Fourth update...

Ah, the 'You're alive!' line. The people who are alive are mildly important.

"When did that happen?" -Kairi

"You're alive!" -Kairi

Chapter 6.9 - Conflicts and Sidequests
Part 62

I walked next to Twilight, one hand in his mane. He was uncomfortable with this, and I didn't really blame him. He'd been outcasted for befriending an eastern liger, and while relations between the eastern and western clans seemed to have diffused quite a bit, we were walking right into the hornet's nest.

I glanced around the small depression in the dunes along the beach. Twilight's grandmother lay next to a large group of red, orange, and purple ligers, and I noted two of them in particular. One was Autumn, the orange-maned liger who had carried Natalia and Dark here. The other was a liger who, aside from the fact that her orange markings were a bit darker, was practically identical to Twilight.

I realized then that Twilight's family was, in fact, the 'royal' family of the western clan, much as Sorylle was the daughter of the eastern Clan Queen.

The liger that looked like Twilight looked at me and growled something. I settled the telepathic field over the area.

*You are Kairi?* she asked. I nodded. She made something of a humming noise. *I am Evena. My son tells me you are his fang-sister. Before the eastern queen joins us, would you mind telling me how this happened?*

I smiled, leaning against the liger next to me. *Twilight was with a few southern ligers when I met him, for lack of better company, I suppose. We both shared a dislike of the girl the southern ligers were following, and it just went from there. I have a habit of adopting pretty much anyone into my strange little family, and Twilight just fit in. Though I'd definitely miss him if he left now,* I said. Evena seemed amused.

*I see. I must admit, I am grateful to you. Were it not for you, my son may never have come back to us to change our stubborn ways,* she said. Autumn, who stood next to her, shook herself.

*I'm grateful to have my brother back as well, even if just for a short time,* she said.

Sorylle, Illeka, and a few other eastern ligers appeared over the edge of the depression then, coming to join the dozen or so Alphas that were already scattered around. Evena rose and nodded her head to Illeka, one queen to another, I suppose.

"Thank you for your assistance," Illeka said. Evena shook her head.

"No. Thank you, for allowing us another chance to do what was right. I had begun to fear we dallied too long in the errors of the past," the western queen replied. I smiled, watching as the two continued to apologize for past wrongs. Then they turned to me, Dark, Sorylle, and Twilight.

"The ice bridges come. They will reach land within the next two days. The cold water that precedes them touches the shores already," Illeka said. Evena nodded.

"We spoke in private last night with none but our mates as advisors, and we have agreed. There will be no western clan," the silver liger continued.

"There will be no eastern clan," Illeka added. The two glanced at each other. "There will be the southern clan of the warm forests, and the northern clan of the cold forests. When the illness that plagues the southern clan has died out, some of our people will return."

"They will restructure the southern clan, return it to its original form," Evena explained.

Twilight's ears perked up. "You're combining the two clans?"

The two queens nodded, and Sorylle tilted her head to the side. "Then..." she started slowly, as if she was scared of what she was about to say.

Illeka made a rumbling noise that was the liger equivalent of a chuckle. "Yes."

Sorylle's jaw opened in a liger grin and she jumped around me and Dark to tackle Twilight. I blinked, watching them roll off. "When did that happen?" I wondered. Dark chuckled.

"I don't know. And, let's be honest. Does it matter?"

I grinned. "Nope."

The two queens both made their rumbling noise, before a chorus of growls started echoing across the beach. I turned and stared, wondering if I was hearing them correctly.

"Shall we go see for ourselves?" Illeka asked. Evena stepped up to me, allowing me onto her back, while Illeka carried Dark. The two of them, with Autumn and two other ligers (given that they were both male and there was an eastern and a western each, I guessed they were the queens' mates), headed for a rocky part of the beach. There was a nice outcropping there that made it possible to look out over a wide expanse of ocean.

We stopped up on that outcropping, and I smiled. Out in the distance, and seeming to grow closer with each passing moment, was what appeared to be a sheet of white, floating on the ocean. The ice bridges were approaching.

"I hope they're all ready. It won't be long now," Dark said. I nodded.

"Yeah. Not long at all."

*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*

It was almost two weeks later, after seeing the ligers off across the ice bridges and turning to head for Grand Chokmah, that we actually arrived in the city. And to be honest, it had only taken so long because we'd made a detour just north of Mushroom Road. Sure enough, I'd found a flightstone.

Okay. No one aside from me knew it was a flightstone (no one knew I'd picked it up, period), but I'd found it anyway, and it would probably come in handy later.

We'd also noted a rather strong earthquake, and I'd figured it was the rest of Rugnica falling into the Qliphoth.

The minute Grand Chokmah came into view, Natalia, Ion, and I all sighed in relief. Natalia and Ion because they weren't used to spending so many weeks straight in the wilderness.

Me, because I really, really needed a change of clothes.

It took every ounce of my self-control to not simply race ahead of the others. Still, we all picked up the pace, and made it to the city just after nightfall. Of course, this brought along a number of other problems.

"Halt! Identify yourselves!" one of the guards called, having spotted us—finally—as we neared the gates. And when I say 'neared' I mean 'came within five yards.' Sheesh...

I rolled my eyes and listed our group off, and two of the three guards (the two who hadn't spoken) took off their helmets. My eyes widened, probably comically, when I realized who they were.

"Marco! Levi! You're alive!"

The two soldiers chuckled, while the third looked at them, huffed, and reluctantly relaxed.

"Yeah. Thanks to him," Marco said, nodding to the orange-haired man. "He's the one who suggested switching armor with a couple of the Oracle Knights we'd killed. Soon as we could, we hightailed it outta there."

"Good thing, too, since it sounds like the men on the Tartarus didn't survive Akzeriuth's destruction," Levi added. I crossed my arms and nodded.

"Yeah. We got lucky, even when Tear's fonic hymn tossed us. Most of us survived without too much damage," I said. Dark snorted, and I rolled my eyes. "You and Valkyria were the only casualties in our group, shut up." He broke up laughing at that one, while the two soldiers chuckled along.

The typical clanking of armor caught our attention, and the rest of us turned to see another trio of soldiers heading toward us. Marco smirked.

"Hey, there they are."

"Get lost?" Levi asked. One of the soldiers aimed a punch at his shoulder.

"Shut up, ginger."

I raised an eyebrow, remembering that Jade had said Alex had gotten off lightly as well. Was that...?

"Hey, recognize someone?" Levi asked, shoving a thumb my direction. The soldier looked at me, wry smile twisting his lips up.

"Well, if it isn't Maes. Nice to see you again."

I grinned. "Same."

"Oi, I'd like to head back in now," the third soldier from Levi and Marco's group grumbled. Levi laughed.

"Right... Come on," he said, gesturing to the rest of us. The second group of guards didn't argue as we followed the first group into the city.

"We have to go report. See you around?" Marco said. I nodded and waved the three off before stopping to consider something.

"Well. Are we going to bother the emperor, or are we going to rent rooms at the inn?" Dark asked. I crossed my arms, glancing at the sky and the distantly-visible palace before shaking my head.

"Inn. I'm not up to dealing with His Majesty at this hour."

"Right. You're usually hitting the sack about now."

I rolled my eyes and made a beeline for the inn. No one argued. We'd been walking all day, and that, combined with more than a few monsters, had made the trek to Grand Chokmah a tedious, exhausting one. I wasn't the only one looking forward to a nice, soft bed.

I glanced around. Natalia and I were the only girls, so...

"Dark, you get to sleep in a room with the ligers. Mieu's small enough to fit about anywhere... Reighn, who do you want to share with?" I asked. The bluenette shrugged.

"I was gonna say, I'll stay with the ligers, because Ion should stay the night with Dark. He needs to do the maintenance on his guns and I don't have a clue how to do it," he said. I nodded.

"So, Dark and Ion, Luke and Seth, and Reighn's with the ligers," I muttered, stepping into the inn and walking over to the desk. The woman looked up and smiled.

"Ah, Miss Balfour. Hmm? Where's your red-haired friend?"

I smiled. "Asch is with my brother, and Sync is in Daath. This is Sync's brother," I said, correcting her assumption that Ion was Sync. "Four rooms, please." She nodded, but paused and made a small sound as she glanced over us. I kept up the smile. "Oh, don't mind the ligers. They won't cause any problems."

She just blinked a few times before nodding and scribbling something down on her roster. A moment later, she was handing over four keys and muttering a price. I handed over the gald without even flinching. I knew her too well. She wouldn't dare overcharge me for the ligers for fear of having to deal with Jade.

I passed out keys, grabbed Natalia, and made a beeline for our room. As usual, I was asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Of course, the first thing I did the next morning was wander off toward the palace. No one else was up yet (I'd expected that, since the sun hadn't even risen) but I figured Peony wouldn't mind the early wake up call, given what I was going to discuss with him.

Well, I had to get to the palace first. Given the number of detours I was taking, it would probably be well after seven by the time I got there.

"Well now, what do we have here?"

Normally, when I hear this sentence, it's followed up by a scowl and some would-be-rapist/pedophile/whatever getting their ass kicked. However, when these words are spoken instead by a certain blue-coated member of the Dark Wings, they're greeted by a grin and some return joking.

"Nothing but a wandering little lady," I said. York chuckled.

"Would the little lady like an escort?"

"Only if he doesn't object the wandering."

Now, before anyone gets any ideas, think about this. York is in his thirties, just a few months younger than Jade, actually. So the above isn't the flirting it sounds like. York has become something of an uncle to me, which is why we're so casually joking around with each other.

I'd originally planned on saving the clothing design conversation for Emperor Peony, but it didn't take much for me to start talking to York about it. One thing led to another, and the both of us ended up pushing rappigs out of the way while Peony laughed from behind the door to his projects room.

"You don't mind that I brought him along, do you?" I asked a bit late as I closed the door, cutting Kairi-Rappig off from getting in. Peony laughed.

"Not at all. The more the merrier, right?"

Which is why the three of us were sat down with random strips of fabric and ribbon all over the place two hours later when the sounds of irritated rappigs reached our ears. A moment later, Dark poked his head in.

"Yeah, they're all in here," he said, apparently answering someone's question. Likely Noir's, since she was the next to step in. I looked up at them and grinned, standing—and displacing a bunch of ribbons—to show off the new clothes I'd put on sometime between arriving and then.

Simple black, elbow-length fingerless gloves had replaced the two of differing lengths. My armlet was still there around my right arm. I'd gotten better with Energies, but I still didn't trust myself not to lose control of them.

Black flames hemmed the bottom of a blue skirt with spandex shorts underneath, while the black upper half of my strapless top hugged my chest, silvery bottom half flowing around me but leaving my midriff bare. Black leg warmers with blue flames around the bottom edge and a blue cape that barely reached my knees completed my current look, since I hadn't pulled on the silver boots yet.

"Well?"

Noir smiled. "You look good in that."

I grinned. "I wanted my blue flames back, but I gave Emperor Peony mostly free reign. We've also started another project, though this one's gonna take longer," I said. Peony chuckled.

"It should be done on time, though," he added. Dark and the others I could see through the open door all gave me wary looks, while York chuckled.

"It will most certainly be interesting," he said, standing only after folding things up. "I take it you're wanting to leave?" he guessed, looking to Noir. She crossed her arms.

"Reighn's asked us for transport. We were actually looking for Kairi to see where we should be headed next," she said. "Though Dark said Baticul would be a good idea."

I frowned, thinking over the timeline, and then nodded. "Yes, though we'd best be cautious. If Mohs is right, and Natalia isn't really Ingobert's daughter, she's likely to be wanted for impersonating the princess. Same with Luke, though Asch and Duke Fabre should be able to diffuse most of that situation," I said. Luke glanced past me, and Peony sighed.

"Don't give me that look. With most of Rugnica in the Qliphoth, there's not a lot I can do," he said. I nodded.

"And we don't have the Albiore," I added. "Besides, the fighting's probably stopped anyway. They'd be crazy not to."

"But the war..." Natalia started. Dark sighed.

"We start with Mohs," he said. "Baticul then."

I nodded once and grabbed my boots. "Let's go."

Fun Fact: Ah, and here is the first mention of something majorly important in the first chapter of Book 3. Hehe... Yeah, lots of little bits to make you wonder.