Happy Thanksgiving, my fellow Americans! And anyone else who feels like joining in the Turkey Spirit! *Sighs* I'm actually not really celebrating until tomorrow. Real life matters and what not. But Yay! My bestest best friend is home, and she totally rocks!

Katheroslibra is working on a comic about the background of her fairy character, and Alastor is making an appearance as his teacher. Check it out~ http: /katheroslibra. deviantart. com/

And Natsuki Ayaka has made more fanart inspired by Tales SIs, so go see Letha joining the line up! http: /natsukiayaka. deviantart. com/gallery/ #/d4fvz0r

Music I listened to while writing this chapter, and then had stuck in my head while writing the first half of this chapter.
"Who We Are" Red
"Not Strong Enough" Apocalyptica
"In the Middle of the Night" Within Temptation
And then insert any touching violin music you like during the second half.

Angelic:

Slow chapters are just as important, if for nothing else than to let the previous action packed chapters cool down a bit so the story can actually be explained a little. And now everyone who had guessed or had not guessed at Ludwig's role know for sure! Unless the roles all change again. ;)

Christine:

Osu! (That rubbed off on me from someone in high school...good thing I don't do it much.) Let's see just how many years it'll take to finish this! ...Saying that actually makes me feel a bit daunted.

Good Samaritan isn't a bad guy, he just has a bad boss! Reaaally bad boss.

x x x

Chapter 55: Lonely Nobody

x x x

"I...I..." No matter how I wished for one, I couldn't think of an argument in Ludwig's defense. I knew already, didn't I? At the beginning I had thought it odd that he'd been so helpful to a stranger, welcoming into his home, his family, his life. Even if I had accepted it, been grateful for it, that didn't change that it was odd. And then Yuri had dropped the bomb about overhearing...

"Wait, that can't be right!" Verte's head tilted slightly at my outburst. "Yuri overheard Ludwig talking to someone before! Talking about killi-" my voice skipped weirdly, "-killing me..."

She was unimpressed by this revelation, "Your point?"

"Nevi-Nevys needs me, right?" I tried to sound reasonable and not panicked, "After the trouble to bring me here and all, why would he turn around and make plans to kill me? That doesn't make sense at all!"

"When put that way, your words are true," Verte said a bit too carelessly, "But you're overlooking a few details." She stopped and then added like an afterthought, "No, I suppose you wouldn't be overlooking them, they were intentionally kept from your notice."

I didn't think I was going to like this... "What haven't I noticed?"

"Never mind that. You," the fairy stepped in closer towards me and I resisted the impulse to retreat back, "are the tool he has been crafting for his purpose. But if he decides you're not taking a form to his satisfaction, he'll willingly scrap the defective tool and forge a new one." One finger traced along my jaw, and then grabbed my chin. "Do you think he'll merely stand by and watch? From the moment I True Named you and you answered my Summons, Nevys will have realized that I have found you and will use you. Now, if he does not dispose of you quickly, I will find him."

I jerked my head back and away. "Then if I don't agree to help you, I should have nothing to worry about from him." I mercilessly shoved down the hurt and betrayal that had been knotted in my heart since Yuri had first given me his unwelcome news. Trying to deal with a fairy with such shaken feelings was dangerous. "It's not like it makes a difference to me who's side I work for. I've seen nothing to convince me that either is better than the other."

Her green eyebrows raised up a fraction, "Even after learning what he's done to you? Don't tell me you don't mind it?"

"Of course I mind," the thought of Nevys having renamed me and tampering with my memories left a foul taste, "But I also have objections to your way. You manipulated me, hurt Belius to the point where she couldn't defend herself, and had Leviathan's Claw kidnap me!"

"Oh, you realized?"

"Not many green haired woman seem to be that interested in meeting me," I pointed out dryly. "And I don't trust any of you; not you, not Nevys, not Alastor, and not that Bianca or Sybelle or whatever she goes by! So why should I bother switching sides now, if it'll give the one who 'always knows where I am' a reason to kill me?"

But during my speech Verte seemed to lose interest in what I was saying, giving her attention to the grassy plain around us. "Reason?" she said in an off hand tone. "You don't seem to understand your place. Your usefulness to Nevys has already been compromised and he's already taken the steps to remove the threat." And she nodded to the side, inviting me to look around.

When I did my mouth went dry. While we were talking we'd been surrounded by a pack of white furred, red eared fairy dogs. Ranged behind them was a smaller collection of the larger, darker Cù Sìth. Despite being nearly the size of small ponies, the larger dogs blended into the surrounding terrain terrifyingly well with their grass-like pelts.

Swallowing, my hands fell to my waist for the reassurance of grasping the hilts of my weapons...and I remembered that I had none.

"This makes your choice nice and clear cut." I shot a look over my shoulder back at Verte, wary of turning my back on the advancing fairy dogs. But I wasn't suspecting to see a shimmering distortion behind her back. From nowhere a pair of green wings materialized, like a delicate arrangement of stained glass shards. The seemingly fragile wings flattened the grass around us when they lifted her up into the air with a single beat.

"Your options stand thus," she laid out in a business like tone. "You can try and handle Nevys' pets on your own, and die one way or another. Or, you can agree to ally with me and I'll help you survive this day." A growl started in one of the fairy dog's throats, a rumble soon picked up by its companions until it became a dull roar that vibrated through my chest. Panicking, I whirled in the center of the tightening circle, trying not to let any of the dogs out of my sight long enough for it to attack my back.

"Well?" she prompted. "Your decision?"

Tch! She's trying to keep me off balance, so that I can't think about my options properly! As if the fairy dogs weren't enough pressure already. I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, "Fine. You win. So do something about this!"

"Firstly..." Verte reached out a hand with fingers splayed wide. The growling broke apart into yips and barks, and the dogs making up the innermost ring of the pack started snapping and biting at their legs. No, at the grass! The grass had come to life, snagging at their paws and twining around their lower legs to tie them to the ground. And their own bodies served as a barrier between me and the Cù Sìth. A temporary solution, but it bought me a minute or two.

"Catch these," I looked up and saw her tilting her hands to drop a pair of daggers. They tumbled down end over end. Instead of trying to catch them like Verte said, I pulled away on reflex rather than reach out and grab the wrong ends. With a small thump they landed on the ground a few feet from me, and I swooped down to snatch them up.

In my hands the hilts were smooth and seemed to yield the tiniest bit under the pressure of my grip. They lacked any crossguard to protect my hands with, but instead on one side of each dagger there was a curious fanning arrangement of spines. The centermost spine formed a ninety degree angle with the main dagger blade. The main blade was a dull gray-green, while the spines were vibrantly colored, red for one dagger and orange for the other.

A howl sounded, rising in pitch and volume like a police siren. I spun towards it in time to see a Cù Sìth leaping over a the head of the white fairy dogs in its way and bounding towards me.

With a shout I lunged towards the Cù Sìth, putting all my momentum behind the swing of the red spined blade. The massive dog dug its forepaws and nails into the ground to stop itself from running into my attack. It snarled as the blade passed by just short of its ember eyes.

Not trying to fight against my momentum, I actively increased it by pivoting on one foot and swinging the other out behind me. It pulled me around again, orange spined blade leading. The Cù Sìth had gathered itself and pounced when it saw the opening of my exposed back, but instead it got the full collection of orange spines raking across its muzzle as my dagger smashed against the side of its face.

It yelped and snapped its teeth, trying to catch my arm in its jaws. But I was already moving to the side to avoid getting plowed under by its bulk. Thrusting forward with the red spined blade again, I punctured its neck with the main blade and yanked it to the side viciously to open a nasty gash.

Blackish blood poured from the wound as I jumped back. The Cù Sìth was hacking up even more of the blood. It was still dangerous, but less of a threat and not even that for much longer.

I moved onto the next group, another of the pony sized dark green dogs with a triad of white fairy dogs that had won free of the binding grass. The four could be dealt with at once with a proper spin attack (ah, no, Phantom Blade. The manual had called it Phantom Blade, but at the time I had laughed at how it reminded me of Zelda). The technique was even more dangerous when I used the spines to etch extra lines of aer in the spiral. The damage done to the dogs wasn't life threatening, but it was enough to make them back off and have second thoughts about rushing in.

Verte saying, "Up you go," was all the warning I had before there was a surge of strange energy other than aer and a tree shot up from the ground under me. I got caught up in its branches, wincing as thorns caught at my skin and the borrowed knight's uniform. Something collided with the base of the trunk, the vibrations traveling up to shake me and the frond like leaves that had started unfurling from their buds.

I twisted around in the forking branches to look down at the roots. Two white fairy dogs, one lay in a crumpled heap and the other shook its head as it stood again on wobbling legs. But more were already gathering at the bottom, growling and snarling as they jumped and clawed at the trunk, scratching off bits of bark while trying to get at me.

Still, as I looked further I saw several more of the fairy dogs lay prone on the ground, grass nooses having wrapped around their necks and tongues lolling from their gaping mouths. The one Cù Sìth I'd stabbed in the neck had given into the fatal wound, the grass under its body drenched in black blood.

"Disappointing." I looked up and saw Verte poised on the upper boughs of the tree, the slender branches hardly bending under her weight. "One dead and four merely wounded? I expected more."

"Didn't you promise to get me out of this?" I reminded her.

"Certainly not. I gave you my word that you would live this day." I made a face at her nitpicking. She anticipated the thoughts I was having, "And don't think I'm obeying the letter and not the spirit of the agreement: if you're to continue surviving Nevys' attempts on your life you will need to be made stronger." She gestured to include all the fairy dogs still clamoring for my blood. "View them as the first step in your training."

"Tch," I looked back down at the dogs at the ground. "So you're leaving the dirty work for me." The smaller fairy dogs had backed off from the tree and one particularly large Cù Sìth threw itself at the tree. The impact nearly shook me from my haven in the branches, I threw my arms out to brace myself and got stabbed by more thorns for the trouble. But my position was too tenuous, one or two more knocks on the wood and I'd fall.

Twisting around further I managed to get my feet mostly under me and then pushed away from the branches holding me. I dropped onto the back of the Cù Sìth, clamping my legs around its sides so that it couldn't shake me when it reared up and tried to buck me off. Reaching forward around its neck I was about to deal a fatal attack to the throat again. But it suddenly ducked its head and rolled forward. "Ugh!" I was momentarily crushed under its weight as I got pinned between it and the ground.

It rolled off me, and then my shoulder was seized in its jaws. I cried out in pain, hands flying to the maw chomping on my right shoulder. Momentarily I had even forgotten the daggers in my hands, but fortunately hadn't dropped them. When I reflexively tried to grasp at the Cù Sìth's muzzle to pry it off I ended up scoring wounds across its face.

When it let go with a whine I rolled away, hissing at the pain in my ribs the movement brought. Somehow I got back up onto my knees. Breathing was an agony, it would be just great if my ribs had been cracked. And the white and dark green fairy dogs were coming closer again.

I ground my teeth and forced myself to stand up again. "Wind Blade!" I didn't form the aer with finesse, opting for speed instead. The half formed arc of cutting air sliced through the line of dogs, blowing them back. I threw more to break up the formation of the others. "Wind Blade, Wind Blade!" Panting shallowly to avoid straining my ribs, I eyed the dogs still standing.

"Is this why you've been following that group around?" Verte asked. "Because you just can't stand on your own?"

"Shut...up..."

"Using those others," she continued as if she hadn't heard me, "has kept you alive, but it has stunted the growth of your strength. Humans grow by hitting their limits, time and time again, and striving to surpass them."

The fairy dogs all pressed forward again, and I cast more Wind Blades to drive them off. But the last one was hardly more than a soft breeze that ruffled their fur.

"In a fight for your life you must either break past those limits or die."

"Saying that..." I panted, "isn't any...help at all!" My vision narrowed until all I could see was the dark furred face and glowing ember eyes of a Cù Sìth.* The monstrous dog knocked me over onto my back, pinning my arms to the ground with its huge forepaws. It breathed in my face, hot and damp, and then its white fangs started to close on my throat.

"No! Get off!" I desperately tried to pull my arms free. NO! I don't-I don't want to die!

My left hand burned. I won't die!

I wrenched my hands away from the ground, the sudden freedom disorienting. I rolled through its teeth and forelegs and scrambled away, seeking to break free from the ring of fairy dogs. From behind there was an odd rustling and frantic yelping, abruptly cut silent by a sharp snapping.

The heat faded from my hand. A warm trickle ran down my neck, blood oozing from the fortunately shallow bite.

Fangs clamped down on my right calf, yanking me back as whichever dog caught me snarled victoriously. I twisted over as much as I could, whipping my left leg in from the side. The heel of my foot slammed into its white head next to its eye, staggering the beast. The jolt that ran up my leg was painful and the dog didn't let go, but at least it was dazed and no longer trying to rip my leg right off.

Something's wrong. I drew my foot back and lashed out at the fairy dog again. But it growled and drove its teeth even deeper into my leg and I gasped in pain. Why isn't the permeability thing working again? It has before, in a case just like this!

"Dammit, let go!" I snarled back at the dog, pulling my savaged leg towards me before jamming it back further into its mouth. That was the last thing the white dog expected, it gagged and choked before letting go completely. Bare seconds later a tree branch came down from above and wrapped around its neck, lifting it clean off the ground and high into the air. I followed with my eyes as it arced through the air, until the branch settled in place again with the struggling dog hanging from the end as if it were an ornament strung up on a Christmas tree. Held up so high, with no support to take the pressure off its windpipe from the branch that had lassoed the creature, it wouldn't be long before the dog suffocated and died.

To my bewilderment, I realized it wasn't the first to suffer such a fate. A Cù Sìth was tangled in another section of the branches, contorted at unnatural angles that spoke of a broken neck and spine. A few more dogs, white and dark alike, writhed weakly in their own snares like the one that had been gnawing on my leg. It was...a macabre image.

Ho snap, Verte's tree is evil.

And the fairy that had grown this killer tree stood serenely at the very top, still as a statue carved from the living wood. Just watching the carnage below her.

There was only one of the Cù Sìth left with a handful of its smaller white kindred, all at least partially wounded. A quick head count confirmed that there were five of those.

The remaining Cù Sìth howled and the fairy dogs leaped forward as one. I staggered up onto my feet, nearly collapsing again at the agony that shot up my legs. Crap, putting weight on my feet hurts! Especially the bitten right leg, but my left foot ached from repeatedly kicking that one fairy dog in the head. I did my best to remain steady and ignore this as I settled into a stance with my daggers.

I unleashed one more Wind Blade point blank at one dog, the aer cutting deep into its chest. A quick slash at the second nearest dog successfully sliced across its face, blinding it, and a jab in the chest with both daggers put it down for good.

Darting through the gap I'd opened by downing the two, I spun and focused most of the remaining aer I could bear handling into another one of the formulas Rita had pounded into my skull for later practice. "O caprice of innocent waters, Champagne!" The water element aer flung out from me in the pattern of the formula, hitting the ground at the feet of the remaining three white dogs. From it bubbles of water fountained up into the air, like a curious inverse of the bubbles rising from the bottom of a glass of champagne or regular soda. The bubbles of water rushed upward from underneath the dogs, bursting on impact to release aer charged water on them.

And then I took my turn rushing the fairy dogs, while they were preoccupied with the barrage of water. They were caught in what looked like a comical canine variety of dance, hopping around trying to get free from the spell. One escaped it only to get the orange spined dagger deep in its back right between the shoulder blades. Another snapped angrily at a bubble and unexpectedly found my red spined dagger thrusting through the palate of its mouth into the brain.

The spell ran its course by that point, leaving me with one more white fairy dog and the Cù Sìth to deal with. And then there was only the Cù Sìth, as I brought both daggers slamming down on the top of the smaller dog's head. It dropped to the ground, two bloody lines opened across its skull.

Panting shallowly still, I stood over the bodies of the fairy dogs I'd felled while watching the lone survivor warily. Holding up the daggers seemed like a pointless waste of energy, I simply let them hang loosely in my hands at my sides. The Cù Sìth stared back at me, most of the injuries I suspected it had acquired were disguised by the dark color and matted tangle of fur, but the cuts across its muzzle and above one of its eyes were still apparent.

"Well?" I coughed lightly and winced at the spasm of pain in my ribs, "Gonna run? Or haven't you had enough?" It growled as if it understood. Not all that implausible. The Cù Sìth's head lowered with its ears laid back as its growl rose in volume, and then it barked once.

A sharp pain in my left ankle made me cry out and look down. The last dog I'd used Wind Blade on was lying on its side, but had been close enough to catch my ankle in its teeth and now held on with a vengeance. I had to drop to one knee and slash through its neck to finish it off before it could crush a bone or something.

But the distraction was more than I could afford. The huge maw of the dark dog closed on my left arm, still outstretched to administer that killing dagger stroke. It closed with a crunch, making me scream in pain, before letting go again and jumping back out of reach of retaliation. The orange spined dagger fell from my hand, my arm ruined past the point of being any more use in a fight. And, unlike what I was used to, there was no Estelle there to use her powers to fix such an injury in a flash. I wished I at least had some gels with me, but the only ones I had left were back in my bag. Wherever that was.

The Cù Sìth feinted towards me, causing me to unnecessarily jump to the side in evasion. A choked sob of pain escaped me as the move jostled my broken arm. As if my legs and ribs weren't enough of a literal pain. A coughing bark from the large fairy dog sounded annoyingly like a laugh.

What do I do? Verte wasn't making any move to help me. She was just visible off to the right, silent monarch reigning over a field of dead dogs and one fucked up Christmas tree. Something had to be seriously wrong with the way these fairies' heads worked.

Meanwhile the Cù Sìth was circling around me, forcing me to shuffle around in place to keep it from getting behind me. I grit my teeth before yelling, "Dammit, why don't you just do something?" and threw my remaining dagger at the dog. It dodged without giving the blade a second look and rushed forwards.

I smirked triumphantly. Stepping back gingerly on my right foot, I took as deep a breath as I could stand. The Cù Sìth lunged, trying to go for my already injured neck. I stepped forward again, putting all my momentum, my weight, and most importantly all the energy and aer I could scrape together into my right hand. It struck flat against the matted fur of the dog's chest as I released the aer from my palm. The aer spiked into the dog without mercy, dealing internal damage that final killed it.

Its body kept flying forward, and I was just too spent to try and avoid getting trapped under the dead beast. Nor could I push its dead weight off me with my one relatively good hand. Lying under it, I stared up at the sky.

Ah, I thought, noting the pale gray and blue that was spreading, with a rosy blush off in the east. Good morning...

x x x

"Mmm...hmm?" I cracked my eyes open, blinking at the sudden light, and tried to raise my hands to rub at my face. But trying to move my left arm awakened terrible pain. When I sucked in a sharp breath in surprise the pain resurged in my ribs as well. Biting my lip, I struggled to stay perfectly still. Tears leaked from the corners of my eyes to roll down the edges of my face until they were lost in my hairline.

"Took your time, didn't you. Have a nice dream?"

Using as little air as possible I whispered, "No." I couldn't remember any dreams at all.

I blinked, clearing the tears from my eyes, and then could see Verte was standing above me, looking down. Her green hair looked feathery as it framed her down turned face. The soft effect it gave was at odds with the coldness in her eyes. "And here I was led to believe that humans had an indomitable will to live. But you would most certainly be a rotting corpse if left on your own." I twisted my expression into a scowl as best I could.

"It's an undeniable fact," she answered my expression placidly. "Even with my help, you just barely killed seven of them, only a third of their total numbers. If you were on your own, you'd have been torn apart before you even reached three." Her head bobbed in my vision and got closer, meaning she'd knelt down next to me.

"I'll have to keep a closer eye on you than I thought," a touch of dissatisfaction entered her voice, "and for now you'll be no use at all. There's no help for it but to leave you somewhere until you can be useful again." The fairy woman picked up my left hand without bothering to handle it gently. I ground my teeth as the pain made me feel sick to my stomach. "First, I'll make a slight adjustment here..." something small and rounded was pressed against the back of my hand for a moment before it seemed to liquify and disappear.

"Now get up," she gripped the collar of the knight's uniform and hauled me up.

I grabbed at her hands on my collar with my good hand. "That hurts," I growled.

"Of course it does," she responded, "But this will be easier if you're standing."

Easier? What- There was another surge of that unidentifiable something, this time sweeping over me and feeling like it ran in a current through my body. Everything around me changed in a split second of time, abruptly and completely. It was like someone had taken two films and spliced them together, making the entire movie change midscene.

Gone was the bodies of the fairy dogs, as well as Verte's evil tree. Instead of out in an open field, we were standing in the shade of a small grouping of trees in an expanse of rolling field and low hills. Even the light from the sun had changed, it had moved across a chunk of the sky and was partly obscured by clouds. In the far distance I could make out cliffs rising up from the ground level. And, most importantly of all, not too far from us was..."Zaphias?"

The entire city was constructed on a massive hill that rose from the ground in a gentle swell. Like a bubble half way through rising up into the air. A wall and periodically spaced towers of white stone circled the outer city, another wall divided the city about halfway up the hill, and finally on the very top a massive sword like spire pierced the sky. The barrier was probably built into that spire, since the concentric rings floating protectively above the city seemed to be centered on it.

"Yes, it was the closest human community that I deemed an acceptable place to leave you while you rehabilitate yourself." Verte let go of me, the loss of support was unexpected so that my knees caved and I ended up kneeling on the ground. "Get up!" she commanded. "I can't bring you any closer than this, the iron would interfere enough as it is if I were to go alone. Go and find a healer for yourself, I'll be back for you in a few days." And then Verte vanished without a trace.

...

"EVEN IF YOU SAY THAT, HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO GET THERE SAFELY WHEN I'M HURT LIKE THIS?" After that furious outburst I spent a minute doubled over trying to ride out the waves of pain I'd gotten from aggravating my ribs and injured arm.

It was then I realized that both the strange daggers I'd gotten from Verte were tucked into the waistband of the uniform I had borrowed from Sarah. I drew the orange spined one with my good right hand and looked at it. The hilt...was a smooth green material that had been twisted around into a more solid shape, like a spring that had had its coils welded together.

I knew it seemed familiar. It's like a plant's stem. Somehow, Verte turned flowers into an almost conventional weapon. I laid the dagger on the ground and pulled out the other one. Hmm, Bird of Paradise? Flashy. "In that case," I mumbled, "I guess it's a given I should name this one Phoenix," I looked down from the red spined Phoenix and back to the orange spined twin, "And this one would be Simurgh."

Putting them both back into my waistband, I used my right hand to push myself up from the ground again, "Upsy now..." I tottered on my feet until reasonably sure I wasn't about to fall flat on my face. Next, I just have to get to the city, "One step...at a time..." Looking up, I focused on Zaphias ahead of me. Probably only a few miles away. I staggered forward that one step, and another, and another, chewing on my lower lip to try and distract myself from the pain each step brought to my feet.

It's gonna be a long day...

x x x

It took hours to cross the wilderness from the random copse of trees where Verte (Bitch) had dumped me. And the day was getting dark early with the number of clouds that had been rolling in. Luckily, no monsters had bothered me. The knights probably helped keep the area around the capital pretty safe. Not that there weren't any, I saw some strange...oddish and hopip hybrid. And something a bit too far away for me to make out clearly other than that it was spherical... But they didn't bother me, maybe because they recognized the knight uniform and avoided me. Heck, that could be why I didn't have any trouble.

But...

Those hours were very lonely.

Since I'd arrived on Terca Lumireis, there was only one other time when absolutely no one else around. That time back when I'd just left Ludwig's home and had been trying to guess where I could most likely meet the others. At the time I hadn't thought about how alone I was. I'd gotten used to being isolated in the forest with Ludwig, and was expecting to see faces I knew soon enough.

But outside Zaphias, weak and hurting, I was terribly aware that there wasn't another human around for miles other than the promise of the city.

I wonder...how the others are doing... During the escape from the harbor, the Fiertia's ceres blastia should have reacted to Belius' apatheia... The power surge would have blasted them past the knights without problem, followed by Judith destroying the ceres blastia...and making her departure with Ba'ul as the Dragon Rider.

But now they've had all day on that boat...and Chase is with them... Wonder what he'll do, stuck on a boat with them for a couple of weeks. The thought made me smirk and dare a wheezing laugh. Ahh, I bet Yuri'll have a few questions for him.

My amusement was short lived. After all...they'd have questions for me too. Some cowardly part of me wondered if it might be a good thing that Verte had snatched me away then. But with her plans for me, I may not see the others anytime soon...if ever again... Even though there was nothing I could do about the situation, these thoughts and their like kept running through my head the whole time. But I wouldn't let myself stop walking for fear that I'd never get myself moving again.

The entrance to the lower quarter was unguarded. Running alongside the street was one of those waterways I recalled were all over the lower quarter. Heh, like Venice... I tried to stay as far away from where the street dropped off to the river. Better not to tempt fate in my condition.

Even if there were no knights posted on the lookout (who's bright idea was that? Or were they just not taking the post seriously, or out on a coffee break, or what?) it wasn't long before my presence was noticed. Wary, mistrustful eyes were peeking at me from cracks in doors and windows, mothers pulling away the curious children who were bolder in their staring. Some men, all wearing hard expressions, stood in doorways or alley mouths like gatekeepers and watched me pass by. I didn't even consider talking to any of them, men, mothers, or children. None of them would have the inclination to help an injured stranger in knight's clothing.

In the end, after wandering the lower quarter aimlessly with no destination in mind, I reached a square where several streets intersected. There I stood at the edge of a large fountain, staring down into the clear pool of water while pondering what I ought to do next.

Where could I go to receive medical treatment? How could I even pay for it when I got it? I seriously had nothing but the clothes on my back and my daggers. Even my own clothes (other than the tattered sleeves I'd wrapped around my feet) had gotten misplaced at some point, most likely when Verte had jumped me across continents.

"Looks to me as if you've fallen on hard times." Having somebody actually strike up a conversation with me was unexpected. I almost forgot myself in my surprise, remembering just in time to move slowly to avoid overreaching my taxed limits. An old man, hunched over from age and peering at me over a pair of battered and scratched spectacles, was examining me with the impunity the elderly have from seeing a lifetime of reality and getting the real important stuff in perspective. "Or should I say that hard times have fallen on you?"

"Maybe a bit of both," I spoke with a soft voice. Hurting ribs and all that. And then I had to admit, "I'm not entirely sure what to do with myself right now."

"Don't know what to do with yourself?" the old man repeated with a disbelieving noise. "A young Knight like you should be straight on her way to report and get her injuries fixed up in the royal quarter."

Giving the barest shake of my head, "No good. I may look like one," I glanced at my incomplete and torn uniform. It was ripped from thorns and bites, blood from my neck and left arm crusting on the collar and sleeve, and my right leg had a pretty obvious bite wound with even more dried blood. I had even ripped open the left side of the uniform myself, just enough that I could slide my broken left arm into the gap and keep it mostly secure instead of hanging free. "...with some stretch of the imagination, but I'm not with the knights. It's a bit of a long story, but in the end this uniform is all I have to wear for the moment." I grimaced, "And I'd really like to avoid the knights if at all possible."

His expression grew a little sterner. "Here now, we're not always on the best terms with the Knights down here, but we don't want to start any trouble with them. They're not about to come looking for you, are they?"

"Shouldn't be, I'm nobody important to them," I answered honestly. "Just that, there's some questions they'd probably ask that I'd be hard put to answer." Not just the hefty list of questions Flynn probably had, but whatever Alexei had been interested in that time we met him in Heliord. Ages ago, but who knew if he still wanted that little chat with me? And putting those two aside, I'm sure there'd be enough from the other officers about what a commoner without any official records whatsoever was doing running around impersonating an Imperial Knight. Fun stuff.

I shook my head again to myself, marveling at the predicament I'd gotten myself into, and realized the world kept moving even after I ceased the gesture. Lifting my good hand to my forehead in reaction to the dizzy spell, I realized I was listing to the side and about to fall over. "Oh dear..." I sat down on the edge of the fountain, grunting as I failed to do so gingerly enough to minimize the pain that accompanied the action. The dizziness hadn't passed, and I pressed my fingers to my eyes and bowed my head.

When it felt less like my brain was swimming around in my skull I lifted my head from hand again. I saw that a young boy in a striped brown shirt had joined the old man, nodding his head at something the elder had said before sprinting off down a street.

The old man turned back to me. "So what's your name?"

Lloyd's voice seemed to surface in my head, declaring, 'Give me your name and I'll give you mine!' I snorted at the thought. Before, the name thing had never been a big deal to me. I thought that in this situation, the man had every right to ask my name without offering his first. But lately...names had been taking on a greater importance than ever.

Should I tell him or stick with a fake name? Keep using Lena or make something new up... But a new fake name sounded so absurd when I had no real name left to guard. Only a false name that came with a load of heavy baggage. "Wish I knew. You can call me whatever you want."

"Is that so?" he folded his thin arms. "In any case, most folks here just call me Hanks."

Ah...I can't even work up much excitement over this... "Nice to meet you," I mumbled, thinking I needed to make the effort to be a bit polite. It's what I did, right? Listen, nod, and treat elders with respect? ...With some exceptions. Like God-knew-how-old fairies that jerked me around. Or Raven when he did something that didn't deserve respect. Like most of the time. That's on purpose though, part of the persona he's made...right? ...I guess it's not a total sham, he wouldn't be able to pull it off so well if part of the act wasn't reality...

A cool hand slipped up under the long strands of hair that had fallen over my face to press against my head. I blinked as my eyes refocused, I hadn't realized my vision had gone so hazy. Before me was a woman with chestnut brown hair in a bob cut and crows feet at the corners of her brown eyes. It was her hand on my forehead, replacing my own, and my eyes half closed in bliss at the feeling.

"She has a fever," the woman said, "And infection may have already started to set in. Arm is-" her hand left my head and prodded my arm experimentally, making me gasp and bite off a curse as my vision tunneled and I nearly black out, "-definitely broken. Leg is-" I was expecting the prod at my bite wound and held my breath as she poked and pressed down on the skin, "-not as serious, but needs to be cleaned and dressed. Anywhere else, dear?" For the first time in her cataloguing of my injuries she actually seemed to be talking to me.

"Ribs," I hissed as I exhaled the breath I'd been holding in. "Don't think they're broken, but they hurt..." And then I had to endure as she examined my chest and confirmed that they were fractured, but not outright broken and no danger to my internal organs. They'd heal normally, the issue was my arm. I hadn't done any first aid for it at all, believing that trying to do anything when I was worse than ignorant on the matter could make things worse.

"If all you want is my opinion," the woman was saying to Hanks and another very displeased looking man who had joined them, "she should be put somewhere safe and treated right away. She's not getting any better out here, and it's going to rain soon."

The man (and it was taking all I had not to just lean against the woman and fall asleep right then, so I didn't pay much attention to what he looked like) wasn't very pleased by this. "And then what? None of us have enough to spare to take in a freeloader. She would probably rob blind whoever takes her in anyway."

"Jean Valjean," I muttered to myself, interrupting the bickering for a second.

When I didn't follow up, the woman resumed her side of the argument, "Must be the fever. Can either of you in good conscience leave her on her own like this? Even if she robbed every house here, I still wouldn't regret that any more than if I ignored someone I could have helped."

Such a vote of confidence...

"Ha, can you tell that to whatever poor sap loses his savings to her? Or when the Knights come to haul him away for harboring a criminal?"

"I can and I will, if it comes to it. Though I can hardly see how you find her so dangerous. What great criminal would be sitting half dead in the street?"

"Alright, settle down you two," Hanks finally intervened, to the relief of my self esteem. "We're not getting anywhere with this, and we should make up our minds before that rain gets started. So you, miss has-no-name," I gave a slight nod to show I'd heard him, "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

"...I-" Why were people always asking me this? Why did I always have to explain myself? And when I'd finally promised I would explain, would tell the truth as it was, I went and got myself into this mess. "I'm sorry...Yuri..." I whispered. In my mind's eye, I could picture him standing with his back turned to me. But I could not, for the life of me, imagine what expression I would see on his face if he turned around. My mind added the rest of the group to its tableau, all facing away from me. "Sorry...guys..."

"Did she say...?"

"Hey, girl!" the man tried talking to me, and got scolded by the woman. I missed why exactly she did, since he kept talking without her objecting. "You're not talking about Yuri Lowell, are you?" I couldn't seem to form the words to answer. "Hey!"

"Stop that," the woman smacked his hand away from me. "If you let me treat her and she recovers, you can slap her around and make her talk as much as you want." Hey hey, are you on my side or what?

"I-I wasn't going to-!"

"In that case, we'll leave her in your hands, Lily," Hanks decided, ignoring the frustrated grumbling of the other man.

The woman, Lily, stood up with hands on her hips. "That's settled, so come on girl." I blinked muzzily at her, and then tried to stand up, almost not managing it until she and the man both gave me a hand. "We'll take her to the inn for now, what inn isn't always ready for new people? Later you men can decide who isn't too chicken to keep an eye on her in their own house."

I closed my eyes and let them lead me wherever.

x x x

Looking up any picture of a bird of paradise flower on google should give you an idea of the dagger design. I'll see what I can do about a rough sketch of them...sooner or later...

Bleh. 20 dogs or so total, if you're interested in knowing. Maybe more, I'm not sure how many exactly Verte took care of on her own. I'm not sure if my fight scenes are getting better, or just more gruesome?

Hanks seemed to me to be the unofficial spokesman of the lower quarter. He and the rest of the townsfolk may have seemed a bit out of character in how they first treated Letha, but we're getting a different look at them than in the game. In the game their community is like one big family that looks out for its own, and Yuri is already one of them. By extension, Yuri's friends would also be met with friendship. But here Letha is an outsider, and dressed like a knight on top of that (and most knights tended to look down on them as you'll remember). It would have been even more out of place, in my opinion, if she was welcomed with open arms.

YES, I named her Lily. It somehow seemed right. She has no relation to Yuri. That I know of. So far. ...Unless the plot bunnies start spawning. Which they likely will. The other appropriate name I liked from a random generator was Hester (the site said it means "star"). Speaking of which, anyone want to make any suggestions for what the lower quarter people will be calling Letha? ;) I thought you might like a chance to help make the decision~ I may or may not make a poll with the names I get, it'll depend on how many names people come up with.

Finally, I am considering what to do to celebrate the Christmas season, more information on that later.