Anybody else occasionally dig up old classics like Disney movies for nostalgia? I was in the mood for Disney music, and then it turned into the need to watch some of the movies. I realized something. Mulan's father Fa Zhou is Ludwig. Totally.

And Mushu's first meeting with Mulan: "My powers are beyond your mortal imagination! For instance, my eyes can see straight through your armor!" *Looks down at her chest, Mulan slaps him.* Me: RAVEN MOMENT!

Ahh, hope all my Canadian readers had a good Canada Day. That's the first of July, right? And to all my American readers, happy Fourth of July! (I'm excited, my town puts a lot of money towards fireworks. Nearly a solid hour of displays!)

Random chatter over with now. There's a weird part in the narrative in this chapter. I debated just cutting it and skipping to the next part, but I went with it anyway. I hope nobody gets too annoyed by it...I actually did while writing it. If anyone thinks it was bad move, let me know? I doubt I'd have a need to do it again, but I'd like to know if it was too confusing, or if it's not as bad as I'm wondering it might be.

Angelic:

I can forgive weird names if I like the story or gameplay. I can't forgive any failings in plot or technical set up, though.

Raven references are so much fun to make! Especially when he doesn't realize she knows what she's saying! Though honestly, I tried to think of something else to use, since Letha isn't heartless. But then again, she has a wicked streak, so it's not unbelievable that she went ahead with it instead of just saying "nevermind" when she couldn't think of anything else.

AER COMPLICATIONS. More of me winging it, bullshitting it, and hoping enough people kinda get it to make it not a total waste of time. Prepare for a bit more weird aer stuff in this one...

Some Bloke:

You failed, I'm laughing. Because of "Raven love" and the lampshaded attempt to not make me laugh. The story would not be what it is today if not for humor and Raven's perfectly suited existence for compounding this humor. And he isn't just about being funny either! He's has so much depth that I keep wanting to poke at! *Ahem* Now let's move on before that starts to sound weird.

And oh hey, somebody else who's played Grandia! Of the three I played I actually preferred the first one (despite its plot and hero being the most childish, you could say), but number two has its good points. I've considered setting another fairy abduction skit in one, but that's just a thought.

x x x

Chapter 44: For a Price

x x x

The fight had not been going well so far. The Manta had rushed right at us despite Rita's fireball and the katana and halberd Yuri and Judith already had leveled at it. They didn't even have the time to do anything, it practically threw itself on their weapons for them. The blades sank into it's amoeba like body, but it continued bulling ahead and knocked over both swordsman and krytian.

It was clear that the Manta was trying to body slam them, but the butt of Judith's halberd got jammed into the ground, causing the blade to impale itself even deeper into the bloblike body. It finally showed a pained reaction, pulling back and away before it managed to crush them (or, I guess, smother them with its bulk). Judith had to grab onto her weapon tight to keep it from getting carried off with the monster. Or rather, the not-monster according to Judith.

Yuri pushed himself up onto one knee. "Damn," he massaged the wrist of his sword arm briefly, as if it had been injured trying to hold onto his katana. "At least it can be hurt, but this isn't going to be easy."

He and Judith were still in a disadvantageous position, so I resolutely gripped Oberon and Gemini Left as I rushed the monster from the side. Leading with a Star Stroke attack, I stabbed with Gemini once in close. My dagger sank into it easily, though the outer membrane was tough enough that it stopped the blade before my hand could follow it inside.

Despite being made of something closely related to jelly in consistency, the Manta's tail stung like a whip when it lashed across my face. I yelped in pain, falling back and instinctively lifting a hand to the throbbing welt it had raised on my face, even though it was too late to guard. Close...an inch higher and I'd be blind...

My eyes were watering from the smack to the face (DAMN THING BITCH SLAPPED ME) and couldn't see clearly yet. A hand grabbed me roughly around my upper arm and dragged me back. The air I could feel forcefully displaced from in front of me was enough to realize it had struck in my direction again.

Blinking furiously, when my sight was back I realized I was just behind Raven, who was firing off arrows into the monster. "Ya still got yer head on straight?"

"Uh yeah, thanks..." I swiped the back of my hand across my eyes once more, and then was ready to fight again. Yuri and Judith had recovered, and with support from Raven and Estelle were landing solid hits. Karol, being low to the ground, was able to attack from underneath the monster with his axe in blows that should be devastating in such a normally vulnerable area.

It didn't look like any of it was doing jack shit, though.

"Urgh! I'll do it!" Rita snapped while her scroll whipped around and around, drawing her formula in the air. For her to be announcing her intentions like that meant it was going to be something big the rest of us should look out for. And knowing what to look for, I could tell she was pulling in a large quantity of fire element aer. "O incandescent locus, annihilate the vulgar before me! Spiral Flare!"

A tornado of fire was released from the formula and blazed towards the Manta. It didn't even bother trying to escape. When the fire cleared it barely even looked the worse for the wear.

"Wh-what?" Rita gasped, unable to accept that a spell she'd put so much juice into had so little effect. But she'd attracted the Manta's attention. Facing her, a gaping hole of a mouth yawned open and began sucking at the air. It was drawing so much energy towards it that it wasn't even necessary to use my blastia to sense the change in aer flow. Cursing, Yuri grabbed Rita by the shoulder and shoved her down to the ground, taking cover at the same time and even partially shielding the less durable mage himself. He was just in time.

The red blast of energy, as wide around as I was tall, nearly clipped their backs as it passed over them. It smashed into one of the sandstone walls of the ravine, causing it to fragment and drop large chunks. When the falling rubble and sand cleared, the wall had a fresh gouge at least a foot deep. Estelle gasped 'Oh my' while Karol squeaked fearfully. I was letting loose a string of colorful swears in my mind as my voice didn't actually want to work. There was a unanimous, unspoken decision to not let the Manta do that again.

Weapons aren't very effective, other than when Judith's halberd seemed to hurt it, but spells... I jumped aside to avoid a barrage of smaller blasts of energy, oddly resembling star fish. Maybe we just need to use the right element of spells? Fire didn't seem to phase it at all, and if this were Final Fantasy...

"Rita!" I shouted, "Try water!"

"What? What makes you think that'll do any better?" But Rita was already preparing a formula, a blue shining circle array at her feet. "O mother praised for her indigo life," I missed the next part as the Manta took a swing at me with its arm like (or I suppose I should call them wing like) appendages. But then I heard her call out, "Aqua Laser!"

The sand under the floating blob monster glowed blue for a moment, then water gushed straight up from underneath and stabbed into its belly. It gave a weird moan and shudder, the most encouraging sign yet.

Then its hole of a mouth opened again (which freaked me out, thinking we'd get another huge red blast) and a large sphere (a nucleus would be an apt description) rose out. There was a small cut in it that, with a flash of insight, I realized must have come from the tip of Judith's halberd.

The nucleus hovered in the air before the monster's open mouth and then, like the series of ripples you get when you toss a rock into a pond, darkness poured out of it in waves. They quickly overtook all of us, and I gave an involuntary cry thinking it was an attack, but it kept on until as far as I could see, everything was as dark as night. No, darker, there were no stars or moon.

"This can't be good..." I heard Raven say from somewhere nearby, and had to agree.

Several small flashes of light were all that alerted me, and I had a split second to react. Diving to the left I still wasn't fast enough to entirely dodge another stream of the starfish missiles. A few caught my right side, apparently having just passed through the space between my body and arm. I felt a little faint just thinking how close I had been to taking a direct hit, or just having my arm riddled with stars.

"Ugh! Estelle! Rita! Can you two do something about this?" Yuri shouted from somewhere in the dark.

"Photon!" The light from Estelle's attack lasted for a brief span of time, but it was enough for us all to temporarily get our bearings.

Rita had already been preparing, and the moment she could see her target again she cast her spell. "Aqua Laser!" To our shock the monster barely reacted at all to the water, simply shook it off and tried to clout Rita in the head with an 'arm' and was barely stopped in time by Karol's axe knocking it off course. "What? But it worked before!"

I had sent another Star Stroke in the Manta's direction, not wanting to get too close to it when the light wouldn't last. In a lot of games, something like this would mean it was a monster that switched elemental attributes. Those are a pain... It seemed likely that that was the case we were dealing with, but I was a hundred percent sure, and in any case didn't know how to explain my reasoning to the others. Without any time to really think my strategy through, and with the fear of having that thing pop out of the dark at any time, I decided to try an experiment.

There were occasional bursts of light from the others using their artes. The most beneficial for seeing were Judith's moon based techniques. The next time there was a glow of pale light off her halberd, I marked where the Manta's position was and rushed towards it. If water is no longer the elemental weakness, then game logic would dictate-

"Blazing Afterimage!" I swung Oberon through the downwards diagonal that I typically would charge with aer, but this time I strove to fill the blade with only fire elemental aer. My control slipped, and a miscellaneous mix still made its way in, but flame was the predominate element. The blade of my dao flared with small licking flames as it slashed through the Manta's membranous hide.

My flames weren't nearly as large or strong as those Rita could whip up in her sleep (thank God I didn't know that from personal experience, but First Strike demonstrated how destructive that could be), but I had apparently guessed right about the elemental thing. It gave another howling moan, terribly eerie to hear in the dark, and then suddenly all the darkness got sucked right back into its nucleus just before that retreated into its mouth again.

"Hey!" Yuri shouted to get everyone's attention. "Get it to spit that core out again!"

"Aye aye, sir!" I responded briskly. "Rita!" I scrambled over to the younger mage. "This time it has to be water-"

"I got it already!" she cut me off with, having figured out what I knew in her own way. "But there's not much water element here!" And when I thought to look, I realized she was right. It must have taken a lot of effort to gather enough for two shots of Aqua Laser, and what had been used for that was largely dispersed across the field. "Gather what you can, and I'll use it for one more spell!" she ordered.

Having heard our plan, the others concentrated on keeping the monster from distracting us. At one point it tried to make another huge energy blast, but simultaneous attacks from Judith and Karol from above and below were just enough to distract it.

"Rita..." I tried to tell her I'd gathered as much of the water aer as I could without losing my focus or the silk like threads. She understood, and grabbed my hand while using the other to trace another formula circle. I felt the cool silk aer flow through my control into hers, and then she was casting Splash.

The effort was draining, and when the Manta opened its maw to spit out its nucleus and the wave of shadows again I felt dispirited. I didn't want to have to fight in the dark again...

"Judy!" Yuri called, and the krityan leaped into the air.

"Crescent Moon!" Her halberd cut the sphere nearly in half. "Luna Rondo!" The core was completely severed, and then shattered. It hadn't yet brought a false night, so we were left to finish the fight in the light of day.

The Manta actually drooped in the air, belly nearly touching the sand, and looked much weakened by the loss. Yuri and Estelle both leaped forward, Estelle's sword cutting in up to the hilt while Yuri's katana spun multiple attacks across its 'face'.

And that was it. With one more of its water howls, the Manta Ray monster simply...faded. As if it had evaporated, or never even existed.

Everyone was panting for breath after the punishing effort of fighting the monster. In full desert travel garb, during the heat of day no less (never mind that it briefly hadn't been day, it had still been hot). I fumbled for my canteen, and then realized it was empty. Oh, damn, I think that might be my and Rita's fault...

Yuri was staring at the now unoccupied space in front of us. "It vanished...?"

"H-hold on everyone, I'll heal you right away..." Estelle held her hands as if in prayer, but then looked up as a falling red and gold feather falling from the sky caught her attention. "What's this...?"

Wiping sweat from my brow with the back of my hand, I had to sit for a moment to catch my breath and save energy, staring at the sandy ground without really thinking about it. Wow, with the immediate threat gone, I really feel like I can barely move...

"I can't go on..." Karol groaned, and then there was a thud. Followed by another.

"Rita...Karol..." Estelle said weakly. And there was a third thump.

"Hey hey..." I said with a weak laugh, "We can't all be falling asleep out here... Think of the uneven tan lines..." Nobody responded to my halfhearted joke, other than a groan from someone but that was probably because of the heat, or the crash from the loss of adrenaline.

In retrospect, I don't even know just when I passed out.

x x x

This time. This time for sure I'd clear the fog. I turned my back on the sunset behind me, already more than familiar with it. Pushing the fog back was easier this time, and I was listening for that voice, ready for it to retaliate.

Swirling gray pushed back further, further, further and uncovering more grass. I was starting to think there was nothing else here besides grass and a waterside sunset. When the grass finally gave way to brown dirt, the surprise made my focus waver and the fog started rolling back in.

Dismayed, I tried to push it back again, to see what was beyond the grass and the dirt.

"ENOUGH."

A section of the fog twisted in on itself, whirling like a miniature tornado, growing darker and more compact with each spin. Before it even finished forming itself the mass sprang at me. I fell back in horror, as the features rushing towards me became defined and I saw familiar short black hair, cold pale eyes, a scar stretching across a face with a feral grimace leering at me.

In my shock, I couldn't even scream before his tri-bladed knives slashed at me.

x x x

My eyes flew open. For a single second I was utterly frozen, even my breath stilled in my lungs, as I was still transfixed by that last image of my dream. Gradually it sank in that it was over, I was alive and safe. Jasper couldn't hurt me anymore. Then the shaking set in.

Curling up into a tight ball, I pulled my thin blanket up around my shoulders to hide the world from my sight as I forced myself to take deep, gasping breaths. My trembling eased, my pounding heart slowed, and my mind calmed itself enough to realize I did not remember going to bed.

Sitting up, I let the blanket fall away as I looked around.

The first thing that I noted was that it was a moderately large room with several other beds. The occupants of which were my companions, all looking worse for the wear but healthy overall. As in, not lying in their deathbeds. At some point somebody must have done some healing work on us.

Then I started to wonder why were all put into the same room. And where was this room, anyway?

I smacked my forehead, and cringed as the action brought a minor headache to my attention. Right, blackouts followed by being rescued by what's-her-face, Khroma. And now we're in Yormgen. Specifically, the inn. Seemed the set up here was large common rooms to be shared by all guests. Like the way RPGs usually set up inns. I'd known that there actually were places that used to be like that on Earth (cheaper on a traveler's purse), but generally the want for privacy made such establishments rare if they still existed at all. In my neck of the woods, at least.

Well, I guess it's rare on Terca Lumireis too, but here we have one.

Sleep wanted to drag me down again. I hadn't gotten a full night's sleep since what happened with Cumore, and even before that I'd been stubbornly trying to pretend that Jasper's end wasn't bothering me. But I didn't want to sleep. I didn't want to go back to those lucid sunset dreams that, honestly, were scaring my with their frequency and that other voice with control over my dreams. I didn't want to risk seeing dream versions of the skeletons in my closet...

I climbed out of bed, because my body wanted so much to lie back down on it, and looked around the room. Everyone was there, including the couple we'd found in the desert. I was the first to wake up. Rubbing my eyes with a fist, I groaned a bit.

Now what? Sit around and wait for everyone to wake up? Hand falling limply to my side again, I stared at the door. Go out and look around? Maybe I'll find the girl with the key to the apatheia's case, or Duke even...

The apatheia. If I didn't do something now to save it, Duke would destroy it. And then even if I managed to prevent Belius' death, we'd be short an apatheia to use in helping the entelexeia be reborn as spirits.

But what can I possibly do now?

Quietly, I crept forward until I was next to Rita's bed. It didn't take long to find the red case in her bag, which I tucked under my arm and stealthily retreated out of the room with. I nodded to the innkeeper, trying to look casual and not-so furtive. When he looked like he was about to joyously react to one of his unconscious guests waking up, I put a finger to my lips and mouthed 'still sleeping' while pointing at the room. He nodded in understanding and I tiptoed away.

Once outside the inn, I darted off to the edge of Yormgen until I was safely hidden from sight in the copse of trees by the town's entrance. "Okay, now that I've stolen from my teammates, what can I do to justify this act of theft?"

I could just hide the apatheia, let them believe it was lost or stolen. That had two big problems. One, no lesson from Duke on what an apatheia is or demonstration of what Dein Nomos does. And two, I'd be carrying the stolen box around in my bag for who knows how long, and they're bound to notice sooner or later. Like, if it made our magic go haywire again. Or when, way down the road, Rita's like "I need an apatheia!" and I pull it out and go "Here ya go!" Yeah. Not suspicious at all.

Next option, go and ask Duke very nicely not to destroy this one. And then watch him ignore me and destroy it anyway.

Three...there had to be a third option. I couldn't let this opportunity slip by!

"Dammit, if only I could make a copy of this or something!" I growled in frustration. Then blinked, "...A copy?" Now isn't that an idea... I might not be able to make a copy, but maybe he could. Even though we didn't have a good track record of graciously accepting to do each other favors.

I pulled the glove off of my left hand (my gloves were still sliced open across the palms, I should buy new ones) and held up the tattoo into the sunlight. I'm going to hate myself for this very, very soon. "Oh Nevys the Great. The Wise and Benevolent. This humble worm of a mortal beseeches you to grace her with your presence...Sir." Part of me was hoping he wouldn't hear and wouldn't show up.

"Please, do go on," he practically purred. "Don't let it stop you that we are both fully aware that you don't mean a word of it." Nevys was just off to the side and within a ray of sunlight that lit on him like he was the lead on a stage, gold sparkles winking out one by one as they lazily spiraled down.

Civil tongue, civil tongue, civil tongue, ci- "And yet you come running at false words of praise. Truly dignified of you." Snap. I can be so freakin' stupid.

His face darkened with a scowl. "There is nothing keeping me here. I have no reason to hear out whatever paltry request you have this time." The golden sparks were already swirling out from wherever they'd disappeared to.

"Ah! No!" I practically threw myself at his shiny black shoes. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Please don't go yet!"

"Hnph." Gold specks of light fell gently to the grass around my hands, but the black shoes didn't disappear. When I looked up tentatively, I was treated to the unpleasant sight of the fairy narcissist looking down on me with a sneer and folded arms. "Pathetic creature. Off."

I scrambled back before he'd enforce the command with a kick. No need to let him add injury to insult. The glare I gave him spoke volumes, but I kept my mouth shut. An act which said just as much as my eyes, and less to my advantage.

Once Nevi had had his fill of feeling superior, he prompted me with, "What did you see fit to bother me with this time?"

"Please, Sir," I ground out. "I wanted to ask if you could make a copy of this box," I indicated the red case sitting on the ground beside me, "and what's inside it." Nevi stared at me, silent and narrowed eyed. "...Please."

"You wish me to make a substitute apatheia for that mortal to destroy," he outlined my basic plan flatly. The smirk on his face mocked me, my planning, and the very vague terms I had couched my request in. Well, come on! I was dealing with a fairy who, for all I knew, might not even know what the aer in this world was! Much less an apatheia.

"Uh, well, yes. If you would," I bowed my head down again, forehead brushing the grass. Only then I realized I was making the same obeisance I would to my aikido instructors. Even down to the proper etiquette for where I placed my hands before my bent knees.

"No."

"What?" My head snapped up and I stared at Nevi, who had turned away and was showing me his arrogant back. I could have grabbed his wings and yanked them off with him like that, but didn't dare so much as a twitch in their direction. Surely he realized that, and was standing so to taunt me. "I'm on my knees and begging you!"

"As is my due," he retorted haughtily. "But your little diversions serve me in no manner. As such, I am under no obligation to expend the magic required to fashion a copy that would fool the mortal and his sword."

Well, his pride was an angle I knew could be worked. "You can't do it...?"

"Won't do it," he bristled while making the distinction. Then recovered himself, and continued coolly, "Instead of running around in circles with these fools, you should be concentrating on your purpose here. I've been growing impatient with the lack of results." A shower of gold sparkles began to fall around him again.

I clumsily flung myself forward and wrapped my arms around his knees from behind. The sparks turned red and he began spitting words in an unfamiliar language (probably fairy profanities). "Please! I'll try harder! Can't you please do something?" Fortunately the wild beating of his butterfly like wings did little more than buffet my head slightly, no actual pain.

After several more choice words, a few attempts to kick me lose or pry me off, and continuous babbling from me, Nevi finally gave in. "Very well! Cease at once, leech, and I'll see what I can do."

Letting go, I backed away once again and sat cross legged, hands on knees and politely not making a peep. Nevi took his time fixing his clothes and checking his wings to see if they were damaged at all. I was starting to get anxious, it couldn't be much longer before the others started waking up, but I held my peace.

Finally Nevi was ready to talk business. "You," he started coldly (colder than before, near frigid really), "will have to pay a price."

"What kind of price?" I asked warily.

"To make a forgery that even that enchanted sword will take for authentic, we will need to infuse my magic with actual aer." (Oh, he does know.) "The more we use, the more convincing the facsimile," he explained. "You will serve as the conduit for the aer, and take on the toll working the magics exacts in my place." I frowned at that, but he scoffed at me. "I've already been pressing my limits with the numerous facets of our real work, and not merely the aspects that involve you. I simply cannot allow this to wear down me or my resources. It is a small price to pay on your part, for something you have so debased yourself."

"Alright," I agreed slowly. "Is that all?"

"All that you will notice. Close your eyes." He reached out to rest the tips of his fingers on my forehead and eyelids. Immediately I felt a massive surge of aer rising up through me, all concentrated to the points where his fingers contacted my skin. It was a bit like when I'd helped Rita earlier, but the intensity was something else entirely. The crushing, tight pain in my chest made me gasp just to breathe and I could feel a pounding headache taking root in my skull. My left hand began to burn, then grew achingly cold.

The flow of aer through me slowed and then ceased, leaving me feeling empty and as exhausted as if I'd been in a running fight all day. I slumped, forcing my eyes to open when Nevi's touch withdrew. They were drawn to the large hunk of crystal in his hand.

It was a pale green that one would associate with mint (on Earth, at least, with our color coded artificial flavors). He raised it for his own inspection, and I saw that the different angle the light was now shining through it gave it a hint of blue. "'s the wrong color," I slurred, jaw not wanting to cooperate.

"Of no matter," he dismissed. "None of your comrades know the appearance as of yet, or even what lies inside the box." Oh yeah. True. I watched as he passed a hand over the crystal and a red box appeared around it, identical to the one Rita and Estelle had been carrying all over the continent. Hope the girl's key works on this one just the same.

"Done," Nevi decided, and even considering he'd been against helping me he seemed quite pleased with himself. When he finally looked over at me, it was like an afterthought. "I suppose you want me to safeguard the original, to ensure your deception is not discovered."

"Um, yes, if you would..." I found myself blinking repeatedly. Lightheadedness was starting to make my head spin. It was hard to remember what I was supposed to be doing, or worrying about. "I think I'll go back to bed now..." Why didn't I want to sleep before? I dunno anymore... I stood, intending to return to the inn with the substitute crystal.

The trees all began to spin madly around me, my vision tunneled, and I was barely aware of lying on my back with Nevi's voice in my ears. "Even serendipity has its drawbacks."

x x x

"Hey, shouldn't she have woken up by now?"

"Maybe she's sick?"

"Do you think it's aer sickness again?"

"Could be..."

It was disorienting. Voices seemed to come from two directions at the same time. As if they were a distance away, and at the same time all around me.

"I don't think she got a lot of rest last night. She seemed to be having nightmares."

"Then maybe she just needs more sleep?"

"Looks like. Let's leave her alone for awhile."

A door closing across the room and right next to me. Footsteps...muffled and quickly passing beyond hearing, as well as all around me. That shouldn't be possible.

It occurred to me that I hadn't tried opening my eyes or moving yet. So I tried. My limbs were sluggish, objecting with dull pain to the movements, so I soon gave up. Cracked my eyes open, just the smallest bit to see that I was in the inn. It was all as blurred and vague like when I'm half asleep, checking the time before rolling over and dropping off again. But even though I could see, there was also an odd impression of not seeing, of everything being dark.

I closed my eyes again, listening to the footsteps that weren't really in the room with me. It was probably another half awake dream.

"Oh, that's right!" I identified the dream voice as Estelle. "Everyone, look this." The footsteps stopped. With nothing else to listen to, I waited to see if they'd speak more.

"What's that?" Yuri...

"The monster that attacked us in the desert dropped it." Estelle...

"I didn't see any feathers on that thing..." And Rita...

"That's one of Phaeroh's feathers." Judith...

Muffled little noises, like people shifting around. "But why would that monster have one of Phaeroh's feathers...?" Estelle...

"Hmm..." Judith...

"Man, there's so much we don't know..." Karol...

The creak of a door opening and then swinging shut again. "Welcome back." Judith...

"And just why was it up ta me ta go trompin' off on a recon mission?" Raven...

"If I'd gone, this sweet young lady would've been all alone with you. That's far too unsafe." Judith...and very true.

"Unsafe? You can't possibly mean me?" Raven... "Hey, we're still missin' someone."

"Letha isn't awake yet. We thought it'd be better not to wake her up." Estelle...

"That so... Probably fer the best. I don't think she got more than a few hours o' shut eye when we were on our own." Raven...how did he know...?

"How'd you know that?" Karol...

"My boy, there are things ya don't discuss in detail in polite company-" Raven's voice interrupted by a fleshy smack...thank you whoever, probably Rita... "Ow... I just didn't see her sleep much, and the one time I did, she woke up lookin' pale and jumpy."

"I wonder if something is bothering her..." Estelle... Would everyone please stop talking about me behind my back? Even if I am apparently just dreaming it. I must be quite a paranoid person to have such a dream. Come to think of it, what had been bothering me? ...Must've been the thing with Jasper and then Cumore...right?

"So? Learn anything, Old Man?" Yuri...

"It seems we're in Yormgen. You know, that town from the diary on the ghost ship." Raven...

"Wait, this is Yormgen?" Estelle...

"The town that needed the clear ciel crystal to protect itself from monsters?" Karol...

"It makes sense," Rita was saying, but I was losing interest. I knew we were in Yormgen. Sort of. I wondered if the dream would change to something a bit more interesting...

There was idle conversation, the sounds of feet walking across creaking floor boards, a door opening and closing with the footsteps switching to the slightly crunchy sound of feet on sandy dirt. Odd dream...usually it should have switched rails to something else already.

I payed no heed to the small talk among the group, or occasional brief conversations with unfamiliar voice, which were presumably the villagers. None of it really held my interest until an unfamiliar female voice said, "That box..."

"Do you know something about this box?" Estelle...

"Longchi had it..." The unfamiliar female...she sounded young... "Where did you get it?"

"On a ship called the Atherum, my lovely lady." Raven, of course... "Have you head of it?"

"Of course! You know about the Atherum too?" The young female, sounding like her excitement was barely restrained.

"Y-yes. We happened to come across it on the ocean..." Raven, stumbling with his words...

"Did you see Longchi?" The female...

"And Longchi would be...?" Raven...

"Oh, Longchi is my love. ...I'm sorry to suddenly get so personal." The young woman, sounding a bit shy.

"Your love...damn it..." Raven... Ha ha... "Hey, Karol. Your turn."

"You're hopeless..." Karol, mildly exasperated by Raven... "Umm, all that we saw was, uh, the ship itself." And Karol demonstrating tact. Good boy.

"Oh, I see..." The female, disappointed...

"Could I ask your name?" Judith, being sensible...

"Oh, my name is Yuefan." The female...Yuefan...

"That's the name that was in the diary we found on the Atherum." Estelle...

"Do you know about the clear ciel crystal?" Yuri...

"They say it has the power to drive back monsters." Rita...with the relish of somebody telling an urban legend...

"The sage said it was necessary to make a barrier around the town." Yuefan... "I-is that what's in the box?"

"Yes. We came to deliver this box to you." Estelle...

"I-I see..." Yuefan...sounding less than enthused about receiving the means for a barrier. But, to be fair, she was hoping the courier would be someone else...

"Hey... Is that the key?" Rita... Yuefan was carrying the key? Convenient...or proof of her hopes to be reunited with Longchi soon...

"Could I have the box?" Yuefan...

There was a grating noise, sounding like it was right in front of me and just above my head, and then a click. Suddenly my vision was filled with light even though my eyes remained closed. Above me was the face of a pretty, dark haired woman in a rectangular space of sky.

The rectangle of sky moved, and the unfamiliar face was replaced by white hands reaching towards me. In bed I flinched involuntarily, and then there was more light as the hands lifted me up into that patch of sky.

I was being held by Estelle, as if I wasn't even a tenth her size, and Karol was saying, "Wow... Is this the clear ciel crystal?"

...So I was dreaming that I was a crystal? That was a new one...

"I guess so..." Rita, frowning at me... They were all crowding around me. If I weren't feeling the detachment of dreaming, I'd probably find cause to complain about having shrunk to the smallest one there.

"Was anyone else expectin' the color ta be, ya know, a bit different?" Raven...

"Didn't really think about it." Yuri...

"It looks right to me..." Estelle...

"So who's that sage you were talking about earlier?" Raven...

"The sage is a great Krityan who came to our town from across the desert." Yuefan... Everyone glanced briefly at Judith.

"A Krityan...?" Karol...being the most obvious in his Judith directed glance...

"Well, creating a barrier is basically creating a blastia." Rita... And then she was off on her favorite subject demonstrating her expertise.

Everyone listened to her out of interest, politeness, or in Yuefan's case, apologetic befuddlement. I lost interest again as the others joined the blastia topic.

Why was I dreaming about being a crystal? Maybe something before I fell asleep... What had I been doing?

...Oh, right. Making a false crystal with Nevi. He'd said I'd have to pay the price, and the price was an aer attack as bad as any I'd suffered. Something to do with me being a conduit...

Wait, was I still connected to the crystal we made? Was I not dreaming at all, but seeing what was happening around it?

Woah...an out of body experience...almost... Weird...felt like that time...that time... When I was gassed so dentists could do weird things to my teeth. Damn, I was hoping not to go through that again.

"...Three years, huh. You must be worried." Yuri...

"Wait, this sounds weird." Karol...whispering so Yuefan wouldn't hear. She'd turned away and was looking wistfully off in the distance.

"Yeah, the stories don't match up." Estelle...

"You think she could've miscounted by a thousand years?" Raven...

"How old is she, anyway?" Rita...

"Is that sage in this town?" Judith...loudly enough to draw Yuefan back from her pining. "Where does he live?"

"Oh, yes, he lives in the house farthest into the town." Yuefan...

"I think it might be faster if we went to talk to the sage." Judith...making more progress than the others with their 'what ifs' and 'that's not rights'...

"Y-yes, maybe so." Estelle...looking down at the crystal-me.

"Ummm... If you're going there, could you take the clear ciel crystal to the sage for me?" Yuefan...a bit shyly.

"Yes, of course." Estelle...and then she was putting me back into the box and darkness. This time they didn't lock it.

"Thank you very much." Yuefan...

"Okay, let's go." Karol...

Again, I didn't really pay attention to the others' talk as they set off again, this time with a set destination. I was pondering why Nevi would have left me connected to the fake crystal... Was it necessary to maintain its form, prevent it from dissolving into aer and fairy magic? Was it part of the price he'd inadequately explained? Was it just him being a dick again?

How had I gotten back to the inn? Had he carried me? Hard to imagine...and he must have put the fake red box into our things, or the others would have made a fuss. Would it be odd if I asked about it when I woke up...?

Someone knocking on a door.

"Excuse me." Yuri...

There was no response. The others milled about uncertainly, and somebody went ahead and opened the door.

"Huh...? Hey, that's...!" Karol... I could guess who he had unexpectedly seen according to plan.

"You're..." Rita...

"You... How have you come to this place?" Duke. Duke, Duke, Duke.

Oh God, please let him not realize something's wrong with the 'apatheia' when they show me-it-to him.

"What do you mean, how? We walked. As in, across the desert." Yuri...

"...I see... And yet, how did you...?" Duke...trailing off...

Estelle made a questioning noise.

"No matter..." Duke...ah, maybe wondering why Estelle was in Phaeroh's illusion village alive. Khroma's doing, my good...Duke... "For what reason have you come?"

"We're a little curious about this." Yuri... My box was opened again. Looking down on me was Duke.

His deep, red eyes looked old and tired. Not the tired of physical exhaustion, but spiritual weariness. I'd seen that look in Ludwig's eyes, when he was thinking about Sophia.

Duke's brow furrowed at the sight of me-the crystal. "This must have cost you dearly to obtain." Damn straight.

"Actually...it just sort of landed in our lap." Ohh, what do you know, Yuri?

"Hm...That was quite a miracle." Duke reached out and suddenly I-the crystal was in his hand. I realized the visions and sounds weren't accompanied by tactile feeling. Just as well...

"You're planning on making a barrier blastia, aren't you?" Rita...sounding as if she'd caught Duke in the act of something nefarious and perhaps illegal. "You're free to go pretending you're a sage, but forget about making any blastia. Who'd even consider building a barrier blastia with something that's so obviously not a core?"

"But it is a solid mass of aer. It simply lacks an inscribed formula." Duke, playing Rita's know-it-all game.

"Lacks an inscribed formula...? What do you mean?" Rita...with a note to her voice of growing shock. Someone who knew more about a blastia related topic than she did? Impossible...

"They are most commonly known as apatheia, of which the clear ciel crystal is one example." Duke, unruffled... And if I could I would have breathed a sigh of relief. He seemed to have accepted that I-the crystal was what I-it appeared to be.

"So this is an apatheia?" Raven...a bit hungrily. Here I was, all crystal like and the answer to one of his outstanding missions.

"Also, I am not the sage." Duke, correcting a misconception...

"Huh?" Rita...taken aback since her entire little spiel had been wrong.

Duke knelt down and deposited me-the crystal on the floor and stood. "No such being exists any longer." Oh dear, I knew what was coming.

"Well, that's a problem. Uh, we'll need to get that back from you, in that case." Yuri...about to attempt a rescue for the crystal.

"Neither I nor humanity have a need for such a thing." Duke held Dein Nomos in both hands and lifted it above the crstal-me. This might not be pleasant.

"Whoa, what're you doin'? Hold on a sec!" Raven...accompanied by the sounds of furniture scrapping against the floor as people try to move it out of their way.

But Dein Nomos was already flashing, red flares of energy coming off the blade. Wind and light began to swirl around us as the aer was disturbed by the sword's enchantments. The concentrated aer of the fairy produced apatheia began to separate, and I felt as if my own being was starting to come undone. The aer dispersed, much of it flowing away to return to the world's natural currents. I was...adrift...vaguely aware of excited voices...and then I felt myself snapped back by an inescapable pull...and jerked as I woke up on my bed in the inn.

Staring wide eyed at the ceiling, my hands flew to my face, ran down my neck to my shoulders and down my arms until I was curled up and hugging myself tightly. Even with the disquieting sensation of being a destroyed apatheia fresh in my mind, I found myself quickly losing consciousness again.

"Damn you, Nevi," I mumbled into my pillow before falling into true sleep once more.

x x x

Damn weird chapter.

Ugh...another group vs. one boss fight. I know I said I'd stop complaining about fight scenes, but my beef this time was not having any ideas in advance on how to make this fight any different from the others. I wasn't all that excited about it, and kinda skipped it to work on the rest of the chapter. But you were all expecting to get something out of it, so there ya go! I guess I'm not totally unhappy with it either, so yay.

The not-actually-a-dream part (not to be confused with the actual dream after the fight) was something I debated the merits of doing. On one hand, it seemed needlessly complicated, weird to write, and (to me) a bit Sue-ish. Letha should not have any omniscient thing going for her other than game plot knowledge. On the other hand, just having Letha sleep through all the Yormgen plot developments seemed cheap. And like a bad idea, since there are people reading this who don't already know the whole plot of ToV. Can't just skip the explanations and leave them in the dark. And it ended up being a pretty big chunk of the chapter...and by necessity leaves out all plot explanations that come after Duke's little light show with Dein Nomos. Next chapter's problem!

Oh, one last thing. I've been spelling it as "krytian" til now, but while writing this chapter, I noticed it was spelled "krityan" when they were talking with Yuefan. Was it always like that and I somehow overlooked it? Do you guys care how it's spelled either way?