imagine the accusing way she would be pointing at the corrupt captain and his knights. "Put down your weapons now. You will also release the people you have tricked into coming down here!"

"This all might be easier if such a naïve little princess were to simply disappear," Cumore's voice sneered back at her. "All of your utopian ramblings make me sick!"

"His face makes me sick," I grumbled. "And his snotty rambling makes me gag." Rita and Karol snickered a bit, apparently in full agreement despite their unease over the situation.

"That's not the kind of thing someone with delusions of becoming Commandant of the Knights would say." Right, like Yuri said. Cumore's words are a rat's whisker short of blatant treason. Only thing worse he could say is "I, Cumore of the stuck up brigade, shall kill the imperial princess and incite war in order to usurp a higher position".

Teagle must have managed to pull himself together, since his was the next voice I heard. "It's you...!"

"You'll be alright now," Estelle assured him.

"Yeager! Get rid of them!"

"Ja, milord." Strange noise, probably him preparing his weapon. "Nothing personal, you see. Just business!" Oh, snap, we fight him here? Ugh, I'm gonna have to try and write down the key events later, or I'll keep getting surprised by boss fights I forgot about.

Though I did remember Yeager had this pretty awesome scythe for a weapon. I vaguely remembered noticing him shoot with a crossbow when I tried to skim and skip over the actual fights. I definitely knew that for his Caress of Death he used his scythe as a gun and shot people point blank.

...Crap, I'd rather fight Birdman instead! So what if I got a dozen scars from the vindictive bastard, I did not want a BULLET to the FACE.

Seeing that everyone else had already drawn their weapons and were already fending off the first wave of Red-eyes attackers, I pulled my daggers from their sheathes and took a deep breathe to steady myself. I leaped out into the fight and for the time being focused on covering Rita.

Normally, Rita would spend most of a fight near the sidelines or back of the group, attacking directly with her scrolls only when pissed off enough that she wanted a more hands on approach. But the sounds of battle carried through the camp and before long more Red-eyes appeared seemingly out of no where. The result was that we were surrounded and slightly outnumbered (there were, I don't know...maybe a dozen or so total), so Rita was having difficulty finding the time to cast her spells effectively.

I repeatedly used Double Star Stroke to try and keep the three advancing on us from getting too close. If at all possible, I didn't want to fight hand to hand with all of them at once, ideally I'd take them down one by one. Oh Lordie, I have to kill people again... Swallowing, I internally strangled that hesitant thought while hardening my resolve.

"Splash!" Rita's spell hit two of them head on, the sudden deluge of water knocking one off his feet and staggering the other. Grabbing the opportunity I rushed the remaining one. Take him out before the others finish recovering.

Stepping forward, I thrust both daggers towards his face. He raised both hands to block it with his wavy red knives (...come to think of it, hadn't I heard of something like that called a Kris? Not the time...). Just as the weapons collided with a metallic screech, I centered all my weight on my forward leg and swung the back leg up to kick his exposed side as hard as I could. Not the best kick (I have little practice kicking higher than shin level), but he doubled over slightly while grunting in pain.

My daggers inched a little closer to his face as the force behind his blocking weapons lessened a bit. I redirected the force I was putting behind my own blades to a point off to the side of his head, and unprepared for the change he couldn't stop his own weapons from being moved along with them. Quickly I withdrew one dagger from the tangle and slashed it across his neck, jumping back to return to Rita's defense before his body even hit the ground.

The mage had also used the opening wisely, I saw, since one of the soaked Red-eyes was pinned to the ground with stone spears through an arm and a leg. Even as I watched she threw a barrage of fireballs at the other one, who unfortunately wasn't hurt as badly as he should have been thanks to his wet clothes. They steamed and smoldered in a few places as he quickly dropped to roll in the dirt.

If I knew how to whistle, I'd have done so in admiration. I settled with quoting, "Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger." Several more humorous versions I've heard of that line, but I first read it in The Fellowship of the Ring in relation to why someone should not risk getting Gandalf mad. "But there's nothing subtle about Rita's temper."

"Shut up and help already!" Rita snapped while throwing more fireballs at a pair of Red-eyes Estelle was trying to fight. So that meant she expected me to deal with the one attacking us while she gave the others magical support. I could deal with that.

After he'd assured himself that none of the flames had taken, the Red-eyes pushed off from the ground with a snarl. He didn't even glance my way as he charged Rita so I easily intercepted him, putting all my own momentum and weight into ramming him with my shoulder. Not seeing me coming until I was right next to him, he was totally unprepared and sent tumbling the other way.

Stumbling forward a few steps I tried to recover my balance before I fell over as well. I reflexively straightened just in time to take a crossbow quarrel in the left shoulder. Like a heavy punch just under the collarbone, the force spun me and knocked me off my feet. I fell with a pained shriek, and another cry was ripped out of my throat when I landed and felt the quarrel scraping against bone. Rita cried out soon after, and I panicked at the thought that she'd been hit.

"Nnngh!" I tried to push myself up on my right hand, blinking tears out of my eyes in order to look back at the mage. She had a hand clamped over her arm, blood seeping out from between her fingers, but it seemed she'd only been grazed. She was already chewing on what must have been a gel and Repede was guarding her, so she was safe for the moment. I glared over towards where Yeager was smirking, crossbow in hand. He gave it to a Red-eyes standing nearby, while another handed him his giant scythe just in time to fend off Judith's Luna Gale attack. Made sense if his lackeys carried them, he hadn't looked armed when we saw him before.

There were other crossbow quarrels lying around or sticking out of the ground, some even lying in pieces. I'd been the only one unlucky enough to be hit directly, though rips in Estelle's skirt and Judith's half skirt(-sash-cape...thingy) indicated some close shaves.

Hissing at the pain from the slightest movement, I grabbed the daggers I'd dropped with my good hand to put first one and then the other back in their sheathes for the moment. Then, gritting my teeth and trying to brace myself, I grabbed the quarrel and pulled it back out. "Ungh!" Dropping the bloody shaft immediately I grabbed a gel from my bag and ate it quickly. The combined taste of apples and blood made me gag a bit, some must have gotten on the gel from my hand when I grabbed it.

The hole in my shoulder stopped bleeding and scabbed over, but it hadn't formed new skin and ached. I started fishing around in my bag for another gel to make sure it was healed properly. Someone's foot came swinging from my peripheral and smashed into my wounded shoulder. My vision seemed to flash white from the pain, and I probably screamed again.

When my sight cleared I was lying on my back taking shuddering breaths, and could feel a sluggish warmth spreading across my shoulder. Dammit, it opened again.

"What's the matter little bird, did you forget me already?" Well no question which bastard I have to bitch slap for that! I glared up at Birdman, pressing my hand against the opened wound. "I was hoping for the chance to thank you for last time, but I never thought it would come so soon!" His foot lashed out again and kicked me hard in the stomach.

"Ugh!" I curled over on the ground as he laughed harshly.

"Punishing Smash!" Karol? The Ace's shout was followed by a meaty smack and pained curses from Birdman. Looking up again I saw Karol and the bastard squaring off, Birdman's left arm hanging limply by his side. Probably not broken, it didn't sound like anything had snapped, but it looked pretty useless for the moment.

Since I'm already down here... I pulled my legs in closer and then struck out with them, catching Birdman's ankles with my feet and jerking them out from under him. He toppled over just as he'd been about to strike at Karol, so the boy was left holding his ax in a guard position he no longer needed. Seeing the Red-eyes fall, he hesitated for a moment before grabbing his bag off his shoulder and swinging it around so it came down hard on the Red-eyes. When the assassin didn't get up again (just unconscious, or else I'm gonna need to check what that boy keeps in that bag!), he rushed over to my side as I rolled over onto my knees.

"Hang on, I have some gels!" He reached into his bag and pulled out a handful of bright red gels. I stuffed two into my mouth and chewed, ignoring the coppery taste of my own blood this time.

I reached out with my good arm to rumple his hair again. "Thanks for the save, boss."

He blushed a little at the praise, but if he had anything to say he missed his chance when Yeager himself leaped at us with his scythe. Karol yelped as we jumped apart from each other, Yeager landing between us with the scythe blade biting into the ground. I quickly pulled my dao out, keeping it in my right hand and leaving my left hand free to strain the shoulder less.

"Afterimage!" I slashed it through the air, the green aer trail a bit wavery from using only one hand, but it clipped Yeager as he dodged the dao. Rather, it cut the very tip off of that lock of hair that hangs in front of his face.

"Very amusing," uh oh, "My turn next!" He twirled the scythe in his hand and advanced towards me again. No! He's a boss fight!

"Eeep!" I squeaked and ran the other way. Then remembered that scythe was a gun hybrid thing.

"Pierce Bullet!" I threw myself to the side, and saw a blue streak pass by where I'd just been.

"Azure Wolf Strike!" Yay! Distraction! While Yuri and Judith slashed and stabbed away at Yeager, with the occasional input of Rita's fireballs and other handy spells, I retreated to the little grouping of Karol and Repede protecting Rita and Estelle. There were only a few Red-eyes left in fighting condition, but our group was also looking rather battered.

"Any game plan?"

"First Aid!" Estelle sent her healing arts in Yuri's direction.

"Keep beating them up!" Rita threw a Stone Blast at a Red-eyes that tried to sneak around to our other side. There were only four of the assassins left standing, and they were all injured in some way or another. I saw Birdman starting to move again where we'd left him, so I aimed a Star Stroke at him.

"Sir Cumore! It's the Flynn Brigade!" Ohh yeah, I kinda forgot Cumore was still here since he's not, you know, doing anything. Not that I should complain, if Cumore had ordered the knights to fight too, we'd be overwhelmed by sheer numbers alone.

Cumore scowled and dismissively waved a hand at the knight. "Well, send him away!" He was more immediately concerned with the fact that Yeager was being double teamed and fast losing the advantage. Though personally I suspected that Yeager was going easy on us.

"We tried, but he insists on coming down to perform an inspection."

"That lower quarter lout. He simply has no tact!"

"Well Flynn's certainly having an easier time getting in here than he did with Ragou's mansion," I couldn't help pointing out. A Red-eyes was hovering just outside my reach, presumably trying to decide who's injuries would be a greater drawback in a fight. I feinted at him with my dao, and just grinned when he jumped back a bit.

"Gauche, Droite." At Yeager's command the twins dropped out of their hiding places up in the scaffolding, Seriously? They were seriously up there? and took guard positions before him. Yuri and Judith were forced to stop abruptly at the sudden appearance before they practically tripped over the girls.

"This is our time to shine!" chirped the green-blond girl to his right, who was (if I remembered right) named Droite. Making the one on the left Gauche. Seriously, please tell me those aren't their real names...maybe they're fake names for work!

"I think we better be making with the escape, ja?" The girls looked a little crestfallen to realize they wouldn't get to show off in combat, but threw a smoke screen without missing a beat.

"Aah! What is this?"

"'This' is everyone believing they're a bloody ninja," I grumbled, trying to filter the air through my shirt sleeve and squinting. "Thank Go-goodness no one's running in around in bright orange yelling 'believe it!'" Through the haze I could only see vague outlines of people moving.

Droite and Gauche were ushering someone away (could be Yeager, could be Cumore...could be Billy Bob, everyone's favorite assassin). Cumore, of course, needed the last word and shouted at us through the smoke, "We'll get you next time!"

"Next time, Gadget! Next time!" I muttered. Oh my, sometimes I get so nostalgic for the old cartoons.

"What an original line," commented Judith, sounding perfectly composed despite the battle and smoke that was making Karol, Rita, and me cough (I really should have been keeping my mouth shut instead of making sarcastic remarks). The smoke was finally clearing enough to see that Cumore, Yeager, the girls, and the assassins were all gone.

"Efficient, they even managed to carry the dead and injured away..." They must have cheated somehow.

"If we don't follow them, they'll-!"

"Wait! Our job is to rescue Teagle!" Karol cut into Estelle's instinctive zeroing in on potential trouble for others.

"But..."

"I don't know who's job is what," said Rita, "but are we following them or not?"

"Everyone freeze! That's enough!" There was Flynn, heading his own troop of knights, several of which immediately broke away from formation to head off knights from Cumore's brigade before they could run for it.

Yuri snapped his fingers, "Hey, just in time."

"Yuri...?"

"We just show up everywhere, don't we?" I smiled brightly at the blond knight. He shook his head in disbelief.

Estelle was helping Teagle back onto his feet. From a closer vantage, I could see his arms were covered in heavy bruises, and the back of his shirt was torn and bloody in a way that reminded me of... Oh, Lord, did they whip him? Well, that helped explain how he could be so completely worn out after three days missing. Exhaustion and malnutrition would be bad enough, but they wouldn't cause such a drastic effect in such a short time. But Teagle already looked gaunt, with haunted eyes.

Heat seemed to rise to my head, and I suddenly really hoped we could catch up to Cumore sometime very soon. Preferably where there was a large cliff to push him off. Quicksand works too, but I suddenly don't want to wait that long. For the first time it occurred to me, couldn't I have done something to prevent this from happening to Teagle? What if I'd said something back in Nor Harbor? Or tried to direct the others down to the camp earlier? But, what if I ruined the plot? Progression of events?

Fortunately for my peace of mind, Estelle had already set to healing him the best she could despite the urgent need to get out and chase those bad men down. I shook the hypothetical "what ifs" from my head as Yuri made sure Teagle was fit to return to his wife and child by himself. Of course even if he couldn't, Flynn would probably see to his safety.

"So we are going after them," Judith inferred from the exchange.

"Yeah. I"m sure Flynn has things under control here." And with how fast things were going, decision making had fallen back in Yuri's hands. "Sound good, Karol?" Mostly.

"Yeah. Plus, I think Estelle's going to take off after them any minute." The princess had indeed been edging nervously in the direction Yeager and company had mostly likely run in, her manner reminiscent of a dog wanting to be let out for a walk.

"Sorry," Egad, she's giving us puppy eyes!

Rita gave us a more direct kick start, "Jeez! We're going after them, right? So let's get going!" She and Estelle led the charge out of camp. MORE RUNNING OUT OF TOWN!

I was about to sprint after them, ignoring Flynn's call (he was calling Yuri's name, not mine, so no biggie), but spun on my heel and ran up to Teagle. He looked quite startled by my abrupt change of direction and the stern look in my eyes. "Here," I fished some apple gels out of my bag and held them out to him.

"But, I can't-"

"Give hand!" I commanded in a pet owner's voice. Perhaps because of the past three days of following orders (or else), he held his palm up without even thinking about it. I dropped the gels into his hand, "Take!" and finally ran off after the others.

x x x

Yeager's Speech

Estelle: That man called Yeager certainly had a unique way of talking.

Rita: Unique isn't the word I'd use.

Karol: I had a hard time understanding some of the stuff he said.

Judith: An ancient way of speaking, lost in this day and age...

Estelle: What? Are you serious?

Judith: ...It would at least make a good story if that were true.

Rita: *sigh*

Ancient Languages

Yuri: That Yeager was quite a character.

Letha: Oh ja, Herr Yeager ist ein Mann sehr interressant, n'est pas?

Karol: What? Letha, you know how to talk like that too?

Estelle: Oh, I know! You learned from your Aunt's books, right? So it really is an ancient way of speaking, like Judith said!

Rita: What did you just say, anyway?

Letha: Uhh, I don't really know.

All: …

What Flynn Thinks

Karol: Flynn was asking for Estelle to come back with him, right?

Yuri: The Knights can't help thinking that the best place for a princess is a castle. He's just worried that he won't be able to keep track of her.

Judith: But Estelle decided to set out on this journey on her own, and you want to respect that.

Yuri: I haven't really thought about it all that much.

Letha: Liar liar~.

Rita: The Knights are bound to keep following you though, as long as Estelle's with you.

Yuri: And what kind of guild would we be if we didn't get into trouble with the Knights?

Karol: I don't think fighting the Knights is actually a guild requirement...

Letha: It isn't? Could have fooled me.

x x x

Repede was quickly given point of our little hunting party, tracking Cumore's cologne outside the barrier and even through the wilderness. Yep, Cumore's cologne. I won't call it perfume, because I wanted to believe there was something normal about the creeper.

Maybe Cumore's knights and the Red-eyes had something to do with it, but there weren't many monsters in the area. We were only attacked by some tadpole thingies, that looked similar to the monsters in the Shaikos Ruins. Yet again, they died in a gelatinous mess, though at least I managed to keep myself clean thanks to Star Stroke. I'd gotten nearly as good at that move as Estelle. Well, it was my only ranged attack...

After that brief scrap I felt abnormally winded. At first I just attributed my difficulty breathing to still being worn out from the fight with Yeager and the lingering effects of my nastier injuries. Even after taking another apple gel my shoulder felt like a massive bruise, and I had to wear my satchel bag so it hung on my other side.

When I still wasn't feeling any better much later, was getting worse even, I eventually figured out that it was probably another bout of aer sickness. I didn't say anything though, there wasn't anything anyone could do for me and it wasn't yet so bad that I couldn't keep walking.

While everyone else was keeping an eye out for any sign of our targets, I was looking out for someone else. Yes, I remembered quite well that the Great Raven would soon be putting in another appearance, and would be sticking with us for good! Yay! Looking forward to him completing the group helped me keep my mind off the aches in my shoulder and chest.

Other than that, I had no idea where we were. Hoorah for a crap sense of direction.

It was getting pretty late in the day, and Repede had nearly lost the trail several times over the last two hours. But it seemed the last time was for good.

"...There's no sign of them..." Rita huffed. "Looks like they ended up getting away." Amazing with such a strong scent trail, maybe the twins had used some other type of ninja odor bomb to confuse the trail.

"Where are we anyway?"

"Karol, that question does not reassure me," I groaned. "I'm hoping one of you has a clue..."

Judith did. "A forest in central Tolbyccia. If I'm right, Torim Harbor is east of here."

Yuri considered this revelation for a moment. "We should probably spend the night here, and then just get to the harbor instead of returning to Heliord."

"Whee, break time!" I dropped heavily to sit on the side of the path we'd been following. "Dang it, lately I've been running more miles in a day than I have overall in my life." Pulled my boots off to massage my feet. I need new socks...the few pairs I have are all getting holes in the heels. Fortunately the aer sickness was starting to pass.

Estelle stared from me to him in disbelief. "But what do we do about Cumore? Do we just let him go?"

"I thought the purpose of your journey was to find Phaeroh," Judith succinctly reminded her.

"Well I..."

"I wasn't aware Brave Vesperia was formed to follow your random whims."

Estelle bowed her head and flushed slightly, "...I-I'm sorry. That was never my intention..."

Yuri apparently didn't like the now tense atmosphere, "Aww, she's just telling you to relax. Besides, Flynn's on the scene, right? You can be sure he'll take care of things."

"Hey, 'Phaeroh'? 'Brave Vesperia'?" Rita realized she had apparently missed some important things in the few days we'd been apart. "Start explaining." Repede yawned and sat down since it was clear he wouldn't have to keep trying to follow an invisible trail anymore.

I elected to help Karol set up some tents while the others brought Rita up to speed. We needed a total of three, two girls to a tent while Yuri, Karol, and Repede shared the third. As long as I didn't have to share with Rita I didn't even mind which other girl I shared with, so long as I didn't have to beware sleep casting in the middle of the night.

Not really interested in dinner, I wrapped myself up in a bedroll and went to sleep early, hoping the rest would prevent a sickness relapse.

x x x

"Hey, Letha..."

"Mmrph..."

"Letha?"

"Wha...?" I blinked sleepily and rubbed at my eyes.

"I'm sorry, I woke you up..." It was Estelle, apparently she was my, uh, tentmate for the night.

"'S'okay...somethin' wrong?" I yawned a bit. "We taking turns watchin' or something?"

"Oh, no, I just had something I wanted to ask you. I didn't realize you were already asleep..."

"Ohh, that's good," I burrowed a little deeper into my bedroll. "Ask me quick before I fall asleep again."

"Alright." Despite that she hesitated first, and when she finally asked it jolted me a bit. I must have nearly dropped off to sleep again. "What Judith said before, about my journey being to find Phaeroh, and that Brave Vesperia wasn't for following my whims..." She paused again.

"What about it?" I prompted, though I had a hunch where this was going.

"Do you-Do you agree with her? Do you think I've been selfish?" Bingo, I won the thousand gald prize. Woah, thinking in terms of gald instead of dollars...I've been here awhile, haven't I?

"To agree with her I'd have to understand what she was thinking when she said that." I lifted myself up on one elbow to look Estelle in the eyes. Or rather, in the general area where her eyes should be, it was too dark to actually see them clearly. "Honestly, I don't think she meant you were being selfish, as much as I think she was trying to get you to think about your decisions more before you make them.

"If it were me who said that to you earlier, and I can't say I wouldn't have said something similar," she flinched a bit but I continued as if I hadn't noticed, "I would have meant that if you keep chasing after whatever latest noble cause you stumble across, you won't get even one of them done. Keep going like this and you'll keep dropping them halfway through to chase a new bad guy. Instead, keep your goal in sight, and don't allow yourself to get side tracked."

"But-!"

"But you can't just ignore someone who needs help, I know," I dropped back down to the ground and pulled my pillow (actually my green coat rolled up) closer. "Just saying you need to learn to identify situations where you and only you can help, from the ones where you could help but so could someone else." Yawned again, and finished with, "See...with Teagle...Flynn is there. An' he's not gonna let Cumore get away with hurting those people. It's different from somethin' like Halure, where the flowers actually needed you in order to bloom again..."

"Okay...I think I understand," I hummed to acknowledge that I'd heard, but couldn't muster up any actual words. "Good night, Letha."

"G'night..."

I fell into dreams, most of which I couldn't remember. The only things that stuck with me when I woke in the early hours of the dawn was a blood red sunset, Teagle's body lying broken on a pile of corpses, and the unshakable conviction that I hadn't tried my hardest to save them all.

x x x

Another day of walking was near torturous with all the sore muscles in my shoulder and stomach. My feet and legs felt shaky too, not quite recovered from trying to chase down Cumore and co. the day before. I was in a sour mood for most of the morning, the others becoming reluctant to walk anywhere near me when they realized I wasn't even trying to tease or joke with anyone. I just gave a flat stare and short responses if somebody tried to start a conversation with me.

It was roughly noon when Raven practically materialized out of nowhere (what the hell?), making an exaggerated show of trying to catch his breath. "You kids really cover a lot of ground in a day, this old man barely managed ta catch up to ya."

"Huh? Wh-what the?" Rita sounded even more surprised than I felt, and I was pretty shocked despite having expected him since the day before. Yuri and Judith didn't seemed fazed at all, I wouldn't have been surprised if they'd noted the old perv approaching and just hadn't warned us.

"What's wrong, miss genius mage?" He stroked his scruffy chin self importantly. "Forget me already? It's me, Raven the Great."

Hands on hips, she glared at him venomously. "Who the hell do you..."

"I told ya," hand to his forehead either in an attempt to look cool or because he had a headache, "Raven the Great..." Yeah, trying to be cool. "Man. Yer a scary little kid, ya know that?"

"So? What are you up to?"

Stalking fanboy tendencies?

"With all the stuff you've been doin', poor Raven got sent all the way out here to keep an eye on ya."

Yep, stalking tendencies. Fanboy variety optional.

Karol looked puzzled at the explanation. "Why would they do that?"

"First things first, let's go find an inn at Torim Harbor. I'll tell ya everything there. Raven's pretty hungry ya see..."

"How much farther til we reach the harbor?" I asked, hoping we weren't far.

"Shouldn't be more than an hour or two." I heaved a sigh of relief when Raven told us that. Resting at an inn sounded pretty good.

Yuri shrugged, probably realizing it wouldn't do any good to push the older man. "I suppose there's no point in hanging around here. Torim Harbor's a good first step."

"Torim Harbor, then," Judith agreed, then gave Estelle a questioning look. "Would that be alright?"

"Yes, of course," the princess nodded. Then she hung her head contritely. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be selfish."

"Okay, let's go." At Yuri's cue we started walking again.

"Hey, Letha," Karol dared, either noticing that I wasn't glowering at my feet as fiercely as before or was just bored enough to try drawing me out anyway. "Could you tell us more about that story about the dwarves and the wizard?"

"Dwarves?" Raven looked at us at the same time Rita asked, "What wizard?"

"Ahh, these guys didn't hear the beginning..." I thought for a moment before looking at Karol and Estelle (who fell back in our grouping to hear better). "Do either of you want to tell them how it starts? Or should I start over?"

"I'll tell them!" Karol hurried to say. "It's about a hobbit, which is a guy who's shorter than me," (pfft, yeah, that's how I described Bilbo), "and these thirteen dwarves and an old guy who talked in riddles and was supposed to be a mage, but he's called a wizard because he doesn't use blastia, and they all wanted the hobbit to go with them to fight a dragon, though he wasn't actually going to fight it but only try and steal-"

I sighed and smiled a bit as Karol continued his rapid fire summary of the first few chapters. He must've really wanted to get it out of the way so I'd pick up again from where I'd left off. It didn't look like Raven or Rita understood even half of what he was saying though, and before long Estelle cut him off to explain the whole thing a bit more clearly. Then a large chunk of time was spent convincing Rita that it was a story, so it was okay if the wizard didn't need any formulas or blastia to cast magic.

"I've never hearda this story before, didja make it up?" Raven asked me.

"Nope, grew up reading that one over and over." Because when I kept trying to watch the tape we had of the animated film, my brother got sick of hearing it again and again so he dug up our paperback copy. "It was a very old book. Written for children, actually."

"Read a lotta books like that?"

"Yeah, I have..."

"Anythin' besides kid's stories? Philosophy, history, or maybe..." his voice turned low and sensual, "somethin' erotic?" His eyebrows waggled suggestively.

My mind seriously blanked for a moment. I'd figured Raven had started fishing for information to dig up some dirt Alexei wanted, but dirty books?

"Hmm, don't really care for philosophy much, it's a little too heavy for casual reading. Sometimes I read a bit of history, but I'm terrible at remembering important dates and such." In the same casual tone I continued with, "And yes, actually, I was able to get my hands on some more adult fiction."

"Oh really?" Raven seemed surprised. Well, what respectable young lady would so easily admit to that? "Any good ones?"

"Probably not any you'd be interested in," I said slowly, as if considering it. "They didn't have any female characters." I smiled innocently at him as the meaning sank in, and he gaped at me when I quickened my pace a bit to catch up to Karol, Rita, and Estelle again, who were just about ready for me to start telling them about Bilbo's first visit to Rivendell.

x x x

I took liberties, and tweaked a few things. It went smoother this way.

I did my best with the fight with Yeager. There are a few rough patches I'm not completely satisfied with in the scene as a whole, but overall I thought it works. The Fool Arcana tells me that there aren't actually bullets in Vesperia, so we agreed the gun-scythe fires something more like miniature Azure Edges. Once Letha gets over her ingrained fear of guns and thinks about it, she'll probably figure out the bullets are made of aer.

Umm, also there are the skits. Letha has some rudimentary German and French vocabulary from mandatory high school language classes. In the second skit, she combined both for something that should roughly mean "Oh yes, Mister Yeager is a really interesting man, isn't he?" My apologies to anyone who speaks either of these languages for a mangling them together like this.

...Speechless Raven? He'll probably turn that one back on her later, but it was worth it.