I got my new lap top! Banzai! Now I just need to make the Big Move and put everything I want from my old computer onto this one. (I'm using the default WordPad program, which doesn't have any spell check that I can find...)

And Chase has his own story!

There's been some lively activity in the formsprings (including Letha going on a brief rampage through Chase's formspring) and interest in what Chase was up to before current events. So I decided to get started on his story earlier than I originally planned, and post it for all his fans. FTaBV is still my main project. Chase's story (LET THE STORM WINDS BLOW, and yes, I overused the caps, it was on purpose) probably won't be updated as frequently, but I'll be working on it consistently. Odds are that any time I'm working on one story, I'll also have the next chapter for the other story within reach. I'm not about to abandon either.

My songs of choice for the chapter in no particular order: "Lullaby" (in English), "Crying Alone", and "Shadow", all by Yuki Kajiura.

Angelic:

NO, CUMORE WASN'T ENOUGH. MUST HAVE MOAR PLOT TWISTIES! Wheew, Gawd, don't ask me why they all came at once. They just DID, so I ran with it. But this chapter is, mostly, quieter. Lots and lots of talking, yay! I hardly need to say why.

And oh look, fluff with Judith and Letha. By your definition, there is possibility for romance now. Hmmm? O ,o

Kyushen:

I hope I don't disappoint, since MANY "mean" people have been looking forward to this. Dear me, I've been writing and going back and changing and entirely cutting things from it all week, until I made myself stop and move on.

Powerless bystander:

I have earned that cookie, because the comment about Chase's attack in connection to video games was purposeful foreshadowing. One of the very few I managed to work in with him. Generally I also prefer more leading up to such a revelation, but something about Chase's character and actions made that harder than usual. What I could work in was small and easy to overlook most of the time in favor of other things happening.

No offense taken, even very likeable stories by awesome authors (much better than me) can get tiresome and anyone who's played the game already knows at least half of what I'm writing about. There's stil many ways I can improve, and I appreciate all criticism that I can learn from!

bright night:

Lucky Chase; people still love him! Unlucky Al; everyone still hates him! Or almost everyone. What an interesting duo they make.

I'm pleased to say I haven't really gotten many flames. And any reviews that might qualify have all been given with much thought and maturity (encouragement and criticism, both are musts for growing writers!).

x x x

Chapter 48: Talk, Talk, and...Girl Talk?

x x x

"Fricken' mother of scheisse!" I swore, mixing my oaths in my agitation. To top it off, I'd become aware of a persistent ache in my head. An unwelcome leftover of the numb relaxation I'd experienced just before things went to hell again.

"Can someone tell me, what jus' happened here?"

"Something tells me Letha can."

Sheepishly, I turned around to face Yuri and Raven. The swordsman was just reaching out to grab the hilt of his katana still standing in the ground. Which made me recall that Chase hadn't been carrying his claymore. "His room!"

I dashed past them into the inn, not checking to see if they followed or not. For only a moment in the hall was I delayed while I tried to figure out which room Chase had been staying in, converting the information from when I'd spied around outside. Then I threw open the door with enough force that it banged off the wall. I tried not to wince at the spike of pain the loud crash drove through my head.

The room was empty. It had certainly been occupied until just recently (the fact that the twisted sheets on the bed had not yet been changed by the maid attested to that) but there were no personal effects left behind. The thin curtains hung in the window waved mockingly at me as a night breeze slipped inside.

There was a whistle from the doorway behind me. "Boy clears out fast," Raven observed. He'd brought up the rear, coming in after Yuri, and closed the door behind him. The swordsman gave the room a cursory once over, not all that interested since we were obviously too slow in getting there, before giving me a dark, no-more-crap-please look.

I sighed and closed my eyes, feeling defeated. Really, my only escape would be to jump out the window. And that would just be pointlessly delaying the inevitable.

Crossing to the room's single desk by the window, I grabbed the chair to pull it out and take a seat. I paused, though, when I saw the white slip of paper weighted down by a small knickknack (some weird piece that looked like a flowering cactus with a smiley face). I picked it up, holding it by the corner with thumb and index finger as if it were something covered in filth. There was a single word.

sorry

was scratched down hastily, the 'S' almost invisible as the ink hadn't flowed properly. It was in English, making it painfully clear who had written it and for whom it had been left.

"Letha," I heard Yuri say from behind me. "Just what's going on? What is 'Earth'?"

"A 'quaint little rock' doesn't really tell us all that much," Raven put in. "More like, nothin' at all."

"Home," I murmured, eyes tracing the shape of familiar letters in an unfamiliar hand. Feeling my heart clench uncomfortably, I shoved the slip into one of my pockets without care for how it got crumpled and sat down slowly. Once off my feet it was like all my energy seeped out of my body, leaving me listless and just...no longer caring what happened. I'd already been betrayed twice, by Ludwig and by Chase, and I had no idea why.

What did it matter if I told the truth now? The worst that could happen would be they'd hate me for it. At least I would understand why.

"Earth is what we call our home," I looked away, gazing out the window up to the night sky. "The planet we come from."

"Wait, yer sayin' that ya come from another planet? Yer kiddin'," Raven scoffed. I didn't bother saying anything, just looked at him where he sat on Chase's bed. They were the ones asking for the truth, and I gave it to them. Believing it or not was their choice. As if he heard my thoughts, Raven leaned forward a bit to study me. "...Yer not kiddin'."

My eyes drifted down to the floor, then I peeked almost shyly at Yuri through my hair. His stoic expression didn't give his thoughts away, he simply stood by the door with his arms crossed and waited for me to continue. With an inward sigh, I did so.

"You know how...in the stories about the Serenity and its crew? That it's a ship traveling through space to different planets?" I thought it might help to relate this to something they'd already had time to think about and accept (even as just a fictional possibility). Give them something to relate my story to.

Yuri shifted his weight so that he looked more relaxed, leaning against the wall next to the door. Though I thought it looked like he was either staying there to make sure no one was lingering outside to eavesdrop, or to make sure I wouldn't bolt and try to escape that way. Though there's always the window option... "So you came here on a ship like that?"

Whoops. "No, I didn't actually come on a ship," I hurried to specify. "Honestly I can't tell you how I got here. I just...was here...all of a sudden." Which was true. I knew Nevi was responsible but I had no clue what he'd done or how. "I've been thinking for awhile, and while I could have somehow, through some freak occurrence I'm not smart enough to realistically imagine, been displaced through space by God knows how many lightyears-"

"What's a lightyear?" Raven actually asked. (Really? That's what you're curious about?)

"Unit for measuring distance that's only practical when speaking in terms of stellar travel," I answered flatly, as if I'd been called on by a teacher in lab. "As I was saying, the other possibility I can think of is-"

"Why do ya call it a 'lightyear'?"

I faltered and looked at Raven, single eyebrow raised. But he was expectantly waiting for an answer, seeming honestly interested. So I answered, "Because it's how far light can travel given a year." I paused, waiting a moment, but nothing. "The other possibility is-"

"An' how far is-"

"I don't know!" I snapped a bit, pinching the bridge of my nose between my fingers as my headache throbbed again, "I'm bad with remembering the actual numbers, okay?"

"I think that's enough old man," Yuri finally intervened.

Raven leaned back with a shrug. "Just askin' is all."

"You've really killed the tension," I muttered under my breath.

Raven waved a hand at me in a 'continue now' gesture, "Don't mind me! This ol' man will keep his questions to himself!"

Shaking my head to myself, I had to think back a bit to remember what I'd been trying to say. "Right... Either I somehow jumped the distance between our planets or," I stopped, searching for the least confusing way to say what was on my mind, "or I've crossed some type of dimensional barrier dividing this world from mine."

"What's the difference?" Yuri asked.

"Well, I'm hardly an expert on either," I shrugged. "The farthest Earth technology can send a person is to our Moon. Though I'd think that's more because we get too distracted by petty things to concentrate enough resources on studying how to go further than just taking pictures of Mars." Raven raised a finger, I glared at him until he lowered it. "And dimensional travel is purely theoretical and too complicated for me to understand in anything other than fictional 'what if?' possibilities.

"Buuut, if I'd only been sent through space, then that should mean my world exists somewhere out there," I gestured out the window towards the sky, "and could even be one of the stars we see." I looked back from the window, "Whereas if I've gone through a dimensional barrier, then I think that no matter how long you were to search the skies you would never find the world I came from."

There was a sobering silence as that sank in. And I was struck by how lonesome that explanation made my situation sound. And yet Chase never said anything. Why? Wouldn't he have been just as lonely?

How long has he been on his own?

But he was allied with Alastor, who seemed to be an enemy of Nevi. Admittedly, I did not get along well with the narcisstic fairy, but whether I liked him or not it was Nevi who was calling the shots. So Alastor was by extension my own enemy as well. So, then Chase would be my enemy too, wouldn't he? Was that why he never said anything? Was that why he'd always helped me? So I would trust him, and not suspect he was up to something?

Asshole, how dare he! I ignored the twang of pain in my heart, burying it in favor of anger. Pretending it was anger hurt less.

"Even if your story's pretty hard to swallow," Yuri commented, "You're being surprisingly open."

I closed my eyes and let a bit of dark humor creep into my voice, "And perfectly honest too. Don't that beat all?"

He didn't rise to the bait. "And that guy, Chase. You say he's from Earth too?"

I nodded, "Yes. No doubt."

"Hold up," Raven frowned, brows drawing together, "What about his family? Ya said his father was a member of The Protectors, like yer uncle. Er," he rubbed the back of his head, "though I guess he isn't really yer uncle after all."

I could practically feel Yuri's eyes boring into me as I neutrally answered. "No, Ludwig isn't actually family. But he took me in and treated me well, allowed me to claim I was his niece even though I was a perfect stranger, so I consider him one of the most important people to me in this world." I shrugged, "I imagine Chase must have...made a similar arrangement with Arcas."

"'One of the most important'?" Raven repeated. "Who're the others?"

I smiled wryly at him. "I've been traveling with you guys for how many months? And you still need to ask?" Raven ducked his head, and I chuckled a bit. Got him with that one.

Yuri pushed off from his wall and stepped forward to the center of the room, drawing all my attention to him. "If we're so important to you, then were you ever actually planning on telling us about this?"

Unable to meet his piercing gaze, my own eyes dropped down and head fell forward a bit so that my long hair fell forward in a veil over my face. A natural shield I hadn't used for years, since I'd learned how not to cry in public. "...No," I admitted, "Not really." My hands clasped each other in my lap. Even if I thought of telling someone, anyone, a few times, in the end I never really had the determination to do so. I closed my eyes, Really, it's more like I was waiting for somebody to force it from me.

"I'm...a very selfish person. I like to help others when it doesn't hurt me, but I won't reach out when I'm afraid it will hurt me," I confessed. "Not physically, but emotionally. I laugh and try to make others laugh with me. It feels good to be able to brighten other people's days. I am proud of myself for being able to do that with jokes or stories.

"But I can't share the things that make me feel vulnerable." I can't sing when I know people are listening. I tell stories, but can't share my original writing unless I'm anonymous or leave the room. When I paint, I only show people some of the final products and dislike when they peek at the work in progress. And Earth... "If I told you about Earth and none of you believed me, it would hurt like you wouldn't believe."

"And that's why you didn't tell us anything?" I looked up at Yuri, one of my eyes still hidden under my hair. "I told you it's not like we'd behead you or anything just because we didn't like what you had to say," Raven mouthed the word 'behead' with raised eyebrows, but that went unacknowledged, "All you had to do is tell us, and we'd have tried to help you find a way back home. You're not the only one who sees us as friends after all this time." By the end of that last part he was pulling his 'I'm talking to you but not actually facing you' trick. I wondered if that cool act could be his own way of hiding his vulnerability...? He had just admitted that he, the infamous loner Yuri Lowell, saw us all as friends.

And, I smiled just a little, I think that was a tacit way of saying that, this time, he accepted that I was telling the truth as it was. He believes that I'm from Earth.

I almost wish he didn't. It makes it look silly that I worried for so long. But...

I shook my head and stood, "You don't need to."

"Why not?" Raven asked in surprise. "Wouldn't ya want to find a way home, soon as possible?"

Feeling like I'd already bared more of my heart than I'd wanted to, I started walking towards the door. But that meant walking right past Yuri.

He didn't lift a finger to stop me, but just as I reached to open the door he spoke. "Do you even remember your home?"

I paused, my hand lightly touching the doorknob. "I remember enough to know that if I were to go back now my family would only be hurt by how much I've forgotten."

"So you're going to give up without even trying?"

And I had to laugh. A short, bitter sound. "That's the line! The line every idealistic hero in every good-will-prevail story says!" 'You won't' know until you try!' Lifting my hand from the doorknob, I ran my fingers through my hair and tucked it back behind my ear. "Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the strong role models those heroes are meant to portray. But I'm," I grabbed the door knob again and pulled it open, "not one of those strong characters."

"Geez, ain't that kinda dark for you?" Raven asked even as I was walking out the door.

One coin, two sides. You should know what that's like, Raven, I thought but didn't say aloud. Neither of them said anything else to stop me as I left. I was dimly surprised that they didn't try to stop me, since there was definitely more to be said, but I felt too drained to care much.

I'd just flipped their entire image of me, like a picture on the wall someone claimed had been hung wrong and flipped upside down. It was only courteous to give them a bit of time to think about it and realize that's the way I'd been all along.

x x x

I wasn't sleeping very deeply, so the sound of the door creaking open and clicking shut again roused me most of the way out of uneasy sleep. Lifting my head groggily (with a fuzzy sense of relief that it had stopped hurting, but not sure why it was supposed to) I looked around to see Judith walking around the room to her own side.

She noticed me blinking blearily at her. "I'm sorry, did I wake you?"

"Nnnnah," I groaned out. "Not sleepin' well 'nyway..." It felt like I'd been dreaming something unpleasant, though I couldn't remember what it was.

"Well that's a problem," she fluffed the pillow on her bed til it met her requirements, "It'll already be difficult to get up bright and early in the morning after all the fun tonight." I groaned wordlessly, and the krityan smiled over at me. "I think I know what will help."

Before I could ask what she meant Judith left the room again. I blinked at the door before shrugging and rolling over in bed, pulling my sheets up around my neck again. But I couldn't fall back to sleep, and found myself turning over from one side to the other repeatedly, unsatisfied with any position for long.

The door creaked open again and something sweet smelling wafted over. Propping up on my elbows, I watched as Judith walked over with a mug. "Here, drink some of this," she held out the mug to me.

I accepted it, finding it was pleasantly warm in the cradle of my hands. "The last time I drank something without asking what was in it, I got drunk and started singing in public," I told her, face warming a bit as the reminder embarrassed me all over again.

"Yes, so I heard," she said agreeably. "I rather liked that one about the moonlight and forests." The still rising warmth in my face must have been quite a blush. "Don't worry, this is a tea blend my father used to make to help me sleep at night."

Judith's father? Hermes? I looked down into the amber liquid, watching some herbs sinking slowly to the bottom. I see...there was never any mention of her mother. I got the impression that she didn't have one. I could imagine a krityan scientist, who'd been working late into the night, taking a break to make his lonely daughter tea. Because there was no mother around to do that for her.

Or perhaps I'm just a sentimental softie, I thought, reminding myself that assumptions did not substitute fact. Gingerly I sipped at the tea, careful not to burn my tongue.

"It's nice!" I remarked, "Sweet, tastes a bit like honey."

"Children do like sweet things. It took my father a few tries before he thought of that and added honey to the mix," she gave the cup in my hands a fond smile. "Before that all of his experiments were bitter, and I wouldn't finish any of them."

I giggled at the mental image, a chibi Judith in bed surrounded by mugs of cold tea and a mad scientist father bringing out his latest experiment for the next test.

Sipping from the mug again, a question came out of the blue to me. "Say, Judith..."

She was back at her bed turning back the sheets, waist cape thingy removed and folded neatly on a chair with her boots standing under it. "Need something else?"

"Ah no, this is fine," I turned the cup in my hands a few times, "I just wanted to ask something, but it might be too personal."

"Well, you can go ahead and ask," she sat down on the bed's edge and pulled the clip from her hair so that it fell loose (looong hair! Jealous, I am!). "If it makes me uncomfortable, I'll just tell you so."

I took another sip of tea, chastising myself for bringing it up. Really, it won't do any good, but if you don't ask you'll have bothered her for nothing. "I was just wondering-and you really don't have to answer!-...if you still miss your father. And your home." I ducked my head a bit. "Sorry."

"It's alright. I don't mind you asking." She folded her hands in her lap and looked up at the ceiling. "I suppose I do miss them at times. You can't really bring back your childhood though, so I don't think about it that much." Her red eyes lowered to look across the room at me again, and I forgot at that moment` that Judith was actually younger than me. She'd already been through so much more than I ever had. At least my loss of family and home had been quick and clean, not leaving me with trauma or painful memories. Rather the opposite in fact.

But then she smiled at me, "Even if I could somehow return to those times, it just wouldn't be the same now. So I prefer to remember the nice things some times and focus on what I'm doing now. And it's not like I've been lonely. I had my friend with me, and now I even have the guild."

I found myself smiling back at her. "That's true, isn't it? We have the guild now..." I sipped more of my tea. "Hey, speaking of the others, they're not still up are they?"

"Raven fell asleep in the front lobby," she reported, picking up a brush to use on her hair, "Karol and Rita went to bed not long after that. You know how Yuri is, he went out for another walk. You'd think he were a child the way he can't stay still." We shared a laugh at the swordsman's expense. "And," there was a twinkle in the krityan's eye, "I think Estelle went to join him for his walk. While trying not to let the others notice. Too bad Repede followed her."

I cocked my head at an angle, wondering at that last part. 'Too bad Repede'...? Oh! Oh Judith, I always knew you were the shipping type! Shaking my head I had to laugh a bit. "Oh Judith..."

"What's the harm in hoping?" she asked coyly, "I've yet to meet this 'Nan' Estelle has told me Karol's head over heels for, so there's only so much fun I can have with that."

"I'd say that's already plenty of material to have fun with," I countered, "what with the Ace's priceless reactions to any teasing at all on the matter."

"Well that much is true, but," she laid the brush on a table and gave me a conspirational grin, "don't you think it's frustrating sometimes? How Yuri doesn't seem interested in anyone?"

"Why, Judith, I'm sure I don't know what you mean," I said primly while very deliberately placing my tea mug just so on the night table. An act which she saw through. I knew she would.

"Of course, I mean how he's been traveling with four lovely ladies and seems oblivious to each one's charms. Disappointing, really," she pouted a bit, "Not even one hint about old crushes either."

And the prim and proper expression I'd been maintaining wavered, "Well, I'm sure we'd get more than a hint if we were to ask Flynn." Who, undoubtedly, had all that and more in the way of embarrassing stories about little Yuri growing up.

"That is a very good plan," she decided while settling into bed, sheets draped loosely just below shoulder level. "You can ask him that tomorrow."

"Me? Why me?" I put the light out.

"It was your idea, you should have the honors."

"You brought it up!"

"You're just as curious."

"That-that-!"

"Goodnight, Letha."

x x x

Thanks to the tea and light banter with Judith the night before, I had relaxed and gone to sleep peacefully soon after.

I'd known that Yuri's late night 'walk' had been him going to his meeting with Flynn, which I thought I'd delayed with my own case of shit meeting fan but apparently not. And Estelle would have listened in on the whole thing, finding out about Yuri's involvement in the death and disappearance of certain scumbags (though I wondered if the truth about Cumore's case had come to light). This would have precipitated another very serious discussion between the two of them, about Estelle's resolve and Yuri's...being Yuri.

Wonder if the poor guy had any time left over to sleep last night.

Rita was scolding Raven for oversleeping when I joined them outside on the inn's doorstep. As I approached, she whirled on me. "You're not any better, getting here...after..." she stared, and by then the others had noticed me as well. "Wait, where'd you get that?" I grinned.

Karol gaped in disbelief. "Don't tell me you've been carrying that all this time!"

I pushed the glasses (designed for fashion only, lenses didn't magnify anything or mess with my eyes) a bit higher up on my nose. "I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about."

"That costume! You actually brought that costume with you?" the mage was pointing at me. Or rather, at my clothes. I was wearing the Jade Curtiss costume again.

Funny thing. I'd been repacking my bag, trying to inventory what I had and arrange it most efficiently, and found the costume folded at the bottom with the pieces of my mp3 player tucked into the folds. I was shaking it out to refold neatly again when I thought, why not? and tried it on again.

You know, there was actually a skit in the Tales of the Abyss game where Luke, Guy, Natalia, and Mieu all gang up on Jade to try and make him take his uniform off. Because he was obnoxiously unaffected by the heat, and they'd convinced themselves that there was something about his clothes that regulated temperature or something.

Holy crap, but somehow I felt cooler and more comfortable in the costume than in my own clothes. So I kept it on.

Standing in military at ease, I schooled my expression to something outwardly passive, though allowed some of my amusement to leak through and give me a hint of that knowing smirk that I associated with characters with the colonel's personality type.

"Uh, what's with that?" Raven asked, looking down at Karol. Heh, he and Judith weren't there last time.

The boy sighed, "Letha worked at a clothes shop for a little while back in Dahngrest. She wore that then."

"'Walking mannequin display' would be an appropriate job description," I admitted. "But I'd say this qualifies as a very good bonus to compensate for my troubles."

The archer raised his hand to hide his mouth as he asked the others in a loud whisper, "Hey, am I just imaginin' that she sounds a bit different?"

Estelle smiled a bit tremulously (...she's troubled about last night still, isn't she?), "Ah, she seems to enjoy playing the character when she wears a costume."

"Sounds like fun," Judith said with interest, "Maybe I should try it."

Rita folded her arms over her chest. "I thought you didn't like all that dressing up."

I smiled at her, and the character of Jade I was aiming for made it a bit patronizing. "The benefits outweigh the disadvantages." I allowed the persona to relax as I gave a big grin and spread my arms in a silent 'look at me!' "Actually, these clothes are better in the heat than my own, or even the robes the innkeeper loaned us before!" Which was awesome, because we'd already returned those the day before.

"Yer jokin', right?"

I hummed cheerfully, "By all means, you don't have to believe me. I'll simply continue to wear this until we've finished our return trip through the Weasand."

"Serious...?"

"All right then," Yuri cut in decisively, "Looks like we're ready to hit the road." Wordlessly agreeing that there was nothing else to do in Mantaic, we all picked up our bags and got ready to leave. While walking down the street in a group (Yuri and Repede in the lead, Estelle, Rita and Karol behind him, and Raven and I falling to the back with Judith just ahead of us), I couldn't shake the feeling that something seemed different about the little town.

Ah, there's people outside, I realized. Children were playing in the street while adults talked freely by the side of the road. It wasn't as lively as other towns we'd been to, but there were still those who needed to be brought back in from the desert and recuperate from their ordeal. The town would recover with enough time.

"Huh?" Karol was also looking around, "There are fewer knights than before." I blinked and looked over the streets again. He was right. There was roughly the same number as people outdoors as always, but now only a few actually had knight uniforms on.

Yuri looked back a bit, also surveying the streets before meeting Karol's questioning eyes. "Yeah. Flynn and his crew went back to Nordopolica."

"That must mean they were traveling by night," Judith surmised.

Karol frowned, rubbing his head. "Was there some emergency they had to deal with?"

"Maybe they had to take care of the monsters from the coliseum," Rita suggested.

Karol clapped a fist into his other hand as if he'd made a connection. "I'll bet Palestralle requested the help of the knights."

"I would hope not," I said, trying to express my disagreement in a way that wouldn't sound questionable. "Considering that incident occured nearly two weeks ago, I would expect either the knights or Palestralle to have straightened out that mess by now. Otherwise we would have to question the effectiveness of both organizations."

"Y-you've got a point," Karol conceded a bit grudgingly. He might have taken some offense to my implied insult of one of the top guilds.

"We'll have to wait and see," Yuri settled it as neutrally as possible. I let my shoulders rise and fall in a shrug, not all that bothered. Honestly? I would have preferred it if it were about the monsters.

But Estelle must have caught something in his response that the rest of us missed. "Yuri?"

"Well," he looked forward again, "it's just that Flynn said something about a barricade."

"Barricade?" Judith repeated to be sure. "What could that mean?"

Beside me Raven was silent, but I studiously avoided looking at the man. I wonder how often he's able to get in contact with Alexei... There could have been someone with Flynn's brigade that gave him a message. So...could he know what's being planned in Nordopolica?

Or, more concerning to me, could he have already sent back a message about my origins. I wanted to say I trusted him not to, however, ignoring the possibility would be more than foolish.

A new idea had occurred to the princess, "Are they out to arrest Belius for what happened in the Great War?"

"I can't imagine that Palestralle would be outmaneuvered that easily by the Knights," Karol objected.

"Yet you were able to consider it a likely possibility that Palestralle may have been in a bind that required the knights assistance?" I reminded them, "Your opinion of their capabilities seems rather inconsistent." Uh, um, that sounded a bit meaner than I meant it to.

And that wasn't overlooked. "Letha, isn't that a bit harsh?" Estelle admonished me, looking back with a slightly disappointed expression.

"Merely an observation," I responded nonchalantly. "I apologize if I have offended anyone."

"Maybe we should think twice about headin' back ta Nordopolica for now," Raven suggested. He stopped, just before we left through the town's main gate. The rest of us all stopped with him.

"But the new moon's almost here," Karol reminded us all, "If we miss this chance who knows when we might meet Belius again." I closed my eyes, That would be...never. I shook my head. No. She's not going to die. Not if I can do something about it. But I'll still need to get there in time.

Raven rubbed at his stubbled chin, "That's all well and good. I'm just not in a hurry ta get tangled up with that armor wearin' bunch."

"Me neither," Yuri agreed.

"We'll just have to be careful, like always," Karol stepped in front and raised a finger like he were lecturing us adults. "No use panicking about it."

"Very true," I nodded, "though not as reassuring coming from the one who would be most likely to panic."

He flushed a bit and stuttered, "I-I wouldn't panic!"

I could imagine how they might all be thinking something along the lines of how they might make me get rid of the costume. Or throw it out while I was sleeping.

There wasn't much else to say after that, other than Raven's reluctance we were all ready to go, and he couldn't exactly keep trying to convince us to put it off. If nothing else, Rita probably would have insisted on going ahead of us if we tried so she could study the aer krene in Cados. Which would certainly have gotten us all pulled along to make sure she didn't have to go alone, and we'd have continued on to Nordopolica anyway. No win for Raven.

We resumed our journey, most of the group eager to be on the road. They believed returning to Nordopolica would be a start, a way to find the answers Estelle needed. If I had my way, we'd get those answers without anyone getting hurt.

x x x

Cumore's Missing

Karol: Thing's are bound to improve here in Mantaic, now that Flynn's liberated the town.

Judith: They did allow the ringleader to escape though.

Letha: ...

Karol: Cumore? Flynn'll catch him in no time! Right, Yuri?

Yuri: ...Hmm? Oh, yeah, sure he will.

Judith: Is something wrong? He looked troubled...

Rita: Estelle's not her usual perky self, either.

Estelle: Th-that's not true. I'm as happy as you all are that Mantaic's been freed.

Rita: I-if you say so...

Letha: I'm sure they're just tired after that party last night! That's all it is...

Judith: Seems like they're not the only ones.

Flynn - Part 2

Judith: Your friend is quite talented, considering the ease with which he saved Mantaic.

Yuri: Who, Flynn? That was nothing for him.

Letha: Heh. You sound proud of him...

Karol: ...You know him really well, don't you Yuri?

Yuri: Well, we've hung around together since we were kids.

Raven: You don't hang around together much anymore, though.

Yuri: ...

Karol: Yuri?

x x x

"Hey, Karol."

"What's up, Yuri?"

"We finished Estelle's request." His katana sliced through the spines of one of the cacti crustaceans (Yes, I was still calling them that). "Shouldn't Brave Vesperia start looking for other jobs?"

Karol smashed his axe down, severing the pincer from another monster. "Yeah, you're right. Hmm, I wonder what we should do." Deep in thought, he didn't notice that another monster was about to shoot him from behind (like one had done to me before). I was about to jump forward and try and intercept, but Judith beat me to, spearing it from above as she came down from a high leap into the air. Karol was oblivious, "We could get a job in Dahngrest if we were members of the Union..."

Rita gave me a light jab in the side, "Concentrate on what you're doing!" she scolded.

"Hey, I'm a guild member too! I should be paying attention!"

Raven was taking it easy besides the mage and I, though he held his bow ready in case there was a chance for a clear shot. "Hey kid, didn't you know?" he called out to Karol. "The Union'll throw you work even if ya don't join 'em." He drew the bowstring back smoothly and an arrow zipped through the air, piercing another cacticrab in the eye. "They take a cut, but..."

"Really?"

"Pay attention!" Rita smacked the back of my head again.

"Yes, sensei," I grumbled. Concentrating on the aer again instead of Raven's advice about finding guild outposts, I gathered the light strands of aer, that felt (in a figurative sense) like soft pieces of down, and pictured weaving them into a pattern that Rita had been trying to hammer into my head all day.

"Blow wind, blow! Wind Blade!" A gust of wind was stirred up around me, which lashed out and cut deeply into one of the cacti crustaceans. "Ha ha! Vengeance is sweet!"

Incantations seemed to be more of a focusing technique, designed to help one visualize the pattern of the formula and concentrate on it without getting distracted. I'd felt a bit silly borrowing Raven's 'knock 'em around and cut 'em down' phrase, and had substituted a Grandia spell that had been ingrained in my head from hours of level grinding. I was pleased to see it had worked just as well.

"Alright, that was better than last time," Rita nodded approvingly. "Now you've got a total of one," she raised a finger, "reliable spell you can use. On to the next one!" I sighed. What an implacable teacher.

But at least concentrating on lessons kept me away from Yuri and Raven. Earlier on the trail, when Estelle and Judith got absorbed in teasing Karol about Nan (Judith started it, probably out of dissappointment that Flynn left before we could get juicy gossip) while Rita looked on for entertainment, the two men had both fallen back to walk on either side of me.

"Letha," Yuri had begun.

"I can guess what you're going to ask," I interrupted. "Now isn't really a good time."

"Maybe, but you better not try to run away from it later," he warned.

Raven nodded, about as serious as he could get without reverting to Schwann. "Yeah. Wouldn't look good in front of the others if we had ta get the pooch to track you down."

"I'm not going to run," I said quietly. "Don't you think it's a bit late for me to be considering that."

The swordsman looked at me sidelong. "Probably, but that doesn't guarantee you won't."

I remembered all the other times when I had run, or even used my aikido on Yuri in order to get away. "I guess I deserve that."

"But right now, I just wanted to say one thing." He waited, but I didn't say anything so he had to continue. "I think you should tell the others."

"Why?" I asked, a bit surprised.

"Before-"

"And just how many times have ya two talked like this before?" Raven mumbled under his breath, but didn't seem to really be looking for a response.

Yuri rolled his eyes slightly at the archer and started again. "Before I promised I wouldn't tell the others you were hiding something as long as it didn't put any of them in danger."

"And you think it does now," I guessed.

He shrugged, "It didn't seem like either Chase or that Alastor wanted to hurt us last night. But we don't know what they're planning, just that it seems to involve you somehow. You can't keep us in the dark anymore, or next time someone," he looked pointedly at the others walking ahead of us, "could get hurt."

I dropped my eyes to my feet, sliding and sinking a little into the sand with each step. "...I'll...I'll think about it."

"Letha!"

"Give me a bit of time!" I snapped, sounding angry because I was trying to hide the way my voice wanted to shake. "Just give me a little. It's...not so easy."

They had both stared at me, measuring, and Raven spoke first. "I don't think there'd be harm in that, do ya kid?"

And Yuri had sighed, "Fine. But don't wait too long."

I nodded mutely, and then lengthened my strides so that I caught up to the group ahead, getting Rita's attention and asking her to help me practice with spells some more.

And that was where we stood. Yuri wanted me to share my biggest (that he knew of) secret, and Raven was passively supporting him. If I cornered Raven in turn about his identity as Schwann, he would probably be swayed to my side, but I didn't want to be the person who'd do something like that. And certainly, Yuri could expose me to the others at any time now if he wanted to. I should consider it a sign of his friendship (and trust, if I still had any from him) that he was giving me the chance to do it myself.

Haa, but how long can I put it off? I thought as I squinted up at the sun. I really didn't want to have to do it, but Yuri had a point about Alastor...or Chase...being a potential danger to the others. I couldn't guarantee they wouldn't get drawn into my own mess.

Belius, I decided. I want to talk to Belius first. Somehow...I want to save her, and I somehow feel that if I can, then I'll have earned something. I guess the right to have stayed with them even when I'm hiding the most important things.

Belius.

x x x

Chapter with a lot of talk going on. And a set up for even more deep secret sharing in the near(ish) future. Feel like I still managed to be a bit productive though.

Skipped some bigger scenes, the Flynn Talk and the Estelle Talk. I mean, with all the talking and what not going on this chapter and how long we've been in the Mantaic arc, I'm sure everyone else wanted to get Letha out of there as much as I did. Really, so much plot happened (I'm sorry?). Those scenes were summed up as quickly as I could by Letha, and yeah, I skipped the Kowz thing. Yeah. That little meeting seemed unnecessary to me for the story. BUT, some of you wanted to see Letha meet him. I'm already trying to plan an omake for that (though I'm not sure how long it'll take before I get around to it).

On a silly note: I know the PS3 version had a skit where Flynn tells the others Yuri's first crush was an older woman. ;D