Note: Due to the current world situation, I'll be skipping over the Marlind part and heading straight into the next part. I have the Marlind part saved for when this is over, so please do not angrily review/comment about a chunk missing. A lot of people would rather not be reminded, so I'm taking that into consideration... though a little late, since I started on it in the previous chapter.

I apologize for this.

Alisha... had been detained. And Sorey was being forced to go along with Hyland's whims to ensure her safety. The man who had gave us the message had also said that she'd put up a fight while being detained for being a potential traitor to her own country. So that had left us no choice but to go along. Arvald had cited that he needed to get back to his people, and disappeared on us before we'd gotten that order. Which meant that Aevar and I had to go along with Sorey. We were assumed to be a part of the Sheperd's group, and therefore the order had gone to us as well. It was stupid in all regards. Neither Aevar nor I could be of any use in war. We weren't Squires, we couldn't do anything. Dead weight, that was just what we were.

But still, we continued forward with Sorey. Aevar looked despondent, and I was resigned. As we followed along, we listened in on what the commander of Hyland's troops had to say. That Sorey was to follow his orders and do as he said, but Sorey was defiant and did his own thing...

Like rescuing Lucas and the mercenaries. The Hyland troops abandoned them, so we had jumped in to save them. It was the first time I'd actually killed anything, too. Aevar was used to it, his lance stabbing through the people and cutting through. But I wasn't. Fighting the Rolance soldiers, I was barely able to keep on my own two feet. My daggers were flailing everywhere, trying to block the attacks so I didn't get hurt. I hated being hurt, and being hurt in this case meant my death because I would be incapacitated, and that wasn't a good thing. Blocking attacks was all I could do, until I heard the sound of my clothes tearing and then the sharp pain in my side.

I had no choice.

With the shriek of pain, I aimed for what I thought was his arm. To disarm him and spare his life, you know? But my eyes were blurry with tears of pain, and I stabbed him in the neck instead. When he went down, I did too while clutching my side. My blood quickly cooled as it hit the air, and I heard the sound of Lailah's heels as she moved to my side. The warmth of healing magic, concentrated on my wound, sealed up the injury I had sustained and stopped the bleeding. But my clothes would need multiple washings and- I'd deal with that later.

What was the worst part, was when I realized what I had done. I had gone to retrieve my dagger when I noticed the puddle of blood under the body... and my dagger still in his neck. My eyes widened, and I hit the ground again. No, no... It wasn't supposed to be like this! Had I aimed wrong?! They had a family to go home to, and I just...

No, no. This was war... I had to remember that. This was currently a war and if I hadn't killed him, he would've killed me. But that didn't stop the tears from falling as I whispered apologies to the person I'd killed. Sorey and Aevar didn't seem distraught, but then again they were good at putting on brave faces... Sorey especially.

"We should rejoin them." Lailah said, once the path was clear. I gave a small nod and stood up, sheathing my dagger. This was going to be hovering over my head for a while. A life, I'd taken an actual life. It was in self-defense, sure... but it was a weight that I'd have to carry for the rest of my life. I wouldn't be the same person as I was before... would I? I'd always heard that killing changes people, and perhaps that was true... but I didn't want to have that kind of change. I didn't want to-

A pressure that I'd never felt before interrupted my thought process and I felt like everything was being squeezed harshly. It let up after a few moments, but that was enough to tell me that the malevolence had strengthened. By the look on everyone's faces, it wasn't good. Up on a hill was a very dense ball of malevolence, and I could hear Sorey and the others talking about it being the Lord of Calamity. It was funny, thinking back, that this whole thing started 1,000 years ago in Glenwood's history about a Shepherd and a Lord of Calamity.

Instead of continuing forward, we retreated... but we didn't get too far until Landon attacked us, citing that the chancellors would think again about Sorey being useful if his severed head was brought to them. His form meant that he had become a hellion due to this malevolence. And there was nothing either Aevar or I could do except fight and help wear him down. But the malevolence didn't disappear, and Lailah explained that the domain was stronger than her power of purification. That was... problematic for them. We, again, were just along for the ride. It wasn't going to be too long before Sorey was about to get Rose as a Squire, so...

"Please! Help me!" A voice cried out.

"Someone's in trouble?!" Sorey looked for the source of the voice. A young woman was fighting back hellions with a... wait, was that a hammer? When we reached her, the hellions were closing in. Sorey armatized with Lailah, defeating them within a swing of his sword. It was a bit too easy, and that thought turned out to be correct as the hellions rose up again. The woman held her hammer tight, before taking a few more swings.

"Why are you here?!" Lailah asked as Sorey armatized with Edna. "Water seraphim are more suspectible to being corrupted by malevolence, Izayoi!"

The seraph, Izayoi, shook her head. "I followed my dreams, Lailah. They told me the Oracle was here! Even if I turn into a Hellion, I must see this through!"

Lailah gasped. "But that's just a fairytale!"

Izayoi smacked her hammer against one of the hellions, and bubbles appeared. They seemed to glow with the same light that Lailah's flames of purification did, but it was no use. "No, the Oracle is real. They help the Shepherd. But I suppose your oath prevents you from speaking about it." The water seraph tucked her hair behind her ear. It was silver, with light blue at the ends and reached her waist while tied back in a low ponytail at the nape of her neck. There were some pieces of her hair that fell free, framing her face. Izayoi's outfit consisted of a white off-shoulder shirt, a black corset and a pale blue skirt that reached only the middle of her middle finger. Black leggings and silver boots brought together the ensemble, and on her hands were rings of silver and blue. Her eyes were a silver colour as well. A beautiful woman made for combat, it seemed.

"Izayoi!" The malevolence seemed to be converging on the water seraph, who was trying to hold it back with the bubbles. Lailah was concerned, and tried burning the malevolence away. It didn't work. "Izayoi, you need a vessel! You're going to become a hellion!"

"I know, Lailah. But the Oracle... They're here, and I'm going to help them. That's why I made my purification oath, so I could also help." Izayoi held out her hand. It wasn't hard for me to imagine who she might've been waiting for. With a sharp intake of breath, I took her hand. She looked at me, and then her face softened into a smile.

It was almost instant, our pact. Unlike Lailah's, there was no fancy words. No "I'll become the Oracle!", a mirror of what Sorey would have done. It was a silent agreement, something we both decided on within a moment. But when she entered me, I felt a weight and a pain in my chest. Like something was wrong, an imbalance in my body. I took in another breath, and exhaled slowly. She hopped out of my body in a flash of light, hammer held in one hand.

"Our pact is complete." Izayoi said. "Now I can assist you, Lailah."

"...Izayoi.." Lailah's eyes glistened with tears, and she hugged the water seraph. Izayoi gently pat Lailah's head, and looked to the hill where the malevolence was. She'd held out this long, it seemed almost natural that she was going to head there. Before she did, she turned to me and held out a crossbow once Lailah let go of her.

"Here. This will be the focus of our armatization." Izayoi said. I took it and put it in my bag with a small nod. With that, we headed towards the hill that the Lord of Calamity stood upon. It took longer than we expected, with the soldiers under the grips of malevolence. Neither Izayoi or Lailah's purificatio worked, and it seemed extremely bleak. Especially with the weight remaining in my chest. I coughed, punching my chest a couple times and it seemed to dislodge the weight to where it didn't even feel like it was there anymore... which was good, I didn't want that dragging me down in this critical moment.

When we reached the summit, Sorey stepped forward.

"You must be..." He trailed off, uncertain.

"So, another shepherd is born at last... but what's this? You've brought your Oracle with you." It was mocking, that last line, as if he'd thought that Sorey would come alone with his own strength. Sorey was shaking, and the Lord of Calamity caught on to that. He looked smug.

"Frightened, are you? Ah, but the sound of death is so sweet..." He looked away from us, to the battlefield once more. The pressure of malevolence made my ears start ringing loudly, and I clapped my hands over my ears to make it stop. It wasn't something I usually did, but then the rest of the scene played out as I couldn't hear them speaking. Sorey armatized with Lailah, and attacked the Lord of Calamity. The sword was caught in his hand, and I vaguely remembered what would happen next. The Lord of Calamity sent Sorey backwards by merely overpowering him, and Lailah fell to the ground. I watched as he advanced, and spoke to Sorey. This was it, the malevolence was really starting to get to me. Like a foreign agent entering my body, but I resisted the faint feeling for as long as I could. Izayoi was at my side, washing the malevolence away as best as she could to keep me on my feet. I figured she knew that I was weak due to the pact we formed, and that I'd be passing out any moment now... But I had to keep strong. I made my own advancement, hands over my ringing ears, until the pressure made both Sorey and I fall to our knees. Aevar was nowhere to be found, and I was glad for that. He didn't need to see this, the Shepherd and I both unable to handle the pressure from the Lord of Calamity expanding his domain even more.

But then, he vanished, leaving behind nothing but a message of his name, and a wonder of how much longer the two of us would live. The ringing stopped once Heldalf, the Lord of Calamity, was gone and both Sorey and I stood up. This was going to be a desperate problem. The war would continue, and what could we do about it...? That was when I noticed Sorey looking around... and realized that I couldn't see any of the Seraphim. Then it hit me. That was right, Heldalf temporarily made our resonance absolutely nothing because of his actions! But Sorey seemed really distraught. It was when the armies arrived, all turned into malevolent beings, that it really hit us that we were powerless at this point. Sorey called out for Lailah using her true name and trying to armatize... but nothing worked. I had to dodge every attack, as I didn't want to kill any of these people. Nothing was going to work...

And then, one of them hit my stomach. It knocked the air out of me, and I found myself falling off the cliffside. The last thing I remembered, before I lost consciousness, was Sorey and someone else falling too.

The stars were in the sky when I woke up, sitting up and staring at nothing in particular. I had thought I'd died, but I hadn't seen anything... just the usual nothingness that usually accompanied my sleep. Glancing about, I noticed Sorey on my right. He was awake too, and looking at Rose. That was right, Rose tried saving him but got hit instead... It was a miracle she was okay. Perhaps that was Lailah's doing... The seraphim probably saved all of us. That was a relief.

"Rani! You're alright!" Sorey said, as he picked up Rose onto his back. I nodded and got up, dusting my clothes off. I owed Rose big time, didn't I?

"Yeah, looks like it. You're okay too. I'm glad." I gave a smile to him, and the two of us walked into the forest. It was a quiet walk, neither of us wanting to disturb the unconscious Rose. She was actually awake, but I wasn't about to tell Sorey that.. No, that would be too off the rails. Instead, I let her feign waking back up, and listened to them talk while keeping an eye out. We were to head north, due to our pursuers. When we got to the designated location, the rest of the Scattered Bones, who were also members of the Sparrowfeathers, met us there.

It was like I was watching this happen on the TV again. I didn't follow this time, only sort of sitting on some rubble while waiting for them to come back. Once Sorey did come back, with Rose, we headed towards the Tintagel Ruins that served as the hideout for the Scattered Bones. Meeting up with the man Rose called 'Old Man Mayvin', he and Sorey talked for a bit as well as some conversation with Rose until we descended into the hideout once Mayvin had left. We were free to use the beds in the back, but I was still slightly worried over the whole... debt I owed to Rose. I knew she'd said it was alright back in Marlind but...

"Rose!" I caught up to her as she was about to enter another room, grabbing her arm as gently as possible. That had her attention turned back to me.

"Rani? What's up? Don't tell me you're still thinking about the debt-" I nodded, which cut her words off.

"I know you said that I could just ignore it back when we were helping distribute medicine amongst the sick but... I want to help. I want to pay it back. Please, Rose..."

She sighed, getting her arm out of my grip before leading me into the room and sitting on the bed. She pat the side to her left, which indicated to me that she wanted me to sit beside her. So I did, carefully. When I was seated, she sighed and put a hand on her thigh. "Listen, I told you it's alright. I never intended to make it permanent. You helped us with the festival, and even left a note saying you had to go somewhere. It's just clothes! Jeez, you act like it's an entire catastrophe." The last part was said with a smile, as Rose turned her head to look at me.

"Well I... didn't want you to think I was skipping out on it." I admitted sheepishly, looking at my feet. "You helped me when you didn't have to, even bought me clothes. What else am I supposed to do except think I'm supposed to pay you back for it?"

"You're a dummy, Rani." Rose pat me on the back. "Why don't you rest here for today? I bet the Shepherd's already asleep and you both have had a long day."

"A-alright." I gave a nod. Rose got up off the bed and I laid on it. The pillow had a slightly floral scent to it, and it smelled really nice. It was difficult to get to sleep at first, but soon I found myself dozing off and dreaming of home again. This time, however, the boy was with me. With his compass, and staring at the scene. I was sitting on the couch, one of the old ones... so this was long before we got the new ones, it seemed. This dream, that is.

"So this is what you dream of?" He asked, walking to sit next to me.

"I guess. I miss home, kiddo. I dream about it a lot when I'm not home. Like if I'm out at a friend's house... or at a hotel..."

"I didn't think I'd be able to access your dreams when I wanted to talk to you. I guess that makes this easier." The boy set the compass aside, before looking at me. His green eyes had a slight purple colouring to them, possibly because of the malevolence. "But you're on the right track. Staying with Sorey will help your journey and make it easier. So don't lose track of him..."

As he said that, the entire room faded. And he looked at himself before fading from view. I felt something shaking me, and groaned as the world returned to me. I was in Tintagel ruins, and I was being shaken awake by Eguille. Sitting up, I rubbed my eyes a little before looking at him. "Whassamatter?"

"It's morning." He said. "You weren't waking up for a bit there."

"A-ah... sorry about that. I guess the events of yesterday caught up to me." I chuckled nervously and got off the bed.

"The Shepherd is up, and Rose is with him. You should go catch up before they leave without you." He just laughed a little at my concerned face. "They're going to explore deeper into the ruins. They got the door open."

Oh... Oh yeah. "Thanks. I appreciate it."

Meeting up with Sorey was easy, as Rose had already gone on ahead. I could see Mikleo, Lailah and Edna again, so the rest I took must've helped my resonance. Izayoi was there as well, and I gave her a thumbs up to note that I could see her again. The six of us continued in, and I felt the weight in my chest again for a bit as Izayoi took up residence within me as her vessel. It didn't last too long walking through the ruins as Rose accidentally sealed us in a room. That was great, but at least things would continue on as they should. As time passed for Rose to find a way to open the door, Lailah talked about Rose potentially joining the group. I tuned it out, knowing exactly how it went and counting down the seconds until the snake hellion trap was activated. It wasn't too long, about thirty seconds before that happened. We were able to take them out as Sorey told Rose we were fighting ghosts- which made her let him deal with it.

The second one, however, was smoke. The puzzle for it was going to be difficult to figure out.

Both Sorey and I tested out each platform and figured out which ones stayed down. It took us about a minute to figure it out, thankful that it didn't take longer than that. The smoke dispersed, and we were safe. I coughed, having held my breath for as long as I could to stop myself from inhaling any smoke and damaging my lungs. It was difficult in a trap-filled room. Maybe ruins just weren't for me...

The door opened, but there was a hellion's domain that suddenly flashed into existence. Rose's scream drew us to her, and she was standing scared as Dezel protected her from the Hellion. Sorey drew the hellion's attention, and I ran over to Rose instead of joining in the combat.

"Come on, this way." I said, helping her back to the other room.

"M-Rani, there's..." Rose was shaking something fierce. Her fear of ghosts was all Dezel's fault, wasn't it...? "Th-there's..."

"Take a few deep breaths, you're alright. It's not with us." But she'd be running back in soon to help Sorey and become his Squire.

"But... Sorey, he's... He's back there fighting it and I..." She looked back, past Dezel and to the fight itself. Sorey was trying his hardest, but... They needed the Wind Element for this one, and the only one who could help was Dezel himself. But he wouldn't if Rose didn't... And there was no way it would happen on its own. With a sigh, I gave her a pat on the back.

"Go on. I'll be right behind you."

"Y-yeah!"

And it went the same way. Except the true name Sorey gave her was something along the lines of "Wilk Suatya" or something like that, which had me raising an eyebrow. Either there was some inconsistency, or Sorey never wanted to name Rose "Wilkis Wilk". Regardless of the matter, joining in on the fight was easy and soon Rose started to fight alongside us as well with Lailah. We were able to defeat the hellion and return it to normal, but then Edna played a trick to reveal what Dezel had done- Make Rose an unwilling vessel for his power, to use her as he pleased. It made it easy to puppet her around, and I bit my lower lip. I'd known that this entire time, and yet...

I kept it to myself.

Rose wouldn't be up for a bit, and neither would the dog seraph. I hadn't needed to use Izayoi's power like the others had used Dezel and Lailah's... It'd been just me fighting with them, and it'd helped just a bit. I was fine with that. Walking over to where Rose laid, I pulled off my jacket and used it as a makeshift blanket while letting her use my lap as a pillow to make sure she had a good rest while we waited for her to wake up. It was different, watching everyone converse while I just stayed out of it. I always did, after all. I didn't want to influence things too much... But I guess I had already by meeting Rose when I did.

Maybe this journey wouldn't be so bad after all.

Note: And that's it. That's the end of this chapter. Sorry it's so long, I just wanted to get the whole "Rose joins Sorey" thing completed and I wrote so much and I need to make sure that everything stays consistent... There are a few new things. Mainly, the Oracle and there being another Seraph with the power of purification. Those are things I worked on prior to making this story, and more will be revealed about it as the fic goes along. The second thing was Rose's true name. I didn't have the old cipher I used to make a true name back in the old one, so I may have just smushed something together, thought it sounded good and used it.

But this is just the beginning.