I'M BACK! SORRY!

There's a list of reasons I could give for why it took so damn long to post, but trust me when I say nobody really wants to hear most of it. Suffice to say that I'm seriously looking for a new computer at a reasonable price, so a large chunk of those reasons will go away and never come back... My brother is helping. The rest of it...let's not go there.

I had a simply lovely birthday though! KatherosLibra did more fanart, or rather a fancomic as a b-day present to me! See here:

Page 1: http:/ katheroslibra. deviantart. com/gallery/#/d3xzcz3

Page 2: http:/ katheroslibra. deviantart. com/gallery/#/d3xzf9x

Page 3: http:/ katheroslibra. deviantart. com/gallery/#/d3xzhz9

And Shiroi wrote another one shot in the FTaBV universe as a present! (Which some of you noticed):

http:/ www. fanfiction. net/s/ 7184630/1/

Oh, and Devonlizz sent a link for another song for Letha: http:/www. youtube. com/watch?v= EeTbvkpnLIs &feature=feedf

And then, the day after my birthday, something went wrong with the waterline on our entire street. Scared the hell out of me, because no one thought to WARN ME in the morning. Imagine Sylph (however you picture me in your head) running out of the bathroom yelling, "The toilet is possessed by EVIL!"

What else do I need to cover...Oh right. Yes. *Ahem* There is that odd little oneshot I posted for the hell of it. Probably overdid the disclaimers a bit (Alastor: Just a bit? Sylph: Oh, shut up.), but at the time I was a bit worked up because I was miffed with myself for writing what I'd said I wouldn't write, and discovered I'd had fun doing it. But really, shippers, I'm sorry but don't get your hopes up.

Angelic:

There is never too much plot! Just a whole fricken' lot of it!

…And more coming. Hell, we've still got actual game plot to cover, and my own original plot kicking in here. I will not deny the fluff (surprised?), because this story needs all the fluff it can get at this point to balance out the angst! and the foreshadow(s)! and the ZOMGPLOT!

Adelle:

Heheh, yeah I figured there were people doing that. Some had guessed in their reviews that that was the answer. And don't worry, phone or no phone your review seemed fine. Better than my phone would make it. :P

Some Bloke:

Aaaand I know you have an account now, but still answering this review with the other anon reviews... God, it's taken me so long to put this chapter up.

I think I get what you mean about the Grandia 2 comparison now. (Side note, the term Geohound bothered me because it was just a pointless new way of calling Ryudo a mercenary... *Gasp* He's Kratos!) And I have an odd image of Raven as an old reminiscing gamer...

Caaan't give away what I'm planning with the Belius thing...but hey, have fun with this chapter!

Anonymous:

Whew, one day? I can't even read it that fast anymore. Then again, I already find myself wincing over the earlier chapters and getting depressed over parts I could have done better. (Then I look at the recent chapters again and decide that nevertheless, I'm happy with how my progress in writing and the story itself is coming along.) Yeah, one of the things I regret a bit is missed opportunities to have the others...try to draw Letha out more, as one way of putting it. But have to keep moving forward anyway, and hope that as the story progresses it balances itself out. ...I'm trying and failing to say what I want in a way that won't make it too obvious how I hope to do that.

x x x

Chapter 46: Expected and Unexpected

x x x

I Want a Shower:

Judith: Oh, what to do...

Karol: ...What to you mean?

Judith: I'll die if I can't take a shower once a day... And in a dry old desert like this...

Karol: R-really? Rita, you have to do something!

Rita: Humph. Idiot... She'll be fine. It's not like she's a flower. Going without a shower won't kill you. It's been 10 days since I last showered, actually.

Judith: It's been that long...? I'd be on my deathbed if I were you...

Letha: Jeez...I'm not into daily showers either, but 10 days without even one sounds...

Karol: I've got it! Rita's not a flower! She's a prickly cactus!

Rita: Die!

*Rita fireballs Karol*

Karol: Gaaah!

Letha: ...Not a cactus, but one of those fire flowers from Super Smash Brothers...

x x x

"-and she slaps him across the face," I demonstrated by bracing one hand against Raven's cheek, then pretended to smack him across the face. The sound of flesh hitting flesh rang out as I clapped my hands across each other, Raven playing along and reeling with the 'blow', "before Mal can blow her story by asking Inara what she was doing there. While he's trying to figure out what he did to deserve that, you know, besides the whole getting caught halfway through a train job, Inara rounds on Zoe.

"'And you, Zoe! What would your husband say?'

"Just as baffled as her captain, Zoe at least had enough presence of mind to remember the security watching and make the sheepish reply, 'I-I was weak.' Inara then very diplomatically excused herself for interrupting the security officer's interrogation, but the two 'newlyweds' were her indentured servants that had tried to run off with some of her property."

Raven was chuckling over that, still rubbing his 'slapped' cheek, while Estelle was quietly explaining what 'indentured' meant to Karol.

"He very genially accepted her apology and gratitude for catching the waywards, brushing it off by saying, 'We thought there was a bit of a smell to their story.' Since the security was convinced Mal and Zoe weren't their culprits, they let Inara take them away." I paused to take a small sip of the water we'd gotten from a cactus. Getting water from cacti was definitely harder than the game made it seem: cut a hole in the cactus (without stabbing yourself on the needles), pull out some pulp, and try to squeeze enough out of it to make the effort worthwhile. Judith advised us against eating the pulp itself.

"Of course, meaning they let the real criminals got away stock free," Yuri observed. "Sounds a bit like the Imperial Knights."

Estelle was alarmed, "But wait! What about the sick miners?"

"Yeah, did they really take away the shipment of medicine on that 'train'?" Karol asked worriedly. And holy crap, the trouble I went through to explain the concept of a train to them. Space ship? Easy, they probably imagined something similar to the Fiertia with walls, ceiling, and flight capabilities (sans Ba'ul). Trains, though, are 'series of carriages linked together, running on wood and metal tracks, and move under the power of coal and steam, not blastia or animals'.

What I wouldn't give to know what they were each picturing in their heads.

"Well," I drawled, "they were pretty ticked that Niska hadn't told them what was in the crates, and it really didn't sit well that the poor and sick were the victims. So, under strong objections from Jayne, which were largely ignored since he was still all half paralyzed and harmless from the shot Simon had knocked him out with," Rita grinned evilly, having highly approved the demonstration of the scientific mind's superiority over the muscle head (Simon had at that point of the game said, 'I was just uncomfortable with him being in charge...' His logic was accepted without comment by the crew), "they decided to tell Niska's grunt that they quit and return the money he'd paid them-"

At some point during the whole endless trudging through sand part of the day, Karol had remembered I'd been telling them about Firefly and after much nagging got me to continue. I was starting to regret giving in, as the constant talking made me go through my water rations faster. Which had already been depleted when a few of the canteens were damaged beyond use by some monsters.

The married couple we were escorting back to Mantaic had been kept near the center of our group to protect them in the case of a monster ambush, and we had at least one of our group stay near them as a guard at all times while we fought. At night they had insisted on cooking dinner for us, not that we really objected much, and shared our tents. When I resumed my storytelling they were initially very confused by pretty much every word out of my mouth, but listened politely.

For the most part I tried to stay near Estelle, Karol, or Rita at all times. It wasn't like I was outright trying to avoid Yuri...but I didn't talk with him beyond what was necessary. Talking with Raven felt uncomfortable too, and I could swear that whenever I was talking to one of those guys, Judith would be watching from somewhere.

Whenever I felt like calling it quits with Firefly, I'd remember that those three were my most likely socializing alternatives. Yeaaah, with everything else that's happened in the last few days, I'd rather stick to conversations that won't feel like a run through a minefield. Nice that there were some people I could count on to take what's said at face value.

Well, Rita wouldn't always accept things easily since she'd get worked up about story details. But when she got curious about the origins of these stories containing such fantastic sciences ('Who the hell came up with this? It sounds too thought out to just be a figment of some guy's imagination!') she could be sidetracked from dangerous topics by getting her on the topic of aer, blastia, apatheia, aer krenes, and the list goes oooon. There was actually quite a bit I could talk with her about, as long as I was prepared to understand only about a third of what she was saying.

But at the back of my mind at all times was the unexpected revelations from Sophia's notes, and the uneasy feeling that I was walking along an invisible precipice.

And, of course, on top of all this we were all GOD DAMNED HOT. And Raven was obnoxiously cheerful. Even Rita got sick of smacking him in the head.

When Mantaic appeared out of the heat warped distance, everyone perked up at the prospect of civilization (as if we hadn't been in Yormgen only a couple days before). I was as happy as anyone, but then my good spirits came crashing down again. What's going to happen? Cumore's already dead... The anxiety and guilt from that misadventure returned in nearly full force, at war with my longing for shade, a bucket's worth of water, and a shower.

Out of some irrational hope to put off seeing how my actions had changed things as long as possible, my feet started to drag until I was lagging behind the rest of the group. Which proved fortuitous when I stopped abruptly and gaped in shock.

"Pheew... We're finally here," Rita sighed in relief. "I've seen enough sand to last me a lifetime." She bumped into Raven when the head of the group stopped abruptly.

Estelle had raised a hand to block the sun from her eyes. "Look...there are people outside the town..." But-!

Rita perked up a bit, curious. "Wonder if that means the curfew's been lifted." No! This is-it shouldn't be happening!

At the town's entrance was a gathering of people, knights and despondent townspeople. One by one the terrified people were being forced to climb up into a drawn carriage (more of those pseudo horses...). This-well, it's what happens in the game, but with Cumore dead it shouldn't happen anymore!

The voice of the knight apparently in charge carried over to us from the gate. "Anyone who fails to comply with Captain Cumore's orders in a timely fashion will be left deepest in the Sands." I realized with some surprise that I recognized the voice. It was the knight Cumore had been talking to the night I, well, that night. What was his name...Blakely! Cumore's lieutenant!

One of the villagers yet to board the carriage protested. "But what'll our children do without us?" Blakely spun towards him and grabbed the villager by the neck, shoving him to the front of the line so that he was forced to climb up next.

"Bring back that giant, winged monster or you'll have a real reason to worry!" he barked. The villagers continued to plead, but he otherwise ignored them.

"That's just how we were sent into the desert," the man we'd rescued told us.

"The giant, winged monster must be Phaeroh," Karol realized. "And that Knight said it was Cumore who's in charge!"

"Yeah," Raven scratched at his scraggly chin, "but what's he want ta capture Phaeroh so bad for?" I realized both of my hands were clamped over my mouth, as if I'd done it to keep from speaking my mental denials out loud. I tried to lower them casually, hoping no one had thought much of it.

How could the knights still be following Cumore's orders like nothing had happened? Did he...not die? Was I just so worked up, I was mistaken? Mixed feelings of fear and hope shot through me as it briefly seemed possible that he was yet alive. But no, even if I'd been in hysterics, Chase had been able to examine him with a clear frame of mind. Cumore was definitely dead.

So what does that leave? I wondered as the others talked over what could be done to stop the knights.

"Karol, c'mere a sec," Yuri knelt down on a knee so he was on the ace's level and whispered in the boy's ear.

"What?" Yuri repeated something, "Yeah, I could do that...but I'd need tools..." Karol looked up sharply at Yuri when he stood up again. "Wait, you mean...?"

"Perhaps this will help," Judith offered a wrench that she'd gotten from...somewhere. I was suspecting she kept an extra bag or something under that sash-cape thingy.

Karol hung his head and sarcastically quipped, "How convenient..." Glumly he took the wrench from Judith before raising his head and giving us all such a pitiable look. "You guys better bail me out if this goes bad." Yuri gave him a thumbs up and Estelle made some kind of encouraging 'I'm rooting for you' motion, though Raven just rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Not able to help myself, I reached out and ruffled Karol's hair once as a send off. He ducked his head away from my hand and started sneaking towards the carriage, keeping it between him and the knights' line of sight.

"So you did pick that up," Yuri said conversationally to Judith as we watched and waited.

She folded her hands behind her back and gave another of her faint, good-for-all-purposes smiles. "Well, it was just lying there. I thought it might be useful."

"You're awesome, Judith," I said in a matter of fact tone, "You know that, right?"

"I'm glad you think so."

Rita walked past us with a flat look on her face, "Whatever." Once in front of the rest of us she squinted at Karol's back. Ah...all us taller people were blocking her view.

"Now about all we can do is leave it up to the kid," Raven said, and we all fell silent while watching the boy with some apprehension.

Blakely had bullied nearly all the townspeople onto the carriage by that point, and was snapping at his men to force them in tighter to fit the last three into the cramped space. Karol had reached the other side of the carriage and was hard at work on the front wheel with Judith's wrench. We all held our breath in fear when one of the knights switched sides to do something (I dunno what, I was busy watching Karol), but the boy must have seen his feet approaching from underneath the carriage.

He slipped under, crawling on all fours, and popped back out just behind the pseudo horses' feet. I clenched my hands, terribly frightened that these monsters had the same instincts of regular horses to kick out at whatever approaches them from behind. But Karol must not have bothered them as they stayed calm while he hid among their legs while messing with the other front wheel. When the knight rejoined the others, the boy left the safety of the horse things and darted back towards us.

He was only halfway back when a knight cracked a whip over the pseudo horses' heads, they started to pull the carriage forward and the wheels quickly came off the axle like screws. That carriage collapsed in a cloud of dust as the passengers cried in shock and pain from being abruptly dropped and jostled around. The knights swarmed the front of the carriage with Blakely furiously demanding who the hell had been responsible just as Karol made it back to us.

"You did it!" Yuri greeted him with slap to the hand (...sort of a low five).

"Whew..." Karol bent over and breathed with relief, his free hand over his heart. "My heart was pounding like a drum." I noticed that the wrench was sticking partway out of his bag, but something was still clenched in his fist. He looked up and saw my interest then grinned as she held up his hand to show me. Several nuts and bolts jingled merrily in his hand.

I grinned back at him, "Nice."

Our shared sense of mischievous success died when we heard Blakely's voice clearly declaring, "When I find out who tampered with these wheels, I'll have a rope strung around his neck!" I wordlessly took the incriminating hardware from the kid and tossed it away over in the sand.

"This won't do anything more than buy us some time, though," Rita reminded us all.

Judith made another of her hovering raised hand gestures (I still hadn't figured out what the point of that was, just that somehow it only didn't look ridiculous when she was the one doing it) "I think it's about all we can do at the moment."

The swordsman looked sidelong at the ace. "Yeah, Captain Karol'd start crying if we tried to tackle the Knights head on." And, yes, Karol paled slightly (as much as you could in a hot desert) at the thought.

"How 'bout we make ourselves scarce before people start getting' too curious?" Raven suggested. There were, after all, a whole lot of angry knights not that far away...

"I suppose we'll be on our way, then," said the husband with his arm wrapped around his wife's shoulders.

Yuri blinked, as if he'd forgotten the couple was still with us (...I had) and then shrugged a bit. "Yeah, I'm sure your kids will be so happy to see you. But there won't always be someone around to save you."

"Thank you again for all your help," the wife added, bowing deeply. Her husband mirrored her and then both of them were eagerly on their way into Mantaic. They'd probably only stayed with us that long waiting for a chance to politely thank us one last time.

"Guess we should lay low at the inn for a while." Nobody wanted to argue with that, so the inn it was.

x x x

The Knight of Observation was still there by the front desk. Dude, he was starting to seriously scare me. I was positive it had been the same one every time. Shouldn't these guys, like, alternate shifts or something? Karol kinda squeaked a bit when the knight gave us all a once over and scooted over to hide behind Yuri. He was probably a bit worried about ropes...

Acting as if there wasn't a knight staring at us or a kid cowering at his elbow, Yuri calmly asked the innkeeper for three rooms again. The man blinked and then his expression brightened. "Ohh...! You've returned safe from..." His words died away as he glanced at and away from the knight real fast. "I mean, w-welcome back." Hands shaking a bit, he handed over three sets of keys. One he held onto for a moment when Yuri tried to take it. "This room is already unlocked, and is where your dog has been staying."

The swordsman tilted his head a bit questioningly but said nothing as he claimed the last key. Checking the number scratched into the key, we went to that room first. The maid had just closed its door behind her, a feather duster in her hand providing explanation for her business there.

"Oh!" she exclaimed when she turned around to find our whole group coming up behind her. "You're back! He'll be glad," she looked over her shoulder at the door, so she probably meant Repede. "The Knights didn't like him wandering around town during the day, so we were told to keep him in this room..." Seeing Yuri's scowl at the news, she waved a hand a bit. "But the owner and I have been sneaking him outside whenever we can without the Knights noticing. Though that's usually only possible at night."

Yuri's expression softened and he nodded, "Thanks. We appreciate it."

She beamed at us and bowed slightly before moving on down the hallway, duster bouncing lightly in her hands.

Less than ten seconds after the door was opened Repede was standing alertly in front of Yuri. I actually rubbed my eyes, wondering if he'd learned some sort of teleporting ability while we were gone. "Hey Repede, keep yourself out of trouble?"

Repede barked once.

Group complete at last, we all filed into the room and settled into seats on the beds and chairs provided. There weren't enough for us all (There's only two beds. Somebody must sleep on the floor...), but Yuri just leaned against a wall with Repede his feet. I sat near the head of a bed, resting my shoulders against the wall it was pushed up against. Though nothing of the sort had been said aloud, it was collectively known that we had to talk about what we had just seen outside.

Rita, sitting on the foot of the bed I'd picked, broke into the subject first, "That Cumore punk is a really lousy guy."

"I wonder why they're trying to capture Phaeroh," Raven said from the floor. He'd given up the chair where he'd originally sat to Judith.

"I don't know but..." Estelle was on the edge of the other bed, Karol sitting with in the center with his arms wrapped around his knees. "At this rate, they're going to send all of the adults in the town into the desert."

Even Judith sounded a bit grim with voicing the probable next step, "And once the adults are gone, it might be the children's turn, next."

"No, that can't happen!" the princess said sharply, shooting up onto her feet with the force of the emotion the thought inspired in her. Karol was unbalanced on the bed and nearly fell over backward. "If I just spoke to him as a representative of the imperial family...!"

"Are you forgetting what happened in Heliord?" Estelle had to look away from the krityan, slowly sitting back down again.

"Yeah, Estelle," Karol agreed, repositioning himself. "He didn't care that you were a princess at all."

For a moment Estelle stared quietly at her folded hands, everyone waiting for her to say something. Instead, Rita spoke up again, maybe in some attempt to help her. "So should we help the townspeople or should we help ourselves?"

"Rita..." Estelle said softly.

Judith folded her arms. "Don't you want to know what the Entelexeia is thinking?" she asked the princess. "If so, you should put this whole business with Cumore out of your mind for the time being."

"It's a strange feeling to be agreeing with you, but..." Rita looked from Judith to Estelle. "I think we should focus on meeting Belius for now. Even if we captured Cumore, we wouldn't have the authority to try him for his crimes." I peeked over at Yuri. His head was turned away from the rest of us, staring into space as if trying to work out a complex problem in his head. But I was sure he was listening to every word.

"If we can't do anything about him, we should focus on what we actually can do," the mage concluded.

"If only Flynn were here...!" Estelle said wishfully, proof that she'd had to acknowledge Judith and Rita as being right.

"Flynn..." Karol repeated, "But where is he...?"

"I wish I knew..." Estelle sighed. I simply kept my silence, watching the scene unfold with half lidded eyes.

"I'm sorry, Estelle..." Rita looked down a bit. "We don't mean to be ganging up on you. It disgusts me, too, to imagine that jerk snoring all nice and cozy in his bed right now. But..."

"Rita...I understand."

"Lock up a guy like that, and as soon as he's released he'll just end up doing the same thing again," Judith commented with some detachment. Like she was discussing something totally benign.

Raven yawned a bit, "Yep. You know what they say...the only cure for stupidity is death."

I closed my eyes and tried not to sigh too audibly. To the best of my ability to recall, the conversation had played out exactly as it had in the game. Particularly Raven's rather leading statement that clearly foreshadowed Yuri's next course of action.

The bed creaked as I stood up, drawing everyone's attention to me. I shrugged, "Shower," and left the room.

x x x

About ten or so minutes later I was standing with my head bowed under a running stream of water. My brown hair looked black with the water it had soaked up and hung in a heavy curtain around my face, shutting away everything else as I lost myself in thought.

People are still being hauled off into the desert. They're still even saying it's Cumore's orders. Are they just going to keep following the commands of a dead man? Until either they find Phaeroh or Flynn shows up? But without Cumore, do they even know why they're searching?

Or... I borrowed a handful of the inn's shampoo supply and started kneading it into my hair. Or maybe they don't know he's dead. Mulling that over I rinsed my hair, but decided I couldn't really figure out what was really going on without more information. Anything else would be pure unfounded supposition. Not that I don't do that a lot already, but yeah...

Next item up for debate: what am I going to do about this? Just sitting back and letting the game plot take its course was no longer an option what with Cumore having been killed already. Or was it? Just go to bed and leave Yuri to find out for himself Cumore's dead when he can't find him? Or maybe he'll think Cumore up and ran away. No matter what, Flynn would show up and kick out the other knights in Mantaic. And things would resume their normal flow, except there'd be less blood on Yuri's hands.

But the whole situation bothered me. So when I left the shower room to Judith for her turn I found myself slipping out the inn's back door. Another late night walk...wonder what'll happen this time. Keeping my footsteps as silent as I could (and I'm proud of how nearly silent that is) I crept around the outside of the inn. At every window (except the ones for our own rooms) I cautiously peered in.

Empty...empty... The lack of lights or even breathing in the darkened rooms were enough to know the occupant hadn't just stepped out. Merchants...empty...big claymore...waitaminute, come again? Chase's claymore was leaning against the opposite wall of the window. His brown coat with the ripped bottom hem was also tossed carelessly across the seat of a chair.

Even as I watched the door swung open and the man himself came inside. Not once glancing towards the window, he went directly to his bed and fell back onto it. "About goddamned time," he grumbled, tossing a handful of papers in the air over his head. They fluttered to land in a mess on his bed and the floor like dead leaves in the Fall.

It hit me that I was spying on a friend. Followed by the fact that I was spying on a guy in his room. Flushing slightly I moved on quickly. I could still hear him talking in his room after I ducked away, but didn't linger to figure out what he liked to talk to himself about.

The last room apparently belonged to the innkeeper. I caught a glimpse of him with a nightcap on just as he snuffed a candle that had been sitting by his window.

Huh...in game, Cumore was definitely staying in the inn. Though I always thought that was odd, because game representations of inns only ever have one room full of beds. So if you think about it, Cumore's sprite had been put in the same room as the party and they just used crafty camera angles to hide that.

Obviously, that would not have been the case here. Oooor, actually, since he's already dead one of those empty rooms might have been his.

But knowing him, he'd probably have taken the best room in the best house for himself. And one could bet Yuri would realize this as well.

"Everything sure has to be complicated," I sighed, trying to remember which street the biggest looking house had been on. Perfectly aware that there might not be any point to looking since Cumore, surprise surprise, wasn't going to be there anyway.

I found what was probably the largest and best maintained home in Mantaic. I had an unpleasant feeling of deja vu, recalling the time I had the bright idea to sneak into Ragou's mansion. Not very good memories.

...Kay, we're gonna move on from that and just check this place out nice and quick. After testing some of the windows, I found one that was already open. Climbing in was relatively easy. And then realized I was more or less breaking and entering, and running into any knights would be...inadvisable. Heh. Breaking into stranger's house without any internal moral dilemma. I've changed a bit since coming here.

I'd barely taken three steps into whatever room I'd broken into when I heard a heavy thump and something breaking from somewhere else in the house. With a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach at odds with a rising lump of anxiety in my throat I rushed to the door as fast as I could in the dark, still striving to make as little noise as possible. Wouldn't want to give away where I was and get jumped from behind.

Because I could hear the sounds of a fight somewhere else in the house. And between the distinctive sounds of air and wood being split by blades (and hopefully no flesh) I could hear low voices, words indistinct but for a few hisses that might have been someone cursing. Something broke again, this time with the unmistakable shatter of glass. Silence followed, ominous in its promise of finality.

I paused, standing still with my hand reaching for the doorknob to the room I'd followed the noises to. Feeling a touch sick while trying not to imagine the maaany possible sights I could imagine finding behind the door, I steeled my resolve and turned the handle. There was a soft click and the door swung in just so slightly. Taking one last breath to steady myself, I crouched down low and opened the door fully, head ducked so anyone standing by ready to ambush would be aiming high and miss as I swooped in and to the side.

But there wasn't any ambush waiting for snoops to stick their noses in. Nor were there any fighters facing off against each other. Wondering if maybe I was in the wrong room after all, I turned slowly with my eyes wide open to catch any sign of something amiss. Something crunched under my boot, making me look down. Kneeling, I felt tentatively with my hand and found the broken remains of a vase that had been knocked to the floor. Much of it was no better than dust as if it had been ground under somebody's heel.

Eyes better adjusted to the dark, I noted something darker lying on the floor near the wall. I reached out and grabbed at it, finding it was long and smooth. Sliding my hand along it, I blanched as I realized I recognized it as a sheath for a long and narrow blade. Without a sword inside it.

I recalled, I heard glass breaking, and looked up sharply at the window. The heavy curtains were stirring in a night breeze, faint light from the barrier lighting a rectangular patch on the floor. A few pieces of glass glittered in that patch of light and I suspected there was even more lying on the ground outside.

The vase shard I was still holding slid from my fingers to drop to the floor, probably breaking further on impact, as I rushed to the window. My hands reached out to grab the sill, though with a hiss I had to gingerly reposition the one not holding the sheath (yes I was still holding onto it) so it wouldn't be cut by the remaining glass, and leaned out as far as I could. Looking around wildly, eyes wide to take in as much as they could, it was movement in my peripheral rather than an actual figure that caught my attention.

Feeling dreadfully certain that I already knew what I'd find if I followed, the small seed of uncertainty planted by Cumore's early death had enough draw to pull me out that window. My tougher pants and turtleneck protecting me from the glass still in the wooden frame, I climbed through and dropped to the ground outside. My boots had hardly touched down before I was off in a stumbling run, feet nearly slipping out from under me before I remembered how sandy the soil was.

In hindsight it isn't the fact that knights came seemingly out of nowhere that was surprising, but that I nearly instinctively had kept to the street shadows before even consciously registering their appearance. Perhaps somewhere in my subconscious I'd already reasoned that Flynn's men must be in Mantaic waiting for the right moment to make their move and seize control from Cumore. Which, gamewise, coincidentally occurred during Yuri's latest vigilante act.

Even without Cumore, it's still the same! Why is it still the same? I gnawed my lower lip uneasily and swerved into an alley a group of Flynn's knights. They had just burst from a door ahead in the street, forcibly dragging some of Cumore's knights with them. Since I obviously wasn't a knight of either faction, I probably had nothing to fear from them catching me. But I didn't want to be slowed down by somebody stopping me to ask why I was running around like a madwoman after dark.

Unfortunately, it turned out that it wasn't an alley I'd detoured into but a shallow alcove. "Scheisse!" With no time to think I reflexively threw my hands up in front of me while my feet tried to grind to a stop despite my momentum's insistence that I keep going forward. Instinctively my eyes squeezed shut as I braced for impact.

The expected jolt of running into a wall never came. Sandy dirt rasped under my boot as it slid to a stop, more gradually than one would expect given the circumstances. My hands felt nothing but empty space around me. ...Empty space and a familiar heat in my left hand that I had only just noticed.

Eyes flying open, I looked around in bafflement. I was in a dead end alley, presumably on the other side of the wall I had just tried to meet face first. The warmth was already seeping away from my left hand, and I absently began to massage it through the glove with my right, briefly tucking the sheath I'd picked up under an arm. "Poor...poor city planning..." I murmured aloud. There was still adrenaline humming through me as my brain tried to catch up with me. Holy fucking crap. I think I just ran through a wall.

With a shuddering breath I shook the thought from my head and trotted to the mouth of the alley to check for knights belonging to either captain. Unexpected detour and delay aside, there was somewhere I was trying to be.

I got there too late. I knew as soon as I saw Yuri standing at atop the edge of the largest pit of quicksand, just outside the town borders. His unsheathed katana held in a lax grip, barrier light gleaming coldly off the the line of metal. I became overly conscious of the sheath I was still carrying.

Flynn was behind him, posture tense and radiating a quiet anger. He was only five feet away from his darker counterpart, a distance that could easily be closed by a sudden, final rush. I even saw, from my nifty hiding place behind one of the many convenient palms, Flynn's gauntleted hand clench his own sword's hilt as he no doubt considered that scenario.

But his hand loosened and dropped wearily to his side.

"My people have taken control of things here," he said instead, the words terse and to the point as if he were reporting to another officer. "The residents of this town won't suffer any longer."

"That ought to put you one step closer to your next promotion." With Yuri's biting sarcasm, I could almost swear I saw the distance between them growing wider. Really, they're supposed to be best friends...? But I suppose if they weren't, Flynn wouldn't hesitate to take Yuri down, and Yuri wouldn't be so disappointed to see Flynn following orders to fight his way up the ladder.

Flynn turned away, cape-streamer things rising into air and then settling on his back again. "Yuri, we need to talk later."

"I know..."

Flynn didn't wait for any more. What needed to be said would come out soon enough. "I'll be waiting...down at the lake." And the knight captain returned to the town with the strength of purpose keeping him straight and tall.

Yuri stood silently in place after Flynn left to finish his business with restoring control of Mantaic to its people. Or a more suitable Empire appointed magistrate (I forget how that turned out...). The whole time I stood by my tree, watching, feeling as if my feet were rooted into the ground. When Yuri finally turned around and walked back into Mantaic I lowered my head so that my hair fell forward to hide my pale face. There was no indication that he'd noticed me as he passed by.

"Coward," I whispered to myself, at myself as I clutched the sheath in my hand even tighter. Even so, I stood and waited. I waited as lights flickered on in windows and the first sleepy townspeople stuck their heads outside doors and windows. I waited as some grew bold enough to investigate the night's commotion.

It was when the jubilant cry of, "Magistrate Cumore is gone!" and a round of cheers went up that I finally moved. More and more people were coming out of their houses, hastily dressed and with Flynn's name and praises on their lips. Word was spreading like fire that Cumore had fled when he'd heard Flynn had come, and his lieutenant had gone missing too.

Yeah. Doubt they'll turn up again. Ever.

Unnoticed in all the excitement I slipped through the crowds and into the inn. As I'd expected the group was gone. Each had probably joined the masses out in the streets, learning the news and getting drawn into the impromptu festivities already kicking off. Without anyone to observe my actions I found the guys' room. With one last quick glance to make sure no one had stayed behind, I left the sheath propped against the wall Yuri had been leaning against earlier.

Even as I left it there, guilt in my manner like that of a thief with a conscience, I knew it was a silent admission to myself. That I was going to keep to my charade of ignorance. Simply because I couldn't work up the nerve on my own to tell the truth.

x x x

Seem like an abrupt place to stop? Yeah...it even makes the chapter shorter than usual (With a long author's note to boot). But it seemed like a good place, especially since I decided I want the next part to be in the next chapter. WHICH I swear won't take nearly as long. Promise. I've been looking forward to the next part, actually.

...Shower scene. That somehow doesn't have Raven poking his nose in (Letha of course locks the door). But you know, lots of people like to think and try to sort themselves out in the shower.

If there's confusion over whatever the crap happened in this chapter, don't worry. Letha will sit herself down and try to figure it out soon enough, and what she doesn't get will be beat over her head another way.

And "scheisse" is the German equivalent of "shit" (though I'm not positive that second "e" is supposed to be there... Been awhile since that class).