ATUHOR'S NOSE: This chapter was posted a week late because at the last moment I got the sudden violent urge to rewrite it entirely.

Anyone who guesses why we wanted to rewrite this chapter gets a fake internet cookie. Three if you do it before reading the original one. Which you can only find on AO3 because FFN super frowns upon posting anything remotely meta and, uh, also, updating on this site is a super pain and I don't want to do it twice in one day.

As promised, Colette was recovered the next day, so we returned to Triet, where we took a few days to prepare for the journey ahead of us.

Once we were prepared, we began hiking west, to the Ossa Trail.

"Finally, we're out of the desert," Lloyd said.

"No more sand!" I cheered. "Good riddance. That stuff's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere."

"This isn't a vacation," Kratos grumbled.

"We know that," I countered. "We can still say stuff if we want." ... I wasn't pouting, and if I was, it definitely wasn't because I understood Kratos's point and now felt guilty about griping. "Anyway, it's good that we're making progress. That's more important than anyone's opinion on Triet in particular." There, now I was expressing my opinion in a positive way instead of griping.

And so we ascended the trail without complaint — yeah, it was a workout and all, but nothing we couldn't handle. We hadn't gotten very far, though, before —

"Stop!"

Some girl in purple dropped from above.

"Aight, we're stopped, what's your deal?"

"Is she a friend of yours, Leaf?" Colette asked me.

I frowned loudly and scrutinized the girl. Did I know her? I got a vague sense of familiarity, but I could just be imagining that now that I'm considering the possibility. I felt equally familiar with everyone else in this group, who I did know, but for the life of me I couldn't place her... unless she was one of my notebook's more cryptic references. "... I'm not sure. Is this Sheena?"

The girl started. "What‽ How do you know my name‽"

"Ah, I guess we're not friends, she just happens to have the same name as someone." This was definitely not actually why I knew her name, and it felt pretty transparent to bullshit that it was, but it was the best cover story I had managed to think of, so I just had to hope she wasn't too inclined to push it. "So, Other Sheena, why are you here?"

Sheena didn't seem to know how to handle me randomly having her name, even if I was playing it off as a coincidence. "Er... is the Chosen of Mana among you?"

My hackles went up. I hadn't written enough to know exactly why she was here, but I had a suspicion hostility was involved.

"Oh, that's me!" Colette declared cheerfully, entirely unburdened of such thoughts.

"Prepare to die!" Sheena cried, and charged —

"Link Guard!" I flashstepped between her and Colette, and —

"Uh-oh."

Everyone was looking at my feet — no, at the hatch that had just opened up beneath my feet.

I had just enough time for the phrase "coyote time" to enter my mind before the moment ended and I fell in.

I didn't have enough time to think about how to save myself before I had already hit the ground with a thud. "OW. ... ow, crap, ow. ... That was actually a lot shorter of a distance than I was expecting."

Still, I must've wrenched my leg or something, because it was seriously not happy. "... I'm mostly okay!" I belatedly called back up the shaft. "Not gonna be jumping back up, though...!"

... No response. Was I too far down to hear, or — well, they were probably busy dealing with Sheena. Which was. Fine. Expected.

Gingerly, I got back up to my feet and tried to look around, but the single beam of sunlight making its way down the mineshaft was the only thing visible — somehow it failed to light up the surrounding area while simultaneously preventing my eyes from adjusting to the dark.

"Brilliant... well, this is a mine shaft, surely there's another end to the tunnel. I'll just..." I stepped in the general direction of 'probably away from the walls'.

It only took a few minutes before I finally got far enough away from the light for my eyes to start adjusting, thankfully — also, extremely fortunately, because this was also right about the moment I heard the creepiest voice of my entire life.

Breathy as a whisper, yet forceful as a shout, coming from everywhere and nowhere at once, yet at the same time clearly originating from the creature standing in front of me, some kind of horned skeleton with four arms, each bearing a different blade, staring at me with hunger in its nonexistent eyes.

"Strong one. Face me."

I jumped — ow, no, stepped back, drawing both my spear and the broken handle. I didn't want to give this thing any openings, but I wouldn't be fighting properly until my leg was patched up, so I channeled magic quickly — "First Aid."

"Die." The creature stepped forward, slashing at me like a whirlwind. I jumped back again, barely dodging the swings but wincing as my bad leg sent up another jolt of agony. Damn it, was it broken...?

I didn't have time to wonder. The monster started channeling dark mana. "Darkness."

I felt hostile mana start to coalesce around me — "Damage Guard!" — and burst into corrupting darkness. "What the hell are you, Meteorite —" I jumped up and tried impaling it right in its skeletal face, which actually seemed to work as I chipped off a good chunk of its skull — but once again, the landing got my leg and I was seeing stars.

Blindly, I channeled mana to cast a spell flickering in the back of my mind — "Mirror Move — Dark Sphere!"

Through the barely-fading haze, I could see dark mana coalesce around the monster, and bounce off like water off a duck. Of course it was no good. This thing was of the darkness, and wouldn't fall to its own element.

Before I could follow up, it charged once again, swinging its blades like a giant scissors. I twisted away and managed to dodge two of them, but the other two got me on the backswing, and despite being blunted by my armor, it was enough, and I crumpled to the ground. "N- no..."

The skeletal warrior walked up to me and... nudged me with its foot. Bones. Whatever. I was trying my best to struggle to my feet, and it almost seemed disappointed when I failed and it lifted me up by the neck.

"Weakling. Begone."

And, clearly irritated that I had wasted its time, it tossed me out of its little alcove below the hatch and deeper into the mine.

...

...

...? ... somehow, I wasn't dead. For some reason, the creature hadn't killed me. Then again, given the smell of wild animals down here, I didn't think it was intending me to survive being — literally, apparently — thrown to the wolves.

But there weren't any ravenous beasts in sight now, at least, and that would have to do. Slowly, achingly, I rifled through my bag for an apple gel and an orange gel and sucked them both down, not even noticing the intense sour taste that normally made me gag. Then, through very judicious application of magic, I tried to patch myself up so I would at least be vaguely ambulatory. Magic and a second apple gel.

"Ow... ow ow ow..." Gingerly, I got back up to my feet. Irritatedly, I shook off the sense of deja vu.

When I'd landed, I had charged right off without preparation. This time, I'd made sure I could at least move. All of me still ached, but I could put weight on either or both of my legs and not immediately lose any concentration.

The sunlight shining into the skeletal creature's haunt was barely a glow from here. Further into the mine, it was pitch black. I rifled through my bag and pulled out my phone — whoever had designed it had seen fit to allow me to turn the flashlight on without having to unlock the screen first, so I wouldn't be completely in the dark. (Another decision I should have made the first time...)

... noticing the pattern, I paused for a moment before proceeding. Was there any other stupid mistake I'd made the first time that I could avoid now? ... Well, I'd fought the creature. What I should have done was run. I didn't need to kill whatever wolves or axe-faced birds or inexplicably-cute plant girl monsters lived down here. I just needed to meet back up with the others.

Surely this mineshaft had another exit. Carefully, I went into the darkness...

...

It took a while, especially considering how slow I was going, but eventually I saw sunlight again, streaming through a boarded-up cave opening. I wasn't immediately sure why it had been sealed off, but there was only one solution — I applied a red quartz to my spears and "Meteorite!" leapt at the barrier and sliced two massive flaming gashes into it, causing it to collapse in short order.

Outside looked much the same as the beginning of the trail had, so I knew I hadn't gone far. The dirt road was visible not far away. The path off to the left seemed to go up, so I figured the party would come down from there. ... or already had. And I had no idea how to check. Hmm.

I looked up at the skyline, or what little of it wasn't obscured by the mountains. No smoke was rising to suggest a campfire, which was perhaps obvious since it was only midafternoon. So they were most likely still traveling. And if they'd taken a roundabout route after being delayed by Sheena's attack, surely they'd take longer than me to reach the same point...? Except that they also hadn't been steamrolled by some skeleton thing.

Maybe I could hear something if I listened real hard. I closed my eyes and concentrated. ...

... hm? Yes, there was a voice. An unfamiliar one, but... well, maybe they'd have seen the group pass by. I stowed my spears and followed the squeaky tones. As I got closer I eventually managed to start comprehending their words.

"... next time! I believe in you!"

A second voice responded, much quieter and still indistinct at this distance.

"I know you can save Tethe'alla because you saved me!"

The two of them seemed to be holed up in a little overhang that I had somehow wandered on top of. ... Throwing caution to the wind I just jumped down —

and there was Sheena, the assassin girl, looking rather put out as a fluffy multicolored three-tailed fox creature — okay, she was looking rather put out, before I dropped down, and her expression turned to shock. "You!"

"Me," I said with a weak grin. "... I take it you didn't kill Colette."

Sheena growled. "No, but I will kill her, and all of you as well!"

I frowned loudly at her. "Why, though? The —" I glanced at the fox-thing. "You were talking before I got here, right?"

"Leave Sheena alone!" they said in exactly the voice I had heard earlier. "I won't let you hurt her!"

"Oh, I wasn't planning on it. But you said something about her saving 'Tethe'alla'. What's that, and how is killing Colette gonna save it?"

"You're an enemy!" they said. "I'm not telling you anything!"

Sheena, on the other hand, looked like she was taking my question seriously. "... do you really want to know?"

"Yeah? I mean, look, Colette's a nice girl. I'm sure she doesn't want to hurt you or whatever Tethe'alla is. Maybe if we talk things out we can come to an agreement."

Sheena frowned very loudly. "I'm not stupid, you know. I know that people on this side call the moon Tethe'alla. Just like people back home call the moon Sylvarant."

"This side?" I tilted my head, rotating that in my mind. "... Well. That has interesting implications. I didn't know that."

"How do you not know that‽ Everyone knows what the moon is called!"

"I have amnesia, I don't know a lot of things." I shrugged loudly. Plus it's becoming increasingly obvious that I'm not from Sylvarant. Am I from Tethe'alla...? I don't know enough about that place, the possibility doesn't tell me anything. "So. What was that about 'this side'?"

Sheena didn't answer, only scrutinizing me with suspicion. "... how did you know my name, anyway?"

I shrugged loudly again. "Strictly speaking, I only know a Sheena. Even now I have no evidence as to whether she is or is not in fact you —"

"Cut the crap, carrot-top!" Sheena interjected. "That's such a flimsy excuse, a four-year-old could see through it!"

I snorted. "Yeah, well, I didn't leave myself a better one. Or leaf one either, har har har." The fox-thing growled again, seemingly growing impatient. "... tell you what, I'll explain how I know you if you explain why you're after Colette."

"... how do I know you're not lying?"

"How would I know you're not lying?" I shot back. "We can either take each other's word for it or not. ... Look, I'll admit in advance that my answer's a bit underwhelming, which is why I'm offering to go first."

Sheena and her fox-thing took a few more moments to glare, and then Sheena said "All right, go first, then."

"Great! So. Two parts. First part. As previously mentioned, I have amnesia, so I don't actually know how I know you."

"That's not an answer!"

"Indeed it is not! The second part is marginally more helpful: I left myself some notes about what I was doing before I got amnesia, and those notes mention that someone named Sheena was gonna try to kill Colette."

"... so you're a spy."

I paused to consider that. "... can't confirm, but not impossible." I didn't think it was likely, but it definitely wasn't impossible either. Though who I'd be spying for in this scenario was unclear. My notes had left little to nothing in the way of motivation for my meddling. Well, explicit motivation.

"Don't tell her anything, Sheena!" the fox-thing said.

"... no. That was useless, and you're probably a spy. I'm not telling you my mission."

"Hmph." And this girl joins us later? I guess it's too early to talk her over. "Fine. At least tell me whether the others passed by here yet." We were close enough to the mine exit that I'm sure she'd have heard them.

"... no, not yet. After they beat me, they said something about going slow for a bit to give you time to catch up. Just for a bit."

"Cool, thanks, bye." And before she or the fox-thing could respond, I was out.

...

I headed back to the mine exit and paused again, wondering whether I should head up the trail or back into the mine. It belatedly occurred to me that they could send Colette down the shaft to see what had happened to me, and since that could only have happened after they beat Sheena, she would presumably have seen nothing but the empty room with the skull monster. Would she have tried exploring further down the mine, or gone back up...?

"Guys, I see Leaf!"

I blinked as I heard Colette's voice and looked up. There she was, flying above the trail — and she swooced back down behind the trees, to the rest of the group I assumed, and then back up and over to me. "Leaf, Leaf, you're all right, Genis said you definitely survived the fall but I was so worried! You look terrible, what happened down there? Did you try to fight the Sword Dancer by yourself? I saw that thing and it looked scary and I told the Professor about it and she said it was really dangerous."

"Sword Dancer? Is that what that's called? Dangerous is definitely the word for it. But for some reason it decided to let me live after completely flattening me. I'm not complaining, but I do have to wonder why..."

"Um, everyone else is still further up the path," Colette said, "but I told them you're here. I don't think it's far, but I can check —" and she immediately swooced up the path. With nothing better to do, I walked on after her.

Thankfully, it didn't take much longer to meet back up with the group.

...

"What was that trapdoor, anyway?" I asked as we set up camp. "Who puts a pit trap in a random mountain trail?"

"It wasn't a trap, Leaf," Raine said. "It's a maintenance shaft for the mines."

"With no ladder‽"

"The Ossa mines have been abandoned for decades. I would assume there used to be a ladder, until it rotted away."

"Hrm," I hrm'd. "I suppose that also explains why it was all overgrown and I couldn't see it." And I bet this 'Sword Dancer' explains why it was abandoned... "Y'all beat Sheena, right? I ran into her sulking on the way here. How'd that go?"

"We did defeat her, yes. She summoned a wind guardian, but with good tactics, we were able to overcome it and force her to retreat." Raine paused a moment to look around. "... What do you know about her, anyway?"

I considered briefly, but one fact stuck out. "When I ran into her, though, her little fox thing said they were from a place called Tethe'alla."

Raine blinked. "As in the moon?"

"She mentioned that you call the moon that, yes. That'd be new information to me, what with the amnesia. She also said that in her homeland, they call the moon Sylvarant."

"... Interesting."

"I know, right? I can't narrow down what that implies, but it's clearly something... I just wish I had more context to work with..."

"How about in that notebook of yours? Is there anything in there?" I hadn't been keeping the book itself a secret, but I'd let most of the others assume I had only started it after getting amnesia. Raine, however, had quickly noticed that I wasn't starting from the beginning.

"Not much," I admitted. "My notes were cryptic as hell, because past me apparently hated clear communication." I grumbled indistinctly for a few moments. "... maybe you should take a look for yourself. You know stuff I don't, maybe you'll be able to figure out what I meant."

Raine blinked. "Are you really willing to just hand your notebook over like that?"

"Sure, why not." I waved one arm vaguely. "I mean, I'll copy it over first as a backup —" I froze for a second. "Wait a sec, why didn't I do that ages ago just to have a backup? Whatever, doing it now. And then you can poke at the copy. Shouldn't take me more than a few hours, once everything's set up for the night."

"Hours?"

"I do have to meticulously copy it over letter by letter, yes. Otherwise it'd disrupt the cipher, and... well, maybe you'd still be able to decode it, but it would at least be harder."

...

Thankfully, I predicted right, and it didn't take too unbearably long to copy over. After handing the copy over to Raine, I headed over to the campfire, where Lloyd, Genis, and Colette were having a conversation. (And Kratos was off a ways acting like the night watch even though the sun had barely set.)

"... but I still don't get why that girl wanted to kill Colette," Lloyd said.

"Maybe she's a Desian," Genis mused.

I frowned. "I thought Desians were all half-elves — at least, that's what Kratos told me. And she looked human to me." I gestured at my ears, which were round, same as hers. "Would they even let her in if she wanted to join them?"

Genis frowned for a second, but didn't have an answer. Kratos, on the other hand — now that I'd namechecked him, he was no longer able to pretend he wasn't paying attention. "... Desians consider one a half-elf up to the seventh generation," Kratos said. "The ears tend to breed out around three or four."

I frowned loudly. "Surely we're not letting the Desians decide who's a half-elf."

"No, but you asked specifically about the Desians' recruitment standards. Their policy is in response to humans' tendency to consider one a half-elf up to the sixth generation, that being when the overt magical potential tends to fade."

"I see. Why would their policy work like that...?" I was mostly asking myself. I was sure Kratos would tell me if I really wanted him to, but — "Oh." A child of the seventh generation, despite being human by the more common standard, would likely not be treated very well for having a half-elven parent. If human society rejected either or both of them, and the Desians came around offering them an escape... "I... suppose the solution is for humans to stop rejecting half-elves," I said pathetically.

"Good luck with that," Genis said. "I've never met a single human who was okay with half-elves. They always assume any half-elf is a Desian in the making."

"Well that's dumb," Lloyd said. "Desians are Desians. If a half-elf isn't a Desian, then it shouldn't matter that they're a half-elf."

"Hm. You and Raine are full elves, right?" I asked Genis. "I think I heard someone in Iselia say something like that."

"R- right," Genis confirmed.

"I haven't seen any other full elves anywhere since I woke up — do you know whether they tend to treat half-elves any better than humans do?" It seemed obvious from Genis's tone that he, at least, endeavored to treat half-elves fairly, and I could hardly imagine Raine being racist either.

"I don't know," Genis said. "I've never met any — other full elves."

"Hmm," I hmm'd. "So that's inconclusive. And the three of you grew up in the same town, so I'm guessing Lloyd and Colette don't have any experiences of their own." (They both shook their head.) "How about you, Kratos?"

Kratos sighed. "... elves are a reclusive people. I don't remember the last time I even saw one."

I grimaced. "That's a bad sign, I think. I mean, maybe they're fine, but welcoming and open communities aren't so reclusive as to never get seen, you know? Man... half-elves sure get a raw deal, huh."

...

I was feeling a lot better when the next morning arrived, which was good, because it was my turn to cook.

"We've got a lot of tomatoes," I mused.

"That's... partly my fault," Kratos admitted. "I'm not fond of them, so we've been going through them slower than Raine had intended."

I hadn't noticed he was hanging around, but his explanation was useful anyway. "Fair enough, fair enough. You feel any differently about them when they're crunched to oblivion to make sauce?"

"... that would be more tolerable, I suppose."

"Good, cause my first thought had been chili." Yes, for breakfast. Don't judge me, on a journey like this you cook what you've got, and who cares if you 'should' be eating it at that time of day. Also, I was getting tired of omurice.

"Hmph," Kratos hmph'd. "I've seen you eyeing that red satay since we picked it up in Triet. Just don't go overboard. ... or maybe do, maybe that'll overwhelm the tomatoes."

I grinned loudly. No takesie-backsies, Kratos~

...

"... it's beans in spicy tomato sauce," I explained to Lloyd, who had apparently never heard of chili before. "Well, beans and some tofu, since we had a bit left, but that's made of beans anyway."

"Aw man, tomatoes?"

"Tomato sauce," I repeated. "Kratos doesn't like 'em either, but he assures me that crushing them into sauce makes some amount of difference. It's not the same as chunks of the whole fruit."

"I thought tomatoes were vegetables," Colette said, sounding confused.

"'Vegetable' is a culinary term," I explained, immediately engaging full Nerd Infodump Mode, "referring to any edible savory plant or part thereof that isn't an herb or spice — so yes, tomatoes are vegetables. It has no botanical meaning, though, and botanically, tomatoes are fruits. So are bell peppers and squashes."

Colette didn't respond, just rotating that in her mind with an expression that suggested she had been betrayed by the world daring to put her least favorite food into the same category as her most favorite. Lloyd, meanwhile, was tentatively trying to taste today's... yeah okay I can't alliterate that any further, he was trying the spicy chili. From the way he reacted, the tomatoes were no longer his primary concern.

Genis coughed loudly. "Leaf, how much red satay did you put in this?"

"I was originally aiming for medium spicy, but Kratos told me to go overboard," I said in a nice little faux-innocent tone that made it clear that I knew damn well he hadn't meant it.

I glanced over at Kratos, expecting him to respond to that, but he was apparently too focused on the chili. He didn't even seem to regret his 'maybe do go overboard actually' comment now, despite the fact that he practically had steam coming out of his ears. Maybe he just hated tomatoes that much that melting off his taste buds was preferable to him.

"It's, um, a lot," Lloyd said. "But I definitely don't taste tomatoes, so that's a plus?"

"I did make a second batch that's a lot less spicy," I said. "So anyone who doesn't enjoy their mouth being set aflame as much as I do does have options. Also, now that we know this group is gonna have two people who don't like tomatoes, we'll be stocking a lot less of them in the first place."

Genis immediately got up to get a batch of mild chili, while Lloyd considered the option. Colette was distracted watching everyone else with her bowl only half empty... Kratos and Raine, meanwhile, seemed to be just fine with the hot stuff, though Kratos was definitely sweating more than Raine.

More than Colette too, actually. She was a bit red, but didn't seem to mind it in the slightest. Funny, I'd have expected her to have the least spice tolerance of this group, except maybe Genis. Well, sometimes people surprise you.

"One of the foremost tomato sources in Sylvarant is Iselia, as it happens," Raine said. "I stocked up because I thought I might not find any more for a long while. I had been expecting to have used them up by now, but before Lloyd joined us Kratos insisted on cooking most of the time. I guess he really dislikes tomatoes."

"The tomatoes weren't even that bad, comparatively," Kratos muttered, causing Raine to shoot him a vicious glare.

Before we headed out, Kratos gave us all a quick lesson on how to coordinate our fighting better, and then we were on our way to Izoold, the little port town from which we'd be sailing to Palmacosta, if a boat could be found.

"Though there's also a path to the north we could take," I pointed out, looking over the map. "... It's longer and I have no clue why we'd want to take that path, but it's an option that exists. In case we can't get sea travel, I guess."

"We would eventually reach Palmacosta that way," Kratos noted. "But the angel specifically told us to go across the sea, and I must imagine he had a reason for that."

"Plus, we'll get to go on a ship!" Lloyd said, excited.

"A ship..." Raine muttered. "... are we sure the land path isn't a better idea?"

"Raine..." Kratos glared at her.

"I just... think we should consider it, that's all," she said.

"We'll consider it if there's no transport available in Izoold," Kratos said.

As much as I felt sorry for Raine, I had to acknowledge that the sea route was clearly faster.

...

There were, in fact, a few boats in Izoold, but most of them seemed decidedly disinterested in taking passengers. Eventually Raine managed to secure passage on some guy's little fishing boat by... getting him to deliver a letter from his crush to his romantic rival. Yeah, this involved pulling a bit of a fast one.

I felt real sorry for this guy, and made a note to send him an apology gift later. Maybe. If I didn't forget. Well, that was what the note was for, right?

It was a little boat, and I was concerned about its seaworthiness, but we managed to make our way to Palmacosta in only about a day.

The city was in sight when Raine signaled for my attention, out of sight of the others. She had her copy of my notes, which I presumed to be her subject of interest today.

"What's up?"

"So, I'm very curious about how you could have known this, but you seem to have been under the impression that we'd be encountering a group of imposters when we reached Palmacosta."

Well, I too was very curious. Unfortunately, both I and Raine were doomed to disappointment for now.