*Insert long profanity ridden rant about Sylph's computer and internet connection*

*Insert spastic joy about how awesome reviewers are*

*Insert ho hum ramblings about work*

*Insert happy bubbling about counting down the days til Sylph's birthday*

Yeah, that's all you actually need to know about life this past week.

The Smurfette Principle sent me a youtube link of a song she associates with Letha (you know, because of the poll for the sake of having a poll that is up right now). Advance notice, it is a fancover of a Spice and Wolf anime theme, so if you don't like either fandubs or the story then don't say you weren't warned. I like covers when they're done well, and Spice and Wolf.

www. youtube. com / watch?v = lnNK7fFCZjM

Anyone else have a suggestion they'd like to share, feel free at any time!

Overall address:

Thanks for everyone's input on the fake apatheia dream scene! General consensus: It was WEIRD but works with the story's advancement so has been accepted. Yay! A few people caught onto this, but since I'm not sure when it'll be mentioned in fic (or if I'll just forget it), there is a very good reason for Nevi leaving Letha kind of attached to the apatheia. Apatheia retain some of the Entelexeia's personality or something, so a fake one without anything like that might not have fooled Duke. So Nevi conveniently didn't tell Letha about that part and just set it up on his own. She did ask him to help her, after all.

And now we have an extra apatheia to play with~!

Angelic:

Look! More complications! But they aren't aer related, oh my! D: And I have been darned like a sock! But that will never stop me from casting more foreshadows across my plot! Mwahahaha! More exclamation points!

Some Bloke:

Let us all contribute more "Raven Love"! The scenes I write with Raven are some of the most popular parts it seems. Though Yuri and Letha talking seems to beat even that, for a long list of reasons I don't think I need to outline.

You think Grandia 2 overlaps with Vesperia? I don't see it personally...though it's been a while since I've played it through. I'm actually borrowing that one again from a friend of mine (she probably forgot I still have it) and started a new game a week-or maybe three-ago. Only a few hours into it though. One thing I do remember about the game was that I thought Melfice was awesome. I totally want to get to his scenes again. :D

x x x

Chapter 45: Pandora's Box Opened

x x x

I woke up in a confused haze. Even lying still in bed I felt dizzy. The world wanted to swim around whenever I opened my eyes, and my body was convinced that my bed was making rolling motions not unlike the Fiertia at sea.

I pulled myself to the edge of the bed and allowed myself to fall out onto my hands and knees. Not quite feeling up to standing on my own, I crawled across the room to a window. There I used the wall and windowsill as aides to haul myself upright again.

Outside the sky was dark, velvety purple with just a splash of rose red slipping beneath the horizon. Windows of neighboring houses were alight with the warm flickering of candlelight, easily distinguished from the steadier, cool glow of electric or blastia powered lights.

Of course, there isn't any blastia in Yormgen. They're like the Amish people of Terca Lumireis. I raised a hand and flicked my own forehead. Bad me! That kind of joke sounds extremely ignorant and bigoted. Besides, it might be more fitting to call the Krityans that...

Going back to sleep was already starting to sound appealing. I was trying to determine the most efficient route to return to my bed with when Karol and Estelle came in.

For a moment they were baffled by my empty bed, then the princess saw me by the window. "Oh!"

They seemed relieved at first since I was out of bed, but then Estelle's face darkened a bit again. Was it because I was leaning against the wall in order to not keel over? ...Or maybe I'm being too self centered. This point of the plot gives her a lot of stuff to worry about on her own. But I had my own concerns for the moment.

"Ace!" I exclaimed warmly. His face took on a wary expression. To be fair, the particular tone in my voice was the same one that had wheedled Chase out of his money. "C'mere and pretend you're a crutch, please?"

"I don't think you're treating me with the respect a guild boss deserves." Despite his grumbling Karol was already giving me a shoulder to lean on.

"Sure I am. I said 'please' didn't I? You could've totally turned me down," I babbled happily. "Then I'd have to claw my way across the floor on my own, of course, but you'd still be all dignified." The ace had gotten me over to the closest bed by that point. Not the one I'd been sleeping in, actually, but I wasn't going to complain if it had fresh sheets.

Estelle had been quietly watching the exchange, her face softening again into a smile. "I'm so glad, you sound like you're doing better already." She clapped her hands together then, startling me a bit even though it was done lightly. "You should probably eat something! I'll go see if there's anything left from dinner." And just like that the princess was gone again.

"Uh, okay..." I said a bit uselessly. Then with a shrug I turned back to Karol. "So, what's the big scoop?"

"Huh?" he said in confusion. "Scoop of what?"

I rolled my eyes a bit. "Just an expression. Last I knew, we'd just had a mutual beat down with a floaty ugly jelly monster. How'd we get from that to here?" No need to tell them this wasn't the first time I was up. Hopefully Nevi did the whole teleporting thing and sent me back to bed before I was missed.

"Oh right, yeah." Karol sucked in a deep breath of air and I braced myself for the inevitable. "We're in that Yormgen place which we read about on the Atherum but people here are confusing about that but there was this girl who had the key to that box and she opened it and it had a big crystal in it which the sage was supposed to use but it wasn't the sage it was Duke-"

Good lord, is this kid for real? I doubt he's taking any breaths or if there's even room for punctuation in all that!

"-and he said it was an apatheia and then his sword went Woah! And the crystal went all Wah! And was gone!" Finally a pause as he drew in another deep breath and launched himself into Part II. "And then Duke was talking about how people don't need apatheia or barriers made with apatheia and how this place is eternally calm or something like that and some stuff about the Entela-something Yeager told us about when he was Regaey-"

I corrected, "Entelexeia," but don't think he heard me.

"-and we didn't know he wasn't Regaey and said Phaeroh wants Estelle dead because the Entelawhatsits hate the Children of the Full Moon and I guess Estelle is one." He sucked in one more dearly needed breath and stopped. I stared at the kid.

"That...I'm kind of scared that I was able to follow that..." I couldn't help saying. "Did you practice it or something?"

"Huh? What makes you say that?"

"Nothing," I sighed. Settling myself in my new bed more comfortably, I sighed again as I felt sleep creeping up. "Mmm, g'night..."

"What? You're going back to sleep already?" I hummed at Karol again. "Okay, I'll let the others know..." If he said anything else, it didn't register in my groggy mind.

x x x

"Hey, just how long do you plan to sleep?"

"Three days 'n nights. Now go 'way..."

"That's a problem, we're leaving tomorrow."

"Then you strong men c'n carry me back..."

The bed creaked a bit as an extra weight settled at my feet. I cracked my eyes open and peered around. A lamp by my bed had been lit but the wick was turned down to keep the light dim. A covered plate was left by it, probably the dinner Estelle had fetched me. At the foot of my bed Yuri was sitting, sword in his lap. "There any reason why you're tormenting me?"

He wasn't looking at me, but facing the other way entirely. "Letha... Is there anything you've told us about yourself that wasn't a lie?"

FFFFFFFF- "Wh-what's this all about?"

"You're always telling stories. I don't think it's a stretch to believe that bit about Ludwig adopting a lost kid is another made up story."

I opened my mouth and then closed it without saying anything. It wouldn't do any good to keep up with my usual mishmash of truth and lies at this rate. I pulled my blanket over my head. "...Do we have to talk about this? You were fine with leaving it be back in Nordopolica."

The swordsman didn't say anything and I thought he'd drop it again. He had accepted the story I gave him...I didn't even remember when. Sometime back when the journey had just started, when we'd barely known each other for a few weeks. There'd been plenty of time to think about it, find holes, form questions...but other than that abortive attempt in the coliseum Yuri had left my personal history alone.

Apparently my grace period was up.

"Things changed in Nordopolica."

"I don't see how," I mumbled. Yuri heard anyway.

"I overheard your uncle talking with someone. About orders to kill you."

The words seemed so impossible that my reaction was delayed. Which was to sit bolt upright, blanket falling away forgotten. "What?" Yuri was watching me, observing my shock with coal dark eyes. There were even small points of light in each reflected from the lamp, like embers from a banked fire.

"Somebody was telling Ludwig to kill you," he repeated mercilessly.

"That can't be..." I denied, but my voice had no strength to it.

"I tried to get him to talk during our fight," I was only barely aware enough to note what could be either bitterness or irritation, "But only got him to admit that he might have to kill you at some point." No... "And he also said you hadn't been with him nearly as long as you said."

That last part was like a twist of the knife already firmly embedded in my gut. Ludwig...why? I thought you were helping me keep my secrets...?

"Letha." I tried to marshal my reeling thoughts to focus on the swordsman in front of me. "Why are you pretending to be someone you aren't? What the hell have you been doing that has people out to kill you?"

But I could only shake my head slowly, "Ludwig...Ludwig wouldn't kill me..."

Yuri's expression hardened a bit, as if he wanted to scowl at me. "You think I'd make this up?"

"No..." I stopped shaking my head, and my mouth drew a firm and stubborn line. "But Ludwig wouldn't kill me."

"Wouldn't he?" Yuri demanded. "What if it was for his wife's sake? The woman you've been calling your aunt?"

"Ludwig wouldn't kill me!" I practically shouted, face flushed angrily. I swung my legs out of bed and sprang to my feet. "Fine! So we're not blood related! So I'm not as important as his long dead wife! I've known him for less than a year, but I still know! He wouldn't!"

I was about to storm out of the room, too upset and frightened to bear sitting still, but I'd only taken a few steps before Yuri grabbed me by the wrist. "You're not really going to run away from this are you?"

I turned back so that my body naturally positioned itself in aikido's starting homni. From his previous experience with my throws Yuri saw what was coming when my off hand reached for the hand grabbing me and let go on his own. Freed, I whirled away and stormed out the door while ignoring his call.

I couldn't face him when I wasn't sure if I wanted to punch him or burst into tears. There was already a dampness in my eyes I was fighting not to shed.

As had become a habit in this world I naturally sought out a dark secluded spot where I could see the moon and stars. The few people still out stopped to stare as I stomped by. I avoided any eye contact and kept staring straight at my feet until I'd left the other late night ramblers behind.

Nearly leaving the town made me pay a bit more attention to where I was going. Not wanting to get lost on my own out in the desert, I sat down at the base of three trees that had nearly merged at the roots. Once my body realized it had stopped moving it began to tremble as violently as it had after even my worst nightmares. "He wouldn't, dammit..."

I bit my lower lip so the sob that wanted to escape couldn't.

My head, like some extension of my heart, felt too heavy to let me look up at the sky. Instead I stared at the black outlines of grass and scraggly bushes gently stirring in the night breeze. Thinking was painful so I decided not to think about anything.

Night sounds are soft and pleasant. They can be frightening when you start imagining all the things that could be out there, hiding in the dark. The dark itself is not dangerous if you don't let your fear of it blind you. Instead, it was supremely soothing.

As I let the soft singing of night insects and wind calm me my thoughts began to seep through cracks in my meditative state. After all he did for me, why would Ludwig agree to kill me? And if, for some reason, he did, then why give me lessons in fighting? Why the sword manual?

Yuri wouldn't make it up. Lying isn't like him, and I don't see what purpose it would serve. Could he have...misunderstood the situation? But I had no ideas what alternative there could be that would cause such a mistake.

So it may really be that Ludwig will...that he took such a job. But I don't think it's like him either, so there must be another reason that I don't know... I honestly believed that Ludwig considered me family. He'd given me Sophia's bodhi blastia after all. He'd taught me all he could to keep me alive. What was I to make of such a contradiction?

A cold feeling shivered down my spine. No... There was one conclusion that came to mind. If he was...it could be the scenario of being betrayed by a trusted one, and fighting that person to the traitor's death, only to learn he'd goaded you into killing him. Ludwig is all about honor and dignity, if someone convinced him he had a duty to fight me, he'd do it. But if he doesn't want me to die this is just what he'd do to give me a fair chance.

The cold knot in my stomach clenched. Maybe he's even hoping...

Without the cover of my mp3 player or my own voice, for once I heard the sound of feet approaching in the dark. I said nothing to acknowledge the person. Maybe they'd overlook me and leave.

"Found you," he sat down next to me without invitation. I continued to ignore him. "What, you're not even going to ask how, or complain about me sneaking up on you again?" Was I supposed to just make a joke after all that? Continued to ignore him instead. He sighed.

"'Known him for less than a year,' huh?" I stiffened, and then tried to make my silence even more oppressive. It did nothing to deter him. "So was it a lie when you said you couldn't remember things from before? Like your real name?"

I rocked myself forward and wrapped my arms tightly around my knees. "No."

He waited, but I didn't elaborate. "Then what about the stuff you said you could remember?" he tried again.

"Less of that every day." I was barely ever writing anything in my journal anymore. Instead I had been furiously rereading it until the pages were smudged and creased.

Not waiting as long this time to see if I'd keep going, he moved on himself. "What about Sophia?"

"Never knew her."

A pause only long enough to draw a breath. "And your hand?"

"Don't want to talk about it."

"Does it have to do with why Ludwig is supposed to kill you?"

I didn't answer this time. The nearly one sided conversation faltered.

What Yuri finally said aloud was, "I didn't see who it was talking with him. Only heard voices, and the other one wasn't familiar." Then he quickly added, as if to head off any expression of doubt, "But it was Ludwig. I saw him at least."

"I believe you," I said in a monotone. He grunted a bit, as if not convinced.

"Do you have any idea who the other one could've been?"

"Go away." The words were a bit muffled from having been spoken into my knees. Yuri didn't say anything in response, but he didn't leave either. "You're annoying." Still nothing, he was giving me the same silent treatment I'd doled out on him earlier. But waiting me out when I don't want to talk is a futile endeavor. Talkative and friendly I may be, but that was when I cared to hide my brooding and worries.

Nature had its own two cents to put in, though, as my stomach growled loudly.

That almost made the corner of my lip rise in a halfhearted smile. Such a mood killer... Yuri laughed a bit, holding out something wrapped in cloth. Deciding it would be a worse blow to my dignity if I didn't accept, I took the bundle and unwrapped it. Croquettes. That made me want to laugh myself, remembering the game skit about how amazing Yuri's croquettes were supposed to be. Taking a bite out of one, I decided that even cold they tasted pretty good.

And with a full mouth he really couldn't expect me to talk, now could he?

"Heh, it seems like everyone's pretty stubborn about doing things on their own," Yuri mused.

I swallowed the mouthful I was chewing and scoffed, "Like you're in any position to say that!"

As I was about to take a bite from another croquette, Yuri grabbed my wrist again so I had to stop and look at him. "What did that mean?"

I found myself lowering my eyes and staring at the croquette instead of him. Clever, if I was sitting with food in my lap and hand, I couldn't really do anything to escape again.

But how could I make him give up on the subject? I still had fears of sharing the actual truth, but anything else would be 'telling more stories'. ...Why not do just that, then? "Once upon a time-"

"Is now really the time for that?"

"-there was a hunter. He was returning home when he spied something by the path he was walking. On closer inspection he discovered it was a human skull."

"And you're ignoring me now."

"Finding a skull by the road is nothing so unusual. Not really thinking much of it, the hunter looked at the skull and asked, 'What brought you here?' To his astonishment, the skull spoke! 'Talking brought me here.'

"Amazed by this impossible thing, the hunter hurried to the court and told his king about the talking skull he'd found. 'Let us see this!' the king declared. Bringing his entire retinue he went with the hunter to where the skull had been left in the dirt and grass of the roadside.

"The hunter urged the skull to speak again, but it remained silent. For an entire day the hunter tried to get the skull to say something while the king grew more and more impatient. Finally, the king had enough. 'You have brought me out here to make of fool of me!' he accused, and then ordered his guards to cut off the hunter's head.

"The king and his people left the hunter's body in the dirt and returned to their city. Silence fell as nothing living was left. And as the sun was about to set, the skull spoke. 'What brought you here?' it asked the hunter's head.

"And the head answered, 'Talking brought me here'."

At some point while I was speaking Yuri had let me go. I considered the croquette still in my hand before replacing it on the cloth in my lap.

"Subtle way to make a point," he commented insincerely.

"Hey, aesops and parables are awesome for making a point." I pointed at him, "So awesome that you're gonna drop this whole 'let's find out what Letha's hiding' scheme of yours and let a lady keep her private affairs private."

He snorted a bit, prompting me to elbow him. "Hey! I am a lady! When I feel like it!"

"Of course," he agreed blithely. "All real ladies have morbid fascinations with skulls and keeping secrets."

I nodded sagely, "Exactly. Most don't make the skull part common knowledge though."

He stood up, picking up his sword from where it had been lying in the dark. "I know when I'm not getting anywhere. But," he looked back down at me, "it's not like any of us would behead you or something."

My head jerked up a bit, surprised. He just used my own story example against me! Yuri was already leaving. "I told you we're heading out in the morning, so don't stay out too late."

"Uh, 'kay..." Again, I was left alone with the soft sounds of the night. This time it only felt...empty.

x x x

I crept back into the inn under cover of darkness. The late hour made it likely most, if not everyone else, was asleep. Sure enough when I tiptoed to the door of the large, shared room I was greeted by even breathing and the occasional snore (*coughRavencough*).

Wish my mp3 player hadn't bit the dust. I'm wide awake and don't wanna just lie in bed staring at the ceiling for hours. Instead I quietly found where they'd left my bag and retreated back to the inn's hallway. Nobody was stationed at the front desk at that hour so I made myself comfortable in the chair and turned on the lamp. By which I mean I spent ten minutes trying to make a spark of fire with aer until the lamp wick finally caught.

Reaching into my bag I located by touch what I wanted. When my fingers ran over smooth wood I pulled out the case that held Sophia's notes. My thoughts earlier on what Ludwig's motives and intentions could be were something I had no way of verifying at the time. But good odds something Ludwig felt strong enough to kill over probably involved Sophia in some manner. And it really was about time I got the blasted thing open, even if it didn't have anything I could use.

I laid the white case on the desk and folded my arms to look down imposingly on it. "How the hell did she lock you?" It had proven impervious to all methods of forcing open (short of totally obliterating the thing, which I'd never let anyone try) and kept outsmarting me, dammit! Ludwig seemed to think I would be able to figure it out on my own...

With one finger I traced one of the stylized flowers. Well let me see...I bet if this was an actual part of the video game, some kind of plot advancing puzzle, I'd probably be getting fed up with the characters for not figuring out that the answer was right there. And in this case, the only other thing I have even related to Sophia would be... I unclipped the bodhi blastia from my hair, wondering if it could really be that coincidentally convenient.

I stared at the red jewel set between the spread wings, somewhat mesmerized by the way it caught the light from the lamp. Inside, if you looked hard, there were strings of odd symbols frozen in a series of loops. That would be the formula...

Deciding to try the simplest solutions first and figure out what next after they failed, I placed the blastia on the center of the note case. Yeah, like that would-

Holy crap the blastia's lighting up!

There was a brief and relatively small red flare of light from the jewel, followed by the flower designs glowing white so that I could no longer distinguish them from the box itself. There was a small click, and then the light faded from both the blastia and drawings.

"...Huh." It took me so long to figure out, and that was all I needed to do? Well, I guess it wouldn't make sense for Sophia to set up some needlessly complicated ritual she'd have to do every time she wanted to check her notes. But how did she do this in the first place? If it were a normal spell, Rita should have recognized it...

Picking up the case I inspected it thoroughly again. Back when I'd first found it, Karol had pointed out that it was a trick lid. Even though it had hinges and a lock the crack that went around wasn't a real lid. And it hadn't been at the time. But now that lid lifted away easily and swung back on the hinges, the lock apparently either for show or unlocked by the same magic earlier.

How?

I carefully lifted out the stack of papers inside. They were old and yellowing, I had to handle them gently to avoid ripping them. The handwriting on the first page was easy to read despite having faded a bit. Sophia's writing wasn't quite as neat as Estelle's, smaller and crammed as much onto a single page as possible, but it was perfectly legible. Bit of a relief, that, since I did not like the idea of straining my eyes til they bled trying to read them. Leafing through the small pile for a cursory inspection, about five pages in there was a change in the notes that made my heart skip.

The alphabet changed.

The first few pages were written in the Terca Lumireis writing system, but then abruptly changed to overly careful print very like Estelle's first attempts in our writing lessons. Frantically I spread the pages all out across the desks. For sure, after that first page of nearly childish handwriting all the rest of the notes were written in my familiar and sorely missed Earth writing. The realization chilled me to the bone.

With trembling hands I picked up the very first page again, the one with Terca Lumireis writing, and began to read from the beginning.

It was dated nearly twenty five years earlier. Woah... Skimming over it, most of it seemed to be collection of facts she'd noted down while reading. I really couldn't understand any of the history referenced, and consequently couldn't really follow the conjectures Sophia was making. What did catch my eye was a small blurb near the end that resembled more of a diary entry.

There was a visitor in the library, a woman with white hair. She wanted help researching all ruins attributed to the Geraios Civilization. When I asked why she told me she had a theory that something she was looking for might be found inside one. We talked for awhile, and I told her that to go on sight was dangerous without bringing protection. I'm a bit worried, since she just smiled and thanked me for my concern.

Mysterious...but that could have been anything. I checked the next page. The date was three days after the first, and contained more of the same. And another brief commentary at the end.

The white haired woman visited again today. This time she asked me about my own research. But even though she brought it up I don't think she was really paying any attention to what I was saying. She kept staring into the cup of tea she'd made with an odd smile, and I don't know how she brought the tea in without upsetting the librarians.

When it was getting late she thanked me with perfect politeness and left on her own again.

Odd sounding woman...but not so much. Especially since I was assuming the library mentioned was the massive one in Aspio. Everyone there was a bit off their rocker. I had to wonder what it was about those encounters that gave Sophia the urge to make note of them. Perhaps she didn't even know, or else she would have mentioned why the white haired woman was of interest.

Next entry about the woman, a week later.

The white haired woman was here again. I spotted her at the other end of an aisle before she greeted me this time. Actually, she seemed more lost in thought than was usual for her. She was even frowning, an expression I'd somehow thought she was incapable of. I was going to say hello to her, but was distracted for a moment when a draft nearly blew away the maps I was carrying. When I looked again she was gone.

…

Next entry, a little over two weeks later.

I'd nearly forgotten about the white haired woman as I'm so close to a break through. But when I thought I'd almost made that connection, I realized there was someone standing in front of the table I was working at. She seemed tired but at least she smiled again. Oddly, even once I realized she was there it seemed to take her a minute to realize I had stopped working. I thought she was the one who wanted to talk with me?

And this time she actually started by introducing herself as Sybelle Bianca. How we didn't get to introductions until the fourth, or I suppose the third, meeting, I have no idea. It seems her own work has been suffering from setbacks. She mentioned an Alastor, and said he was having trouble with a new friend of his. Sybelle then seemed to look at me more clearly than she had ever before and asked if I was interested in learning about something not found in any of the library's books.

Under that was a chart very similar to the one I'd made when I started teaching Estelle. And it was the page after this one where everything was written in Earth's writing. I leaned back in the chair I'd appropriated and passed a hand over my eyes and ran the fingers through my hair.

Sybelle...and Alastor. Now it could just be coincidence that one of the white haired woman's friends had that name, but there were a bit too many coincidences lining up. As Gibbs would say in NCIS, "I don't believe in coincidences." And then he'd smack someone's head so they'd start tracking down the missing link.

So this Sybelle Bianca, and wasn't that odd, to have a family name that meant white and happen to have white hair? Not impossible, but it stood out along with her catching Sophia's eye, the odd moments she had that Sophia described, and the very big thing about her teaching Sophia to write in an Earth alphabet. At the very least she had a connection to Earth, and since Fairy Alastor had been the one to make me pick up those notes, her connection was probably through the fairies as well.

Could Sybelle have been in the same situation as me? Or was she...one of them? I bent forward over the papers again and returned to reading.

Other than a brief comment that Sybelle had recommended Sophia didn't show of the writing to others, there wasn't really much of substance in those little quasi diaries. Their meetings were sporadic, and as much as a month could pass without Sophia meeting her friend. The mental image I had formed of Sybelle was of a somewhat airheaded woman, but Sophia seemed to find her company interesting and conversation intelligent.

Sybelle was already at our usual table today. It seemed she'd been there awhile, and seemed more down than I've ever seen her before. When I asked her what was the matter, she moaned and said she'd been a fool, and couldn't believe she'd let them pull one over her. Whoever they are, she did not elaborate. I asked what it was "they" had done, she looked at me with nearly wild eyes and said, "Not only did the fools steal it, but then one of them carelessly broke it into pieces! And no matter how we try none of my kind can sense them anymore! Our one stroke of fortune is that they are no more capable of finding them than we are."

Oh bloody-is she talking about what I think she is?

This sounded serious. When I said I'd thought she'd been searching for relics in the various Geraios ruins her expression cleared again. And then she asked me if I'd believe her when she said there were worlds besides our Terca Lumireis.

OH JEEZUS-

Of course, I'd never rule anything out as impossible without definite proof that it couldn't be first

Really now, Sophia?

but neither would I accept something as true without proof, as I told her. And then she asked me to come meet her outside Aspio's gates after dark.

Her notes for the day ended there.

I snatched up the next page, almost tearing it. There were no research notes on this one. Or, more accurately, it turned the summaries of her meetings with Sybelle into the topic being studied and hypothesized over.

Sybelle's story is fantastic...but I have no reason to doubt her veracity. The wings she showed me were proof enough that she was not of the Human or Krityan races, and her magic, oh such magic, it had no reliance on blastia! Or aer! It makes perfect sense for a world with no aer to produce such a being, and I can see no better explanation for what she is.

Yet marvelous as she seems, she has her own limitations and failings. Her incapability of locating what was stolen from her people being one such shortcoming. While she would not divulge the specifics on the intricacies of her kind's magic, she explained that an invaluable object had been stolen and summarily broken and scattered by malcontents from her home world. The breaking was presumably accidental, as the malcontents seem as frantic to find the missing pieces as she and her colleagues are to recover it. The nature of the spell that broke and scattered this object also served to render it invisible to all their methods of search.

She'd been attempting to work around this handicap, as had her people from both sides of the internal conflict, but so far it seems the best solution has been to enlist the aid of other races without inherent magical properties of their own. I find this point contains knot of problems as she implied humans were among the non-magical beings, but I and others are fully capable of using magics. Or do we not count, as we require the blastia to harness the aer around us? This thought fires my interest in blastia even more as I wonder how they enable a non-magical individual to wield magic.

But my blastia research cannot be my only concern anymore. I am Sybelle's only friend in this world, and have promised to help her and her people as best I can.

This was...what Nevys had told me, more or less. But something felt off... I reread all the pages so far, looking for what was itching at the edge of my awareness. It was when I reached Alastor's name again that I got it. Sophia seemed to imply that Sybelle and Alastor were on friendly terms, and if it was the same Alastor I knew (how couldn't it be) allies in the search for the heirloom pieces.

Nevys had told me the same story in less detail and very grudgingly at that. When he told it, it was implied that he was also opposing those thieves. But...

Why then do he and Alastor seem to be enemies?

Who should I really be trusting?

It could be one of them was lying. Or there could have been a falling out, and some of them switched sides. These notes are old after all.

There were more pages, but the sky was lightening in a false dawn and I could hear some early birds singing outside. It would be a few more hours until the sun actually rose, but there may yet be people up before then. I felt a jealous protectiveness at the thought of others seeing Sophia's notes. To see them was like brushing a connection back to Earth. They were too precious to me.

Gathering them together neatly, I replaced them in the case and closed it. I wanted to lock it again, but placing the blastia on the lid again did nothing nor did I have a regular key for the small lock on the side. Hoping the others would continue to believe it was locked and leave it alone was the best I could do.

Dousing the lamp's flame, I returned to my bed and tried to get a few hours of sleep in. We'd have another long day in the desert, and I couldn't afford to go back out there without as much rest as possible. I had no dreams that I could remember, not even nightmares.

x x x

Likes and Dislikes

Rita: Yormgen and Mantaic are totally different. It's much cooler here. Maybe it's the ocean...

Raven: But it seems boring. I wonder what the folks here do for fun.

Judith: I kind of like it. This kind of calm, quiet village suits me. I can't stand loud people.

Yuri: Ohhh. That's gotta hurt, old man.

Raven: She was talking about the town, not about me!

Judith: Hmm, maybe...

Raven: D-do you really hate me that much?

x x x

Everyone else was laying out their game plans... The couple wanted to return to their home and children. Rita wanted to study the krene in the Weasand of Cados. Raven, Karol, and Yuri all wanted to go to Nordopolica to meet Belius (or have a serious talk with Flynn, in Yuri's case). Estelle was still resolved to meet Phaeroh, despite the misgivings talking with Duke had given her.

When Rita wished there was another way that didn't involve Giant Talking Chickens, Judith spoke up. "You're only looking to find out the reason you were...attacked by the Entelexeia, correct?"

Estelle nodded slightly, "Y-yes..."

"I imagine Belius could tell you if you met with her." If I hadn't been busy with my own thoughts I might have spared a moment to wonder why Judith didn't mention that before, and to maybe guess that was because we were going to see Belius anyway until rather urgent escaping guild bosses distracted us.

Instead I was concentrating on one, looking healthy so no one would nag me about how long I'd been passed out, two, studiously ignoring Yuri again (who didn't seem to realize I was doing so yet), and three, turning over the revelations I'd read in Sophia's notes. I probably wouldn't dare to read the rest until I had the privacy of a room in Mantaic, but it was killing me not to know. I was partly wishing I'd said to hell with sleep and read the rest of it the night before. But too late for that.

"Well, we'll pass through the Weasand of Cados on the way to see Belius. Good enough?" Raven summed up our game plan, which everyone was nodding at.

"True enough," Yuri said aloud for all of us. "All right, then, Nordopolica it is."

And Karol made his guild boss' executive decision. "Right. First let's get back to Mantaic."

Whoohoo, back to Mantaic! I wonder if they found Cumore's body...

x x x

Could have also titled this chapter "About Damn Time!" or "Yormgen is Seriously Full of Plot".

First half of this chapter gave me such frustration. I got into the full swing of writing easily, but then it got caught up and ran away with me and the characters were saying too much! I was going, "Stop stop! Save some of it for later!" As a result had to tweak and move bits around and rewrite a few times. Almost thought I should just start over entirely... And I'm sure some of you wish the characters got the better of me and kept talking anyway. ;P

Hey, at least we finally got that damned note case open! Seriously, I myself was getting impatient about it, but didn't want to open it too early...I really think this is the earliest I can accept letting Letha open it.