Okay, I'm back. FINALLY.
I got really fed up with this chapter. REALLY. UNDERSTATEMENT IN CAPS.
It makes me want to cry thinking how it's been a year (and another month, almost). I really was working on it throughout the entire year. Rewrote the damn thing from scratch at least three times, plus there's a bunch of documents scattered all over my folders full of all the stuff I wrote and then cut out but thought I might salvage later or maybe not. And even more I outright deleted. Probably wrote about five chapters worth for this chapter alone.
What I actually decided was to hold this chapter back until I had another one or two down so that I'd be sure I wouldn't write myself into a corner and realize too late that what I had planned wasn't going to work out at all. So that means I have the next couple of chapters ready once they're edited a little bit. I won't put them all up at once, but you won't have to wait so long to get the next installments. I think...yeah, I'll wait maybe a week, certainly no more than two, before putting up the next chapter. I tend to lose track of what day of the week it even is so I'm not gonna promise a specific day, just that it won't come out before next Tuesday. If I really lose track of time and it takes more than two weeks, someone throw a shoe at me.
On another note...I like the TV Tropes website, and occasionally go to the fanfic recommendations to, well, find some recommendations. AAAAAH! Fairy Tales and Brave Vesperia is there now! A big THANK YOU to Tropers/Gryfo! (Was that two separate people or one? I know one of you followers goes by the name Gryfo, and now I'm making an ass of myself but THANK YOU!)
Oh dear, and there were fanarts I was kindly gifted with even if I didn't deserve them. Honestly can't remember which ones I've linked to in previous chapters (and that's my own damn fault).
From KatherosLibra (she drew it for me as a present for my 22nd birthday, now I'm a couple months shy of 23...):
katheroslibra. /art/ Birthday-Gift-For-Sylph-314347991?q= gallery%3Akatheroslibra %2F26742950&qo=5
From MyDarkSideHasAWayOfHerOwn (aka Temari, who seems to get awful hyper from talking with me):
thet-chan. /art/ Letha-Vitae-Skit-Faces-325768007?q= gallery%3Athet-chan% 2F33542727&qo=34
thet-chan. /art/ Chase-Browncoat-Skit-Faces- 328347021
Aaaand a bunch of other things that can all be found in my favorites, but these are skit faces she kindly made for me! (And for some other SI OCs, I would recommend checking them out!)
*Coughs* Here I'd normally respond to all the anonymous guest reviews like Angelic (Goddammit Badger, you're lucky it's been a year!)...but it feels a bit awkward after a year of silence to answer a review that was possibly even forgotten by it's poster. I'm sorry guys! D: I try to answer all reviews, but for the ones without an account linked for a PM it's kinda hard when you're wrestling with a block. Felt bad for the guests who were expressing concern about me that I couldn't even respond to.
Ugh, super long author's note/apology needs to end now. Just one last word to apologize about how this chapter gets caught up in a lot of talk despite me taking the editing hatchet to it repeatedly this year.
x x x
Chapter 60: To Hell With Fate
x x x
I had been anticipating a very awkward reunion, to say the least. Butterflies practicing aerobics in my stomach covers my feelings on the matter, more or less. It came back full force as I was lead by the hand to where the others were waiting (or; Estelle was hovering with concern over Vince while half of her attention was fixed on us coming towards her, Rita was enthusiastically burning things, and everyone else was uneasily dividing their concern between us and the fire happy mage).
The excitable butterflies got even more worked up. Some had even started flying up through my chest to get inside my skull. The sudden dizzy spell made my footsteps stumble as I tried and failed to draw in any deep breaths. Whuh? For a moment I thought that some of the flower's muddling perfume was still fogging up my head. I tried to stop and stand straight-and found myself gasping as the world around me swerved and I could only see treetops and a patch of blue sky-
-and then the view had changed. Trunks and branches and verdant growth were passing by, but out of one eye I could only see brown. And I could feel warm leather under my cheek. I'm moving? Oh, I see. This was familiar. I was riding on Chase's back, just like when he carried me away from the Red-eyes mess last time I was around Dahngrest.
I couldn't see anyone from my vantage on his back. Keeping still, I listened for the others. Up ahead I could hear the half muted tones of several people talking. Arguing, rather. From what I could make out, concerned parties aka Estelle and Vince were trying to convince Cliff to stop for a break. And Cliff was insisting it was better to push on back to the city before stopping and never mind the blood loss.
Oh. Right, those roots had been sapping strength from us somehow. It wasn't just some gaming abstract of lost HP points or anything; they'd been literally sucking the life, or more precisely the blood, from our bodies. I'd been too caught up in the adrenaline and urgency to really think about it or notice. Uuugh, vampire plant... That on top of its sweet smelling perfume...and I'd been burning through aer trying to cut and freeze stuff all morning... Wow, no wonder I blacked out for a minute or two. Or three. Or...you know what? Never mind how long.
From a point just above the top of my head came Chase's voice, low in volume but more than close enough for me to hear. "You awake?"
"No," I mumbled into his shoulder. "'M sleep talkin. Keep carrin' me." My lazy bones didn't feel like working. Okay, that was a lie. It was actually...that it just felt good and safe to be holding someone. Especially since I wasn't sure when the last time had been, or when the chance may ever come again. Even if I was still angry with him, on principle if for no other reason.
Not that it really mattered. "If you can sleep talk, then you can sleepwalk," Chase declared as he loosened his hold under my knees and let me slide off of his back. I had to get my feet under me and stand or fall ingloriously to the ground.
"The chivalry. It boggles the mind," I grumbled halfheartedly, rubbing at my left arm (it was tingling as if feeling had been lost and was returning) as I took a better look around.
Clifton and Vince were not only up ahead, they were in the lead with Yuri. It seemed as if the group was relying on the locals to find the way back to Dahngrest. We were pretty much in the middle of nowhere after all. Estelle was in step just behind them, talking with Vince about something that made her smile, while Rita stuck to her side with a disinterested look.
"Hey! She's up!" That was Karol, the Ace bringing up the rear with Raven and, huh, Harry was with us too. No sign of Judith, not that I'd held much hope that she'd stick around after all...
"Raven..." I scolded, "That isn't yours."
The old archer had evidently helped himself to the packed brunch that had sent me out there in the first place (Estelle was carrying the actual satchel). He only shrugged a shoulder and stuffed the rest of a sausage wrapped in a bread slice into his mouth. "No one else wanted any."
Having been alerted by Karol's exclamation, the others had stopped in their tracks and come back to gather in a lopsided circle around me. Oh shit. I stopped rubbing my tingling arm and instead pulled it in close, hand wrapped tight because I needed to hold onto something. Dear God...I wish this was over already.
Repede came out of the brush alongside the trail we were following, giving me a minor heart attack before I recognized him. I suppose he'd been scouting further ahead for signs of monsters.
"So that was a nice trick," Yuri started benignly enough. "How do you jump ship in Nordopolica and still get here before us?"
"Umm, hopscotched across continents?" I offered lamely, shoulders hunching up. "Er-it sounds like bull when put that way, but..." I glanced around at Chase. "How much have you filled in?"
"Only the basics," he supplied. "Earth is another world, no aer, humans only, except for the fairies that sneak in and abduct new helpers now and then. Coca Cola and Cinemax theaters weren't on the top of the list, but I might have mentioned how much I miss them at some later point. I forget." He blinked innocently at the flat look I gave him.
"Half the stuff he says doesn't make a lotta sense," Raven complained to me. "Makes ya kinda wish he were still pretendin' to be a regular guy." I decided not to point out that, to me, he still sounded like a regular guy. Just like anyone else I could have met from Earth. Even if he had managed to keep remarkably silent about any Earth references before.
Yuri cocked his head at angle, giving me a look that seemed to be trying to go right through me. "So, you have one too? One of these fairies who comes in and bosses you around?"
As good a place to start as any, I suppose. "Yes," I answered dully. "I...'met' Nevys unexpectedly...and was immediately pulled in over my head. Currently I'm stuck in some annoying feud between fairies; Nevys and Verte. And I don't even know how you and Alastor fit into it all," I directed the last towards Chase, "but I'm getting pretty fed up with not knowing anything."
"Wow! Who would have thought being kept in the dark is a bad experience!" Rita snarked with vicious sarcasm. Oooh, making up with her wasn't going to be easy.
I sighed, "Alright, I can understand you being upset with me and I don't blame you for it, but bringing it up earlier-"
"No, back up." Clifton had interrupted me, bringing the collective attention to him. He leaned with his weight supported against a tree-possibly the only reason he was still standing-and wasn't really a part of the circle. Vince looked a little lost standing between us and his older friend. "What are you even talking about? Are you actually saying that-that those two-" one hand waved in the direction of Chase and I, "-aren't even from this world? That's just impossible!"
This was met with uncomfortable silence. While I was trying to think how to even begin explaining to the near stranger, Harry was surprisingly the first to speak. "It does sound impossible, when you hear about it. And there's little proof that everything they claim is true." Uh, wait, are you on our side or one of the disbelievers? The blond man was unfazed by the frowning stare I was giving him. "However, there isn't any way to prove it isn't true either. All that can be said for certain is that their circumstances are definitely unusual."
Clifton and Vince both stared at him, dumbfounded. It was one thing for a bunch of strangers to be talking about crazy stories, but hearing something (almost) supportive from the Don's own grandson must've been hard to compute.
Man, made me really wish I wasn't going to say what I was about to.
"Well," I cleared my throat and studied the leaves on a nearby branch, "I hate to say it, but that's actually not the most unbelievable part."
"There's more?!" Karol gaped. There was a shine to his eyes that suggested he wasn't entirely adverse to the shocking developments, at least from the perspective of childish wonder. I mean, I was under the impression that most boys his age thought the idea of meeting aliens would be the coolest thing ever.
Chase raised a finger, "Uh, you sure?" I shot him a glare of, Don't you dare start with me. "Okay, your call..."
"Don't see how it can get any crazier than it already is," Raven added. Chase coughed.
"Back home, on Earth," I paused to take a deep breath and then finished all in a rush. "We have, um, something called video games. Kind of an interactive form of story telling. And one in particular is called 'Tales of Vesperia'."
"Tales of...Vesperia?" Estelle repeated, as if wondering if she'd heard wrong. And the others were exchanging uncertain looks. Her legs gave out and she sank to the ground, bright eyes rising up to fix on me. "'Interactive story telling?' Letha, what are you saying?"
I bit the inside of my cheek before pushing on. "It tells the story of a certain group of people, starting with when a certain man tries to catch an imposter that scammed the Lower Quarter people out of their money and an important blastia. And ends with the, um..." I momentarily considered vaguely mentioning space cephalopods and Empire State Building sized feathers. "Uh, let's leave that as a surprise."
Yuri shook his head. "Whoa, wait, let me get this straight. Everything that's happened, everything since we met you...you already knew it was going to happen?"
Rita was shaking her head and smacked her hand to it. "For crying out loud, isn't there anything remotely normal about you?!"
"Not anymore, I guess. And as for what's happened? Much of it..." I answered them in turn. Oh, better to cover all the bases. "Uh, plus the events in Shizontania a couple years ago, thanks to a prequel movie..."
"Sounds to me like there isn't much ya don't know," Raven said with suspicion. With the calculating and not entirely pleased look on his face, I imagined he was most likely reevaluating how I'd learned of his identity as Schwann, and what else I may know about his situation. Yeah...well...
I could only shrug at him. "I only know as much as the game covers. Any deep dark secrets that weren't dug up over the course of the plot? Well, they're still dark and deep with me none the wiser."
"What about you?" Harry asked Chase. "How much of-of all this do you know?"
"I can't believe I'm hearing this..." Clifton muttered under his breath, but still audibly. "Has everyone lost their minds?"
Sheepishly Chase supplied a shrug of his own before answering Harry. "Not a whole lot? Just some stuff here and there... The part about Shizontania's news to me, I only know the rumors that went around when it happened."
Whitehorse's grandson wouldn't let it go at that, "But you both knew about what would happen to the Duce, isn't that right? Wasn't there something you could've done to stop it?!"
The rising note of desperation in his voice made me pause and take a good look at him before answering. Harry...didn't look so good. He had bags under his eyes and the rims were red. And while I couldn't say for sure, he seemed paler than he should after a week at sea in the sun.
"You...you did try, didn't you?" Estelle said slowly. I looked around at her quickly and saw understanding dawning in her eyes, turning into a complicated expression that worried me. "Chase showed up just in time to help Belius with the Hunting Blades...and you," she looked up and met my eyes. "You stopped me from using my powers to heal her."
"Estelle..." I tried to say, but didn't know what it was I wanted to tell her. Even if it had been necessary, the confused and hurt look in her eyes when I pointed my sword at her couldn't be forgotten so easily.
"If you hadn't stopped me, what would have happened? Would I have...to Belius-"
"You didn't though," Chase derailed that train of thought. "So what 'could' have happened doesn't matter." Then he began to address the entire group again. "Yeah, we both tried to change things, and we did. But in the end it wasn't much different than the outcome we were trying to prevent."
"Does that mean...whatever we do, it's already been decided for us?" Karol asked, eyes wide and white as ping pong balls at the thought. The novelty had vanished from his eyes. "Does it even matter what we decide to do, if we just end up doing what we're supposed to anyway?" Harry looked up sharply at that.
I crossed my arms and blew out a breath before saying, "Look, things like 'fate' or 'predestination' are no reason to shirk the responsibilities for your own actions. Thinking it doesn't matter even if you made a bad choice because you were 'meant' to make that choice anyway is ridiculous. Your choices are only determined by the person you are, and the person you are depends on the choices you make!"
"I already said things changed, didn't I?" Chase added a bit peevishly. "Just because this time it turned out to similar ends doesn't mean there's no difference at all. Sometimes changes happen and they're big, and sometimes you don't see the difference until much later."
"Alright," Rita started, and she seemed to radiate challenge. "If you know so much about what's going on, why don't you tell us what the deal with Judith is? You knew she was the dragon freak all along, didn't you?!"
I had to roll my eyes at that. "Is this supposed to be some kind of test? Not that effective if you don't know the answer to the first part yourself and I've pretty much answered the second already. Yes, I did know about her as well as why she's doing it, but no, I will not tell you."
"Why not?!" her voice squeaked a little. "She's been destroying blastia! Did you ever try to stop her from doing that? We almost got stranded out at sea because of her!"
I unfolded my arms in order to spread them helplessly. "I can't help that I already know this stuff, but I'm not about to start sharing everyone's personal secrets behind their backs. If you want to know about Judith, you need to ask her yourself and see if she'll tell you."
Raven rubbed his chin. "But ya do know, so that means it's one of those 'deep dark secrets' that'll come up anyway?"
I pursed my lips in annoyance. "Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Anything can change. Please don't try to fish for information on the future, I don't plan on giving it out anyway."
"What? Why not?" Karol whined, actually disappointed. Kid can't make up his mind whether to be appalled or not. Maybe he was hoping that having a living cheat sheet would be like a hack that could skip us past the scary bits.
"I thought this bothered you, now you want to know?" Chase teased him.
"Well-no-I mean-It's scary to think someone else is in control of what we do, but I don't get what's wrong with knowing what'll happen to us?" His brow furrowed as he considered the possibilities. "I mean...isn't it better to get ready in advance, before something bad happens? Or we could even keep it from happening!"
"Even if she told you something like, 'a giant meteor will be on collision course with the planet and there's nothing you can do to stop it'?"
"Wh-what?! Nothing? Are you sure?" the poor Ace was actually panicking.
I swatted the back of Chase's head. "Stop trying to scare him. That's another game entirely. Holy ate the meteor anyway."
Yuri shook his head at that. "You guys have some weird hobbies in your world..."
"This is ridiculous," Clifton growled. "I can't believe I put up with listening to this shit as long as I have. She's insane," he flung a hand in my direction, "he's just as bad," Chase was implicated, "and the rest of you have to be soft in the head to be considering this!"
"Hold on now," Raven objected, "That's being a bit too harsh-"
"It's the truth!" Clifton shouted back at him. "And for both you and the Don's grandson to be taking this crap hook, line, and sinker, I can only think that Altosk must be on its way out!"
Faster than I thought the old man could move (his repeated complaints about his age must've been brainwashing me), his arm shot out and he grabbed Clifton's collar, pulling the taller man down and close.
With a not so friendly smile, the older archer said to Cliff, "Now, I'm not one to pay much mind when someone's talkin' bad about me. But I'm not gonna let it slide if someone says it about the old man or his family. And the whole guild is his family, far as I'm concerned. We clear?" The shock hadn't entirely passed yet-this was a bit more ballsy than we were accustomed to from the old man.
The redheaded man glared back at Raven. Vince rushed over and grabbed Raven by the arm, but it was to his own friend he "Clifton, that's too much..." The red head turned his eyes away and mumbled something.
"Glad to hear it." Raven let go of his shirt, Clifton stumbling away from him. Vince reached out to support him.
"C'mon, Vince," he growled, ignoring the rest of us. "We're going back."
"But-"
"Now, Vince!"
Dallying only long enough to collect the picnic satchel from Estelle, another bag he'd apparently brought with him, and give us all one more quick word, "Thanks for your help. Don't worry, I'll talk to Clifton," Vince ran off to catch up with his departing friend. Almost tripping over three different roots on the way. I hope...there's actually a good side to Cliff that I just haven't seen, or else I feel real bad for Vince following him around like a puppy.
"We should get moving too," Yuri finally said, when the two were barely visible through the trees. "Dahngrest won't get any closer if we keep sitting around here, and we can keep talking as we go."
"Right..." Estelle nodded weakly, and then held up her lightly fisted hands as new determination sparked in her eyes. "You're right! And we shouldn't let those two get too far away, it could be dangerous if they're attacked again!"
Rita tsked her tongue, "Who cares if they are. Would serve the red haired jerk right. Call me 'soft in the head,' ungrateful bastard..."
x x x
Having my bag returned to me was another upside to the roller coaster ride of the morning. It had then been followed by Estelle and Karol apologizing, but they had all looked inside and found my stuff from Earth. "It's alright," I made myself tell them, stiff although it sounded. "I can't say I'm surprised. Anyway, I probably would have shown you that stuff if you didn't believe me earlier. About the Earth part, that is."
"So, I want to be sure I've got this right..." Karol was the first who's curiosity got the better of him, antsy at the silence that had fallen as we walked, everyone individually trying to absorb the new revelations. "You and Chase are aliens-" Oh em gee... "-who travel outer space and call yourself Earthlings?"
I missed my footing and almost faceplanted a tree. "Chase!" I gasped, "Chase, why did you tell them to call us that?!"
"What?" he got defensive. "The Child of the Earth thing was getting weird! It sounded so...pompous. And we do call ourselves that. What sci fi movie's complete without the aliens trash talking about how feeble or war minded the Earthlings are?"
"We're not in a sci fi movie! Now I'm gonna feel like I walked onto the set of a Star Trek or something!" Never mind that I'd been privately using the term myself. That was just a convenient distinction, not one I was actually fond of.
But I had to stop talking and concentrate on taking deep breaths for a few seconds until the lingering lightheadedness from overdoing the aer and fighting passed again. It didn't help that Chase held up one hand and made the Vulcan "Live Long and Prosper" V-hand sign. Being able to laugh at anything in the middle of all this honestly pretty good, even if I felt short winded.
Rita's thin patience snapped. "Would you both knock it off already!"
x x x
Space Operas
Chase: Hey, there was something I wanted to ask you before I forget all about it.
Letha: What? You too now?
Chase: Relax, it's nowhere near as big a deal as all the other stuff.
Letha: Fine then. Ask away.
Chase: What's the deal with this Serenity thing they keep talking about?
Letha: Huh?
Chase: And that kid, Karol, even asked me if I'd ever been on a spaceship.
Letha: Heh. How 'bout that?
Chase: How did you even tell them about all this stuff without revealing you're from another world?
Letha: The glorious magic words: Plot Device.
Strained
Letha: Hey, Rita, I've been wanting to talk to you about-
Rita: Estelle! Wait up a minute!
*Rita runs off and leaves Letha behind*
Letha: -some spells...I... Okay then. Maybe next time...
x x x
I sighed. When she wasn't deliberately ignoring me, Rita kept shooting these little glares at me. It was like she was torn between straight up giving me the cold shoulder and the need to give me another verbal lashing.
The next time I caught her at it, I said, "Rita, if you're that determined to burn a hole through my head, why don't you give up using will power alone and just use fire ball already?"
A split second of that wicked grin warned me that I'd said the wrong thing.
"FIRE BALL!"
"Ack! Champagne, CHAMPAGNE!"
x x x
Jumpy
Estelle: Oh, there's something over in those trees! Is it a monster?
Repede: Woof!
Letha: Hiih! *Startled*
Estelle: Are you okay?
Yuri: Take it easy, it's just Repede.
Letha: I-I know that! That was nothing, I just-I almost tripped, that's all!
Yuri: Hey, calm down. No big deal.
Letha: I am calm, I already said it was nothing.
Yuri & Estelle: ...
Repede: Whine!
Flashy Style
Estelle: Letha, if you don't mind me asking...
Letha: It's the day of questioning. Ask away.
Estelle: It's just that none of us recognized you right away in those new clothes. You look really different in them!
Letha: What, is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Estelle: Oh-I didn't mean-
Letha: No, I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything by that. This looks flashier than my other clothes, but it might actually be more practical. It doesn't get damaged nearly as easily and provides better protection than you'd think to look at it.
Estelle: Where did you get them?
Letha: ...Ugh, from someone I'd rather not think about.
Estelle: ?
x x x
Conversations were brief and stilted, or at least, they were whenever somebody tried to talk with me. Chase was the only one who I could actually talk with comfortably, although there was the uncomfortable feeling that one or two (or all) of the others tried to listen in every time we did. I had to wonder when someone would finally start up the Big Questions again. I was sure they still had plenty left on top of a whole mountain of new ones; perhaps, in light of everything so far, they were trying to figure out just how to ask those questions.
Tired of waiting (I'd had more than enough of worrying myself sick before this, I wasn't going to let it keep getting drawn out now that we'd come to it) I picked up my pace until I was walking up near the head of the group with Yuri. Conscientiously I looked for Repede until I could mark where he was ranging in and out of some undergrowth not too far away. I was not enjoying having nervous attacks whenever the dog popped out unexpectedly. Dammit, he didn't even look like the fairy dogs or Cù Sìth!
"Something eating you?" the swordsman asked.
I repressed a small wince at the turn of phrase (the bite scars weighed heavy on my mind) and said, "You haven't had much to say about this so far."
"Well," a shoulder rolled carelessly, "You already said it."
That made me blink in surprise. "Beg pardon?"
"You know, that speech about how we're responsible for our own actions, and to hell with something like fate." A slight grin tugged at the corner of his mouth when he noticed me staring at him. "I only do what I decide to do, and I'm man enough to stand by it no matter what happens. It's fine by me if you don't want to share anything about what's going to happen."
"There's no guarantee it'll happen the way I expect, anyway," I had the need to explain once more, defending myself. "I have no way of knowing if I'm wrong and something has already changed. If everyone was over confident because they thought they already knew what was going to happen and then it turns out I was wrong...it could go very badly."
"Fair enough," he allowed, "though I didn't ask. What bothers me about this is that you're having trouble with some high and mighty fairy creeps and never told any of us about it." Yuri gave me an unimpressed look. "You're not being a team player if you don't share your problems with the rest of Brave Vesperia. 'All for the guild, and the guild for all,' right?"
"Right," I said with a small smile of my own. "I guess we'll both have to work at that."
With a self deprecating laugh, he admitted, "Yeah, guess I haven't been that great at sharing my own issues either. You knew all along about Ragou, and that guy in Mantaic...and Shizontania, huh."
My mouth thinned as my lips pressed together. Talking about past events should be fine. "Ragou, yes, but in Mantaic it was supposed to be Cumore."
"Really?" he glanced at me in surprise, but then looked pensive. "I meant to get Cumore, but it was some lackey of his in his place. I actually forgot about it when I went after him to try and find out where Cumore was, but I left my sheath behind that time... But it turned up in my room in the morning."
I nodded at the questions left between the lines. "Another small change, completely on accident. And then I spent days worrying over the whole fiasco. It doesn't seem to have made much difference either... Not in the big picture." No, not a big difference. The blood was just on a different person's hands was all.
A hand clapped on my shoulder, and I shot a look at Yuri. He didn't say anything, but the gesture didn't really need words.
...Pretty sure everyone was listening in behind us. There was no conversation going on back there, and what few words were being exchanged had died down when I started talking.
...It made me want to mess with them.
"You know, the game company that produced Tales of Vesperia, along with a bunch of other games, has an annual popularity poll. You beat out the long time champion for first place."
"Yuri did?!"
"Impossible!"
"How unexpected!"
"Him? Really?"
"What, whaddabout me?! Ain't I popular?!"
And Yuri looked at me suspiciously. "Are you making this up?"
I smiled broadly and winked. "Maybe I am, maybe I'm not."
x x x
We were in sight of Dahngrest's bridge when Raven piped up to ask, "Since we're almost there an all, are ya both sure there's nothin' ya wanna share? No heads up or anythin'?"
"I've been working at the Sagittarius for the past few days while waiting for you guys," I informed the group at large, despite knowing perfectly well that wasn't what Raven meant. "I'm supposed to be there again today, and I'm probably running late. So, you can all meet up with me there!"
"Hey!" Rita shouted in protest as I sprinted away, but I only spun mid step to wave back at them. Clifton and Vince had been ahead of us the whole way back, but they were only at the bridge themselves by that point. I managed to run past them (Clifton growling something unpleasant as I did so) and thankfully got ahead of them on the way to Jeanne's place. I wanted the time to get my things together and say goodbye to the crafty woman before her son came home and threw me out.
With the temper he was in, I wouldn't be surprised if he would've thrown my stuff out on the street if he got to it first.
I didn't tell Jeanne about it though, just that the friends I'd been waiting for were arriving soon and thanked her for her hospitality. I tried to pay her with some of my earnings from the tavern but she wouldn't hear of it. ...I left some gald coins under my pillow instead, while stowing the few possessions I'd acquired into my returned bag. Thankfully, I managed to leave just before Clifton got back, though I saw him coming down the street as I hurried off to work.
Once at the Sagittarius, I threw on my apron and quickly got to work bussing tables. It was still early enough in the day that business wasn't too heavy, and at the earliest opportunity I told Sally, her father the owner ("What a shame, and I had nearly finished working on a uniform for you"), and Diana that I wouldn't be staying longer and may need to leave early. Bony and Scar Eye from the other night were back again, arguing about something, but when they overheard that it was my last day they started pestering me to tell more stories.
So when in the early evening the others came to find me at the tavern, what greeted them upon opening the door was this:
"'From this day forth, I shall be called the Handsome Monkey King! And the word 'stone' is forbidden in my kingdom!' All the monkeys agreed to their new king's decree, and they played happily in their new home."
There were snorts of laughter from the guildsmen who I'd been regaling with more stories. "'Handsome Monkey King'? What kind of name is that!"
"Makes more sense than a monkey being born from a rock! Even if it was a rock full of powerful aer!"
That was when I realized they had come in and were watching me with amusement. I had one foot on a chair and was flourishing a broom in a grand pose. I blushed when I saw their smirks.
"Well, what's got everyone here in such a good mood?" Yuri wondered offhandedly, glancing over a shoulder at the men. Repede was at his heels, I almost missed him but caught sight of his tail passing behind a table. (Didn't jump. Good.) Estelle, Rita and Chase had also come in, but that was all.
I coughed and returned the chair to its table. "Adapted another Earth story for some fun. Very convenient that you guys believe in monkeys as some kind of fantasy creature."
"Oh, yes, I remember reading about them in fairy tale books back in the castle!" Estelle recalled happily at the nostalgic reminder.
Rita rolled her eyes, "They're not real, some idiots probably just mistook a monster they saw and thought it was something else." Chase and I glanced at each other but had to immediately look away before either of us started laughing at that.
I made a show of looking over the group again. "Some people are missing..."
"Raven went to report to the Don," Yuri supplied, though a raised brow silently questioned 'do you really need us to tell you?' "He took Harry with him, and Karol tagged along."
I nodded, thinking that sounded about right. "And? What are we planning to do next?"
An uncomfortable tension sprang up. I deliberately used "we" when forming my question, and waited to see how they responded. The childish urge to cross my fingers for luck under the cover of the countertop surged up.
Rita blew an exasperated air out, ruffling her own bangs with the force, before slumping on the counter and grabbing a glass of water I poured out. "Fine, if you're not gonna give any hints, we're probably going to track down Judith so I can give her a piece of my mind! By the time we find her, I might even be finished chewing you out!"
An involuntary smile of relief flickered across my face, and Estelle smiled warmly in return. "First we think we'll give Belius' apatheia to the Don for safe keeping. We think she would have wanted it that way."
"The Knights and the Hunting Blades would have their work cut out for them to get it away from that old man," Yuri added off handedly. Then he turned to Chase. "What about you? Isn't it about time you disappeared again?"
"Yuri!" the princess scolded him.
"Hey," he defended, "it's what he's done every other time we ran into him. Shows up for awhile and then leaves all of a sudden."
For his part, the greatswordsman had been wearing a troubled face ever since coming into the tavern. "I'm not entirely sure what I'll be doing, but I'll be staying here for a few days at least. It's been awhile since I was in touch with Al so I don't know what he's doing either."
My eyes narrowed. "Is that all you do? Run around playing fetch and following orders like a trained dog?"
He frowned at the return of my animosity-I had mostly mellowed out and been decent to him over the day, so maybe he'd thought he was off the hook. "I'm not like that! Sure, I help out when Al and Sybelle ask, but over the last five years they've left me a lot of freedom to do what I want."
"Sybelle...?" I repeated. Wait, I know that name, don't I?
At that moment the tavern door opened again. I'd developed the habit of looking up to check every customer that came in, so I observed a heavy set man with a purposeful look that suggested he was there on business and not to relax. He strode up to the counter to speak with the krityan barmaid, Diana, since she wasn't surrounded by a group of people. "I'm looking for a woman called Letha."
She greeted him with familiarity, "Dillan, you haven't been by lately! Letha's right over there." ...Hopefully she knew him well enough that she pointed us out only because he wouldn't cause trouble. Then again, I wasn't sure if I was liked quite well enough to merit being actively looked out for by the staff.
Dillan thanked her briefly before approaching us. "I was sent to bring you and your friends to Altosk Headquarters," he informed us. "Master Raven asks that you come right away."
"By Raven?" Chase shot a puzzled look at me and I could only turn up my hands in response. It seemed something else was in the process of changing, and my guess was no better than any as to how it'd turn out.
"Did he say what for?" Yuri asked.
The man only shook his head. "Masters Raven and Harry locked themselves in a room with a young boy and a stranger I haven't seen around here before. No one else has been allowed in, and I was just told to locate all of you."
"Wonder what that's about," the swordsman murmured under his breath.
"Well let's stop wondering and just go find out," Rita declared.
x x x
Oh my GOD, the last thing I expected was this!
We'd been brought to a private audience room where Raven, Karol, and Harry were all waiting. Karol was practically vibrating with nervous energy, constantly fidgeting and shooting stares at the fourth occupant of the room: a tallish man with freckles and bright cherry colored hair, brighter than Clifton's, wearing a long overcoat that seemed to shift from dark blue to dark purple whenever he moved. He'd come without his glasses.
"You!" I all but screeched, hands raising up and stiffening partially curled fingers like I was about to claw his eyes out. "Bloody pick pocket, give my wallet back!" Grudges, yes, I keep them. But we knew that already, no?
"Sorry to say, he's never been above the occasional theft," Chase wryly put in an undertone to the others.
Alastor ran a hand through his already unkempt hair, pacing on the far side of the room past a few chairs with faded upholstry. "What a nice welcome after I spent all this time trying to figure out where in this blasted world you had both run off to. Chase haring off to sea, where not even the most fool hardy would risk appearing without advanced preparation, and Miss Letha popping in and out all over the place." He favored us both with a put out look and braced both hands on the back of a chair, and now I saw that he was pale and haggard looking. "Then what finally works, but the last ditch effort of waiting in the middle of a city for you all day? Half the people here carry weapons and armor wherever they go! It would not surprise me to learn they sleep in arms! The only worse place is that hideously desecrated tower!"
"Al," Chase broke in, "This isn't Shakespeare. Stop monologuing."
"I'll monologue all I please," Alastor retorted, "or else I'll tell Arcas you eloped without introducing the charming young bride to your parents."
The highly unorthodox threat drained the blood from the Earthling's face. "You wouldn't!"
"Just see if I don't!"
"Give me back my cards and ID!"
I only got one purposeful step in towards Alastor before Raven blocked my way and gestured for me to calm myself. "Whoa, darlin', settle down! We should just hear him out first."
My teeth bared in a feral mockery of a smile. "Oh yes, of course, and he can start with explaining just why he freaking robbed me!"
"Would you give that a rest already?" Rita snapped at me querulously. "Who cares about that right now, there's more important stuff we should be worried about!"
Yuri glanced at me as he commented, "No offense, but she's right. We don't really have the time to settle a grudge over petty theft."
I folded my arms and drew in on myself defensively as I flushed with embarrassment. "It's-it's not petty! Not really! I wouldn't give a damn if it was just money!" It might have been for the best, in a way, that he removed some conspicuous objects of Earth origin from my possession. I had lacked the resolve to throw them away from the start, even if they could've gotten me into some hot water. But that risk would've been an acceptable price, in my current opinion, if only I still had just one of my cards.
Alastor apparently guessed the pattern of my thoughts and gave an acknowledging nod. "My dear, I humbly beg your pardon for my larceny," he even dipped a small but definitely courtly bow. "I assure you, I acted purely on what I believed a necessity to protect you and your True Name."
"Huh?" Karol frowned and looked between me and the fairy man in confusion. "True name? What is he talking about? You're Letha, aren't you?" Raven and Yuri, however, seemed to have the rough idea based on my earlier confessions of memory loss (including my own name) to them, and were both giving Alastor looks of renewed suspicion and appraisal.
Alastor released the chair back folded his arms, one finger tapping against his upper arm. "Your charming friend here is caught within the nexus of several complicated spells, woven by one of my folk. Some are quite blatant to those who know how to look-and admirably strong in their casting, I might add. Others are delicate and so intricate that even I have inadequate knowledge of their uses; I can only guess at their purpose." The tapping finger stopped and pointed upwards as he made the point he'd been leading up to. "One of the key spells is tied into her True Name and then warps into an unusual configuration... Well, in the simplest of explanations, a substitute Name was inserted and any usage of the original True Name results in interesting effects."
This "explanation" served to prompt nearly everyone in the room to exchange looks, as if asking if anyone else understood that at all. Rita, however, had unabashedly marched right up to me and scowled as she inspected me from head to toe after the "those who know how to look" part. I couldn't help but take a step back from her fierce eyes.
"What do you mean she's a nexus? I don't see anything like that in the aer!" She glared challengingly back at the fairy.
One of his shoulder's shrugged. "You don't know how to look. I never said it was constructed with your aer."
"Is that so? Well then, why don't you tell me just what your 'folk'," the corner of Alastor's mouth twitched upward at the way the mage said that last word, "use instead of aer?"
The fairy's smile broke out in full, white teeth that weren't entirely straight, and he leaned forward towards us. "Fairy magic."
For once Rita and I were perfectly in tune with each other's desire to punch someone in the face. It's too bad neither of us were close enough to actually get a good hit in, and that the chair was between us and him. But I'd already been chastised and Estelle's proximity seemed to hold Rita back.
Harry evidently had enough with it all. "If you're all done, can we please move on to the actual reason for calling you all here?" he reminded us with clipped tones. Rita huffed at Alastor before turning away with crossed arms and an angry look that was more like a pout. I bowed my head without saying a word, closing my eyes and concentrating on breathing slowly to calm myself. In for a count of ten...hold... Out just as slowly and hold... Ichi... Ni... San... Shi... Go... Roku... Shichi...
One part of my mind remained focused on breathing exercises from Aikido while the rest of my mind listened attentively to the rest of the room.
Raven took charge, "Alrighty, that was interestin' to hear and all, an' I'm sure we'll be wantin' more on that later. But right now we've got a small problem on our hands: the Don's gone missin' an' no one seems to know where he went."
There were simultaneous exclamations of surprise from everyone. "Where could he have gone? Especially without telling anyone?" Chase mumbled from nearby me. He didn't know? Hmm...guess he meant it when he said he didn't know much. Although I can't say I'm positive, since I'm pretty sure this is playing out differently...
I cracked my eyes slightly in order to watch as I asked, "I just want to be clear; he was gone before you got here, yes? You haven't seen him nor passed on any report on what happened in Nordopolica yet?"
His customary at ease posture and expression were lacking as Raven seriously answered me, "Not at all. Seems no one's seen him since some time this morning, before we even got here."
"So what's the big deal?" Yuri shrugged. "The old man felt like going out, and didn't feel like sharing. Bad timing for it, but-"
"'Bad timing' is severely understating the issue, Master Lowell," Alastor interrupted. His fingers steepled together as he leaned on the back of his chair. "I am essentially aware of the situation here, and can reliably inform you all that the ships of Palestralle and her vengeance seeking men are not far from arrival. What are you to do when your city's leader is gone and ignorant of the situation?"
There was something of a recoil that went through the late arrivals in the room; Repede had started growling enough for both himself and Yuri, Estelle's hands reaching up to cover her mouth as her eyes went wide, Rita's hands balling up in fists, Chase scowled as he began to rub at his temples with one hand. Raven, Harry, and Karol all looked mostly unchanged, which was concerned to start with, so they'd already been aware of that nasty aspect of the way all the pieces had fallen.
"Al..." Chase groaned, "And you couldn't have stopped him from leaving? You said you've been here all day!"
The fairy's gray eyes closed as he spread his hands and sighed. "I came in unannounced and no more noticed than I wanted to be. One such as I doesn't make a habit of extending greetings to those who hold no interest for me, not when my errand lies elsewhere. I was entirely unaware of his departure until recently."
"He just popped out of nowhere in front of us," Raven described to us. "Sayin' he recognized the kid an' me as Letha's friends, and that he wanted us to get her and Chase to come here."
"Y-Yuri... Everyone..." Karol looked at us with pleading eyes. "What do we do?"
At that, Harry grabbed at his own head with both hands. "At this rate, there could be a war between the guilds! If only my grandfather were here."
If your grandfather were here, he'd run off to try and give Yeager an ass whooping for being an unscrupulous bastard. And then come back to martyr himself to prevent a war. I huffed a short breath, still resolved to try and keep that from happening, somehow.
"What if everyone just talked it over?" Estelle suggested. "If we explain the situation, I'm sure they'd understand."
Raven rubbed the back of his head tiredly. "Sure, we can try an talk to those Palestralle folks when they arrive. But I don' know if they'll be listenin' to anything we have to say to them after losin' Belius. Anything we tell them will just sound like an excuse. At best, we can probably buy some time."
"Time for what?" Rita demanded hotly. "You guild idiots just keep looking for trouble, what good does dragging it out longer do?!"
"Buying time to look for Whitehorse, right?" Yuri guessed, holding one hand palm up in an "is that so" kind of gesture. "You want to ask us to find him, right?"
"Sorry to spring this on ya, Altosk should be taking care of its own problems," Raven apologized, "But at a time like this, we can't risk havin' our guys lose their heads in a panic."
"Isn't there anything else?" I murmured quietly, greatly troubled by the events bearing down on us. "Stalling for time and bringing back the Don... That's hardly a solution. Even for him, subduing the wrath of an entire guild isn't done-" I snapped my fingers for emphasis, "-just like that."
"If ya have any suggestions of yer own, we're all ears." When I looked up at him, Raven was wearing an expression of such blatant expectancy, I thought for a moment that he was trying to clown around again. But this wasn't the time for the usual play and banter, and the old man had been demonstrating his capacity for serious rationale and consideration since we arrived.
He's not taking this lightly. Regardless of any pretenses he joined the guilds under, he still tries to do right by them. Well, if he was trying to hide some other thought or emotion behind that face, he was welcome to do so. I had other puzzles to worry about. Most likely he just thought (hoped) I had some prior knowledge that said things would work out.
"Unfortunately," (no good news), "I'm not that great with politics."
"Come now," Alastor was freakin' this side of purring! It was creepy and worse than his default smugness! "You've been popping in and out all about for the last week, and yet you haven't been putting some semblance of a plan in order?" When I tried to slip a hateful glare at him without getting another scolding, I was caught by the cold gray of his eyes. A challenge was there and I wasn't sure if it was friendly or malicious, his claims to have been "protecting" me aside. "If not, then please forgive me but I must ask; what have you been doing?"
Yes, ask a question I don't want to answer, why don't you. While I wasn't adverse to letting it be known that Verte had been the one skipping me around continents, there were certain details about the past week I didn't want to share. Not yet. I had things to do first.
I forced myself not to look away as I replied, "Trying to keep myself from getting killed by fairies and monsters. What about you?" I looked from him to Chase. "You say you've been here, what, five years? What plan have you come up with?"
Chase rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. "Well, like you were probably thinking, it pretty much consisted of 'Don't let Belius die in the first place.' And as insurance to try and keep a botched assassination attempt-you know, instead of the successful one we have on our hands-from raising trouble with the guilds, I had some forged letters and stuff that was supposed to make it look like Cumore was behind the Hunting Blades' attack. I was actually in Mantaic trying to either get him to sign it without knowing or get my hands on something with his signature so I could copy it myself."
My mouth had fallen open. And I wasn't the only one staring at the seemingly honest and upright young man in shock.
"You're one sneaky bastard, aren't you?" Yuri said with some amazement. "I don't know if I should be impressed or worried about what else you could be up to."
The Earthling shrugged. "Well, there were a lot of things that could have gone wrong with that plan, but I was hoping whatever came up could be dealt with at the time. I would have tried to prepare more, but some unexpected recent events kept us pretty busy. Anyway, it's no good anymore."
"Why not?" Karol asked. "I mean, it's not really right to use tricks like that, but I mean..." The Ace looked awkward and frustrated as he tried to figure out the words for what he wanted to say. "It's not right, but if it keeps people from getting hurt, maybe it's not so bad either?"
"Verte is a bitch," Chase answered, voice cold and sharp. I blinked, That's what he said back in Nordopolica, isn't it? "I dunno why she did it, but she destroyed the papers. And there wasn't time to prepare new ones."
"Arrrgh!" I threw my hands up angrily, not even sure what I wanted to do with them. Wringing a fairy neck seemed a nice option, but everyone else had already put Alastor off limits.
"Who's Verte?" Estelle posed the question, looking from Chase to my not so subtle reaction. "Is she another fairy?"
"She is a bitch fairy!" I seethed. She destroyed the papers that were going to shunt all the blame off onto Cumore, a man who'd be dead by this time? And then she went and ruined the effort Chase and I both made to protect Belius, even bringing Flynn into it to make sure the Duce died. All I could guess for why she'd do all that was her goal to have the game follow its preset plot accordingly to raise Zaude. With as little risk of setting that chain of events off track as she could manage.
She wants to raise Zaude because she thinks pieces of that heirloom are inside, right? I aimed a suspicious glance over at Alastor. If there's even one piece inside, or just the possibility of one, then shouldn't all these fairies be trying to get inside there, no matter the means? If so, then what was Alastor up to? I may not know him well, but he didn't seem to mind if changes were made along the way. Unless he was cleverly sabotaging anything Chase did behind the man's back. But my fellow Earthling seemed to have faith in his own fairy bastard, so was he being a fool? Or had I become just that biased and untrusting?
There was a time when having a fairy for a best friend would've been a dream come true for me. Wouldn't know it to see me now.
"So simply put," Harry spoke for the first time in...wow, when had he last made a contribution to this debate? I had never given him much thought before meeting him, and apparently still didn't if I could keep forgetting he was around. But my overlooking him didn't mean the young man hadn't been listening and thinking on his own. "Even if you truly know what's about to happen, although you refuse to share what that is other than it is something you both wish changed, you have no suggestions for what we should do next."
Ah man, put that way us Earthlings really were making a lame showing of ourselves.
"Plan A's a bust, and plan B is pretty much to wing it," Chase admitted, not sounding so proud of the fact himself.
"All I've been able to think of," I said with reluctance, "is to try and buy time and talk with the members of Palestralle. Hopefully find something that can satisfy them without having to resort to war." Or more dead authority figures.
"In that case," Raven decided, "Findin' the Don is still our best bet. Though that's easier said than done."
"If I may," Alastor piped up, all politeness. "If you would be so kind as to lend me a personal belonging of the Don's, I may be of some assistance. A map of the area as well, if it isn't too much trouble."
That earned the fairy some curious looks and questions, but he only smiled mysteriously while Harry called in someone to fetch what he asked for. While waiting, Alastor sat himself down in another chair before the long conference table dominating one side of the room. He reached into a pocket of his blue-purple overcoat and withdrew a fine silver chain with a tear shaped crystal fastened to one end.
"A personal object, a map, and a pendulum?" Estelle listed, eyes focusing on the distance as she apparently recalled something. "Wait, I've read about something like this. Are you going to use dowsing?" I blinked, realizing I recognized the technique the princess was referring to. Er, more or less. Only ever reliably works in fiction as far as I'm aware, and in real life it's "hit or miss" to the point where I don't really believe in it.
"Ahh, she knows," Alastor said, eyes fixed on the crystal as he held it suspended an inch over the table. "Would you kindly be a dear and inform our friends? I cannot spare the focus at the moment. This is not exactly within my personal range of expertise."
Rita folded her arms and sneered at Alastor and his crystal, unimpressed. "I think I've got the gist of it. I've even known some researchers who try and use it to find areas of high aer density or hidden blastias, but it never works. There's no actual science to it!"
"Why not fill the rest of us in, since we're not all book readin' and researchin' types," Raven suggested. Chase paid more attention to us talking than to what Al was doing, and was kinda grinning to himself like he was in on a secret.
We were treated to return of Recital Mode Estelle, as she carefully repeated the information she recalled from her books. "Dowsing is an ancient art of divination used to locate hidden things. Originally it was intended for finding water, but its use was expanded to uncover treasure, missing people, and even areas of high aer energy. Dowsing sticks, forked rods, or a pendulum are the most common dowsing tools, although it fell out of practice approximately four hundred and sixty years ago."
Rita snorted, "Because its ridiculous and anyone who claims they can do it is a fraud."
I shrugged, "I actually did an experiment once, in class. We all had to hold little pieces of metal on strings and concentrate on making them move or stay absolutely still. But the point the teacher was demonstrating is that your body is constantly making small movements you're not consciously aware of. I think dowsing is based on the same principle."
"Interesting," Yuri stated blandly, not sounding like it really mattered to him at all. "And how is that supposed to help?"
"Well..." I looked uncertainly to Estelle, wishing I hadn't butted in.
Fortunately she didn't seem to mind, and helpfully said, "You ask questions, and the way the rods or crystal moves is supposed to give you an answer." So basically a ouiga board. But, uh, how do you know what the answer is?
"Right..." he looked skeptical. "I'll have to agree with Rita, it sounds bogus."
"'Bogus' only if, my lad, used by a normal human playing his hand at parlor tricks," Alastor mumbled, still watching the crystal pendulum. "It's another matter entirely when the Folk use wild magic to ask the question..."
"'Wild Magic'?" Rita echoed my own thoughts out loud. "Wait, tell me what that is!"
But just then the guild member Harry had sent out returned with a folded paper and some wrapped up object. After dismissing him, the Don's grandson brought both over to the table and laid them out. The map was a nicely detailed one of the area around Dahngrest; making note of rivers, streams, roads, farmsteads and ranches, and some other reference points. The Manor of the Wicked where Yeager's guild Leviathan's Claw was centered was marked up in one corner, but there were also notations of other outlying buildings or patches of cultivated land. I remembered the secluded shack the Red-eyes had kept me in for three days and frowned.
Once unwrapped from a scrap of cloth, the other object proved to be a large hilt of what once must have been (yet another) massive sword, but the blade had been broken off to leave less than an inch of jagged metal. Well, if it broke from Whitehorse using it and no one had bothered to fix it since, probably a good bet it would fulfill whatever "personal possession" requirement Alastor's dowsing needed.
The fairy gingerly took the hilt without complaint, setting it on the table before him and holding the pendulum directly above it. It hung motionless...and then suddenly began to spin rapidly on the end of the chain. Not only was that something I didn't believe a dowsing pendulum was supposed to do, but the moment it started I felt a pressure against the back of my left hand. The marked skin tingled and I rubbed it with the thumb of my other hand. Wild magic, huh?
Estelle gasped, "Oh!" and Karol exclaimed, "Whoa, cool!" at the same moment.
Alastor's hair and coat had begun to move in an unseen wind that touched nothing else in the room, and with an unexpected snapping sound his wings appeared out of his back. It was no doubt the wings that had everyone's attention; they arched away from his back, changing from a brilliant red to a deep blue at the edges, with the thinnest possible veins of blue curling in towards his back again in branching lines. Definitely an effective way to leave a lasting impression on people. And dispel any doubts of his Fae nature.
"Amazing!" Rita exclaimed, staring at the fairy wide eyed before taking out tiny instruments and the pad she used for notes.
"Is it the aer doing this?" Yuri asked, looking to her for explanation.
"No!" she denied, fiddling with some tiny compass like thing. "The aer isn't doing anything!"
"That's not surprising," Chase was the only one with perfect composure, "Since fairies are from a world without aer."
The crystal pendulum had stopped spinning, and despite the whipping hair and flapping clothes it hung straight down in the fairy's hand. Slowly he passed his hand over the map, moving it from side to side while methodically covering the area.
"Is this really going to work?" Karol wondered aloud.
"He's tried this before," Chase mentioned. "It normally fails though, the only time I know it actually got a result was last time we were here, and Letha went missing."
I blinked. "He used it to find me?"
Raven made a noise of enlightenment. "So that's how ya conveniently picked the right way to go look for her!"
"Yeah, well, he used one of the cat drawings Letha made that time. So we weren't entirely sure if it worked right."
Yuri laughed shortly and glanced at me. "Looks like that prank of yours paid off unexpectedly." I felt a slight heat in my cheeks and pressed my lips together before I said anything to embarrass myself.
"Ah!" Estelle pointed at the map, "Look!"
The crystal had begun spinning wildly in place again. It did so uninterrupted for about ten seconds before Alastor's hand drifted down too close to the table. The tip of the crystal hit the surface and bounced up, flying up and smacking the fairy right in the forehead. His head snapped back and his chair actually toppled over backwards.
...Alastor the fairy...got KO'd by a tiny piece of crystal.
My heart felt lightened by this piece of karma.
"...Not very good at this, huh..." Yuri said flatly as we all stared at the fairy lying sprawled across chair and floor.
"Pf-!" Chase looked away with a hand over his mouth.
"Well, my apologies," Alastor drawled in an irksome tone, picking himself up with slow and deliberate movements to preserve his tattered dignity. "But it was hard to maintain proper focus with all the unnecessary noise distracting me!"
"Never mind that!" Harry snapped, anxious. "Where is it? Where's my grandfather?"
"It was right about here, wasn't it?" Raven pointed out on the map. "It started spinnin' above this spot."
We all leaned in to look at where Raven's finger rested on the map. "A road?" I observed, my eyes tracing along the marked line to see where it lead. "Hey, waitaminute-! That goes to-!" Why would he go there?!
"'The Manor of the Wicked'," Estelle read aloud. "That's an unusual name..."
"It's the lair of Leviathan's Claw," Raven told us. "Kinda their main headquarters. What the Don's goin' there for, and without tellin' anyone about it, I don't like to think."
I couldn't help looking up to Chase, and with only a few seconds delay his own eyes rose to meet mine. He'd said he didn't remember much about the game, but maybe he was getting an idea what was wrong with these events. We couldn't say anything with the others around. Breaking the shared glance I noticed that Harry was watching us, but the blond didn't say anything.
"So what do we do now?" Karol asked. "Go after him?"
"We better," Yuri agreed. "I don't care what that old man's thinking, that's a dangerous place to be alone."
"And we should let him know about what happened in Nordopolica, so that he'll hurry back. Dahngrest needs him!" Estelle added.
"Ugh, what a pain!" Rita bemoaned. "If he'd just stay here where he's supposed to, we wouldn't have to go out after him!"
The black haired swordsman gave her half a smile. "You could always stay behind, you know."
"Haven't I said it enough already? If Estelle's going then so am I!"
"I won't be going," Chase announced. This garnered surprise from all around the table, so the greatswordsman explained, "There's no telling for sure when the Palestralle guild members will get here. I'll stay to try and talk them out of doing anything rash, or to stop them by other means if necessary." A hand raised and grasping the claymore hilt over his shoulder made his grim point.
The princess looked troubled by his show of determination. "I hope it doesn't come to that."
"I'm staying too," Karol decided.
Rita rounded on him, looking disgusted. "This isn't the time for you to get scared and hide, you know!"
"That's not it!" the Ace protested. "I-I am scared, a little, but what I really mean is I want to try and talk to them too! You guys said so, right?" the boy directed wide eyes at me and then one by one to Raven, Chase, and even Alastor. "Even if the Don comes back in time, he might not be able to stop something from happening! So I want to stay and try to do what I can until he comes back."
Yuri nodded in acceptance, "If that's what you feel you have to do." Chase had reached out over the table and was ruffling up Karol's swooshy hair.
"If the rest of us are gonna go, we should leave soon so we don't arrive after the party," Raven reminded us.
"Raven," I said to get his attention. "Maybe you should stay here too."
He clearly hadn't expected that. "Why's that?"
"You're a well known and highly respected member of Altosk. If anyone were to have any chance of being able to reason with the other side while keeping the people here in line, shouldn't it be you?"
"Hey now, the way ta the Manor of the Wicked ain't used by a lot of people. You won't be able to follow it and get back as fast if you're not with someone more familiar with the area. And the old guy's got enough of a head start as it is."
"Can't say I disagree with that," Yuri frowned. "But Letha's got a point too, old man."
"Then it's a simple matter of having someone else act as guide," Alastor put in impatiently. "In fact, I'll volunteer myself. Leaving this iron benighted city as quickly as possible couldn't please me more."
Our genius mage eyed the fairy doubtfully. "You? Why would you bother coming along?"
With suffering in his voice, Alastor had the gall to say, "I fear that if I let this lady out of my sights," he gestured towards me with a fluid motion of the hand, "then she'll start popping across the countryside and I'll have to hunt her down yet again." He pretended not to notice the glare I leveled at him.
Yuri sized up the red haired fairy as well. "I'm not sure if we should really trust you, but if we're already taking your word for where he's gone-"
"Hmph," Rita sulked, "Even if he used some weird magic, I still don't think dowsing is reliable at all."
The swordsman shrugged, not disagreeing. "Yeah, well, it's the best lead we've got right now. But we can't guarantee you won't get pulled in if it comes to a fight," he finished his original thought.
Alastor's chin lifted a little proudly. "I assure you your concern is unnecessary, if understandable. I am neither leading your party astray, nor am I burdensome luggage incapable of fighting. I'll tend to myself."
"Yeah," Chase folded his arms up behind his head, "Al's fine. As long as he doesn't get into a wrestling match with a robot, that is." He wore a real shit eating grin as his 'boss' frowned at him.
Chase and I both lingered as the others filtered out through the doors. Raven hesitated at the door and glanced furtively towards me, but then seemed to change his mind and left. When no one else was in the room I chanced the risk to mutter towards the greatswordsman, "I'm not sure if I should feel surprised that Whitehorse has gone to the Manor, of if I should just call it a matter of course."
"I feel like something's off myself," Chase murmured back in a hush, "but I'm not all that clear on it. In the game, they heard Palestralle was coming, but then they ended up somewhere else trying to find the Don, right? Isn't that what's happening? Or were they supposed to be going somewhere else?"
"It was the Manor of the Wicked alright, but the Don's only supposed to leave after he hears about Belius dying. He already knew how he was going to try and fix the situation between the guilds, so since he had nothing to lose he tried to take Yeager out first. One less problem left behind, see?"
Chase was nodding. "Got it now. He's left early, so if he doesn't know what the Hunting Blades and Harry did then he's not planning to die over it. So then there's no reason he should be going there. Except he is."
"I'm worried," I confided as I approached the door. "I would have wanted to stay and try to help here, but if we don't know why Whitehorse left then it could be a problem. I probably wouldn't have been much help here, no one has any reason to listen to me, so I'll go and try to help-"
I cut myself off midsentence when I stepped out into the hall and found Harry standing there. The young man appeared to have been waiting for us, eyes haunted. Before I could think of what to say (if anything!) he said, "Hurry up, or they'll leave without you." And then he looked to Chase standing behind me. "There's going to be a meeting in the main audience chamber to tell the other guilds about what's happening."
"Uh, right," the man nodded, "I'll be there."
x x x
We would have set out immediately, but truth be told we weren't in the best shape to just leave. I'd already had a rough day, yes, but the others hadn't had much time to restock. After all, we all left Nordopolica in a hurry (nothing new there) right after all the chaos in the Coliseum. And then they'd been stuck on a boat that had brought them as close to Dahngrest as possible, and I'm not talking about the nearest port town but the nearest stretch of beach. So other than any stops they might've made before catching up to me in the tavern, nada.
That being the case, we agreed on this: The trio staying plus Harry would try to pull together as many influential guild members, from all the guilds that made base in Dahngrest, to try and explain matters before word of Palestralle's coming hit them. Those of us going out after the Don split up to go buy replacement gear and such with the plan to meet up at the town's western exit in half an hour. Alastor was already waiting there, absolutely dead set against staying inside the city proper any longer. Poor iron intolerant fairy bastard.
I was on my own since I had stopped back at the tavern first to get the things I'd left there. Standing on one side of the street I made a face at the contents of my gald purse and recounted the coins (as if they could have multiplied in ten seconds, I had yet to be the recipient of such a fortuitous spot of magic). I did have more now that I consolidated my meager earnings with the little I had left behind in my old bag with the knotted strap. Should I see if that was enough to buy a replacement dao? Or should I just build up my personal stash of gels a little more and maybe spring for an emergency panacea bottle for once?
Deciding that since I did have two perfectly serviceable daggers, weird and coming from Verte though they may be, I should go for the medical route. So my destination was an apothecary a Sagittarius regular had recommended to me (currently a half price sale on lemon gels! I'd always been too much of a cheapskate to buy them before!). And I'd definitely pick up some more mundane bandages and salves. After getting separated from everyone and being on my own for a week, I'd realized I'd taken for granted that there'd always be someone with an arte or a handy gel to fix me up.
But something caught in my peripheral vision blew all thoughts of gald prices and medicine from my mind.
Frantically I looked around, braid lashing across my face with the speed I turned my head at, and one hand grabbed at a dagger hilt. White-I saw something white-I could swear it was a dog, what color were its ears?! Heart hammering I searched up and down the street but saw no red eared fairy dog. Not even a normal white dog. All I got was some stares and a number of people going out of their ways to cross the street away from me.
I sighed, letting the hem of my gi fall back down to cover my dagger. My hand found its way to my heart. Overdoing the paranoia much? I'm in the middle of a city, even Alastor's already made it clear that he doesn't like being here. There aren't going to be any fairy dogs out for a walk! But they'd been in Mantaic. I frowned when recalling that, wondering... They hadn't been following me, had they?
Maybe... Hold on...they got into a fight, didn't they? The one that Cu...argh, get a grip!-that Cumore kind of attacked was already heavily wounded. ...And Chase was there. Come to think of it, didn't he say he was tracking a "monster" that got in the barrier? Something else for the list of things to grill him on later. But it seemed a good guess that the fairy dogs at Nevys' command weren't out for my blood alone. Unless he wasn't the only one with a pack at his beck and call.
Guild versus Guild
Yuri: The town's quiet now, but it could get ugly quick.
Rita: Yeah, well. We've seen our fair share of ugliness.
Yuri: Not like this, we haven't. Do you think Palestralle is just going to take Belius' death lying down?
Rita: ...The Don's grandson is wrapped up in this too. I guess they can't just let things slide. The guilds sure make a big deal about their rules and settling their scores.
Yuri: Exactly.
Rita: What a pain. I don't get it at all.
Yuri: We're kinda caught up in this ourselves, you know. Just be ready if things go bad.
Rita: I know.
x x x
Okay guys! That was your first update after a year of waiting! I'm sorry it took so long, and I hope I didn't lose too many of you in the process. So, at least a week and then I'll be back with more.
"I only do what I decide to do." -Yuri Lowell. Actually, I don't know if he says this at any point in the game, but during a Tales of Festival skit with all the other Japanese voice actors, Yuri's seiyuu says this and I was all, "Omg, fits so well with how I'm picturing he'd take the news."