ATUHOR'S NOSE: ... the inconsistent spelling of "impost(o|e)r" in this fic is an intentional joke. And technically not inconsistent, as which spelling is used depends, consistently, on who's saying it. This is definitely a type of bit that's funny only to a very specific type of person.
I couldn't get over the impostor thing. Having made such precise predictions at all was weird enough, but that I had apparently made them weeks in advance if not more was driving me off the wall.
Not helping, of course, was the terse cryptic bullshit nature of my notes. If I somehow ever ran into past me, I'd smack her for that. The upcoming incidents were described so vaguely that the only reasonable plan we could think of to handle them was just to keep our eyes out.
Which obviously turned out not to be enough, as Colette bumped into some woman and —
Crash!
"Ahh! Our Palma potion! We just got that!"
Well. This at least confirmed that past me knew what she was talking about, if not how to say it with any damn clarity. And, more importantly, it meant that our impostors were identified and we could fall back on plan B.
Plan B consisted, boringly but practically, of letting the conversation play out between Lloyd and the fake Chosen's hotheaded bodyguard, until...
"Do you know who we are‽"
"Uh, no, actually," I interrupted, nudging Lloyd slightly to make sure he knew not to counter-interrupt my interrupt. "Would you mind enlightening us?"
"What did you say‽‽‽‽"
"Stop," the witchy one counter-counter-interrupted. "I want to get out of here as fast as possible."
It could have worked out, but she stopped the hothead from blabbing anything incriminating and we ended up just shooed off to go replace their potion. It's almost like she knew what she was doing or something.
"What was that all about?" Lloyd grumbled. "What'd he mean, 'do you know who we are'?"
"I know, right? I was hoping to bait him into explaining before the witchy girl stopped him, but while we go get their replacement potion, we can investigate that ourselves," I said, enacting plan C. Of course I (and Raine) already knew who they were, or more importantly who they were claiming to be, but we couldn't just throw it out there without some kind of explanation as to where we got that idea. And the witch did seem to have enough prudence not to just throw their fake name around willy-nilly. Now I just needed to cross my fingers real hard that we'd actually find some evidence...
The potion shop (winery? it looked like a winery but maybe there's a difference) was unfortunately sold out of everything right now, and the shop next door was, uh, busy. We eavesdropped a bit, but we didn't want to risk getting the attention of the actual Desians trying to push the shopkeep around, so we moved on before they left. Not solely because of the Desians.
"What was that all about?" I grumbled, getting deja vu for some reason. "Is this just how they are in towns without a non-aggression treaty? I don't know if this is better or worse."
"Unfortunately, yes, this is how Desians 'just are'," Raine said. "We've lived in other towns before Iselia — this was a long time ago, Genis, you probably don't remember — and behavior like that isn't even the worst I've seen from them."
"They think that just because they have better technology, they can just do whatever they want!" Lloyd said. Hm.
We headed further into town to see if there was a useful option elsewhere. We saw the Governor-General being all governy and general and stuff. He seemed like a decent guy, especially if he was actively opposing the Desians. Though how that squared with the randos in the shop, I wasn't sure...
Looking around the other side of town was more fruitful than I had expected it to be, considering that it didn't actually contain any shops. The first place we checked turned out to be the local church. I had my issues with the local cosmology, but it seemed like Martel Herself wasn't credited for any of the decisions I found concerning, and regardless of anything else the churches were straightforwardly serving as positive community institutions.
Besides, I had to be chill if I was currently traveling around with one of the world's most important religious figures. Which fact turned out to have its benefits, as Colette talked to the pastor and he pointed us towards a book listing all the seals, apparently kept by the Governor-General.
... but given that my notes had directly mentioned a book held by the impostors, I had a sneaking suspicion he wasn't actually keeping it right now. I caught Raine's eye and she tilted her head slightly, thinking about it. "Well," she said, "we should go to city hall and ask him about it."
...
We stumbled a bit on that...
"— the Chosen was just here moments ago! How dare you defile that name!"
"Okay, point the hell of order, what makes you so damn sure you know which group is the impost—"
"Wow! Father, she has wings, they're so pretty!"
"... aight fine, explain it on easy mode, I had a nice battery of facts and logic prepared..."
... but only a bit. After everyone had calmed back down, we all compared notes (metaphorically — I still wasn't ready to show my notebook to anyone but Raine) and worked out that Dorr had given the Book of Regeneration to some group of randos claiming to be the Chosen.
"... of course!" Lloyd exclaimed. "It's those guys that were giving us trouble earlier!"
"They technically still are giving us trouble," I pointed out. "Extorting us for a Palma potion and all."
"Oh, man, they're still waiting for us, aren't they?" Lloyd realized. "What are we gonna do about that...?"
"Where are they waiting?" Dorr asked. "I'll send the guard to arrest them immediately."
"Right outside the hotel," I said. "Not to tell you how to do your job, but do be careful about it? If they run off with the book, that's a major hit to our effectiveness at finding the seals."
"Of course," Dorr said. "Men, use your utmost discretion. Recovering the Book of Regeneration without damage is your top priority."
And the guards marched off.
"Soooooo... what do we do in the meantime?"
...
... wander around, apparently. The other prominent building in the area was a university or something, and when we wandered into the cafeteria we noticed that the place looked a bit shortstaffed.
"I could use some part-time waitresses, actually," the owner said. "My usual girls are both out sick today and we're swamped."
Why he wanted waitresses, specifically, I couldn't imagine — or, well, I could imagine a few reasons, but they all seemed kinda cringe — but I decided not to care, since we did have time to kill and extra Gald would always be useful. So me and Colette spent a few hours writing down orders and carrying them to hungry students.
"I'll take this half, you take that half."
It somehow went even less smooth than I was expecting it to.
"Huh? I already have my food."
"It was that guy that ordered a second plate of BBQ combo, Colette."
"I ordered Yum Tea, not fried eel!"
"I got this one, Leaf!"
"This is more than I ordered." "I ordered more than this."
"Oh, whoops -" "F- I mean, excuse me!"
"Oh, I forgot, can I also get a dessert?"
(Okay, that one was at least not my fault, but it still didn't help with the rush.)
... Eventually the lunchtime rush subsided, and apparently our performance had been satisfactory, as the guy gave us not only a decent payment in Gald, but a bottle of Palma potion.
"Oh, good, now I can replace the one I broke."
"Considering who those people are, do we actually want to do that?"
"Even if they're imposters, I did break their property..."
It still seemed incorrect, but I didn't have an actual counterargument to that. I just shrugged loudly and we headed back to the city hall to see if the guard had an update.
...
Thankfully, the impostors had not somehow caught wind of their impending arrest and run off, and they were now being securely held in the basement cells. The Book of Regeneration had been recovered, and Raine was already looking through it, though she got through a lot faster once Colette started helping — Raine, for all her intelligence, wasn't specialized in the Angelan language like Colette apparently was.
"Flowing water in an isolated island... that sounds like Thoda. Ancient city, evil impersonating a holy force... an ancient city might be Asgard, or the Balacruf Mausoleum, but impersonation? I'm not sure what that indicates. Hopefully we'll get the idea when we get there. And gazing up at the summit of the gods... that sounds like the Tower of Mana. And of course, the seal of Fire has already been released. ... And that's all it says."
These names didn't ring any bells, but I had a feeling — "Water is probably the one nearest here. Where's Thoda, exactly?"
"The Thoda Geyser is a tourist attraction not far from here," Dorr explained. "It does seem like a logical place for the seal of Water to be."
"We'll have to cross Hakonesia Peak to get to the rest of them," Raine said.
"You'll need a road pass for that. I'll get to work arranging passage for you while you go to Thoda."
With all that accomplished, we... headed to the item shop.
Well, the Desians had left by now, and we needed to stock up, right?
I could've gone without. Especially once I had noticed the place's name. 'Marble's.'
But. Nobody else seemed to realize it. Maybe Marble is just a really common name. I don't know. Whatever it was, I had to go with it.
The girl previously helping at the counter was gone now, leaving only the older woman running the shop. And of course she recognized us.
"I apologize for the trouble with the Desians earlier," she said. "I saw you through the door..."
"Ehh, well, y'know, it was the Desians who decided to do that, not you," I mumbled. "So, um, it's fine. Don't worry about it."
"Still, Chocolat didn't need to start a fight with them like that. She's grown so headstrong since the Desians took her grandmother away."
Oh come on.
"Hopefully they won't do anything to her," Cacao continued, oblivious to my thoughts. "It looked like they wanted to, but they've already reached their yearly limit... even so, I worry."
Thankfully, the others managed to change the subject to boring things while we picked up our gels and stuff for the trip to Thoda.
... To be absolutely sure Cacao wouldn't overhear us, I waited until we had just gotten past the town gates before I turned to Genis. "She's totally related to Marble, isn't she?"
Genis looked about as anxious as I felt. "Sh- she must be. Marble sometimes mentioned her daughter and granddaughter, Cacao and Chocolat..."
"We have to tell her. Don't we? We can't just — not tell her, surely?"
"That we provoked the Desians into making us kill her mother‽"
"We don't have to mention every detail! But like, the fact that Marble is dead seems like a really bad idea to just keep quiet about‽‽" I looked to the others, desperately hoping they had any input. But Lloyd and Kratos were busy looking pained, Colette was busy looking vaguely sad... Raine was the only one who seem to actually be thinking about it.
"... Releasing the seals is the most important thing," she said. "But we'll definitely come back to Palmacosta at some point. We'll tell her then."
"Yeah... yeah, give us some time to... figure out how we're gonna say that." I wasn't sure whether I was more relieved to have a good reason not to do it now, or dreading the fact that we still had to do it later. Definitely some of both, though.
The time would be coming sooner than I thought. A lot sooner, actually. We hadn't even reached the nearby House of Salvation where we intended to stop for the night when Colette suddenly stopped with a loud frown. "I hear... marching?"
"Hm?" I couldn't hear anything, but I looked around just to be sure. Something looked a little odd to the southeast, but I wasn't sure — Colette and I climbed a nearby tree to get a better vantage point, and...
"Shit."
"Language, Leaf," Raine admonished.
"I think some profanity is quite appropriate right now, actually — that's a Desian squadron marching on Palmacosta."
"What‽" Lloyd exclaimed. "What are those bastards doing‽"
"If this is going to be Iselia all over again..." I gritted my teeth. "... what do you all think?"
"What do you think I think‽" Lloyd said. "We need to stop them!" Genis nodded in agreement.
"I want to help," Colette said.
"Releasing the seals is still the most important thing," Raine reminded us. "If we die fighting Desians, the world won't be saved."
"I'm paid to protect the Chosen either way," Kratos said. "It doesn't matter to me if you take a detour."
"Looks like Raine's outvoted... even though she has a really good point." I folded my arms, frowning loudly. "... if we die doing this, it's worse than if we ignored it— the Desians will just do whatever they wanted anyway, and we'll be dead instead of saving the world. But... we can't just do nothing, can we?"
"The city has its own militia, though," Raine said. "It's not like Iselia. They're prepared to resist the Desians."
"Wait, do they?" I asked. "That would change things, but — I didn't actually see anything like that while we were there, just the handful of guards that handled the impostor situation, and that's not nearly enough to handle that many Desians."
The sudden realization on Lloyd's face wasn't quite a giant ❗ appearing over his head, but it was close. "While you and Colette were at the restaurant, I went out of town to do some training with Kratos, and on our way back I saw the militia heading out to do training exercises. I think they're still out!"
"Which means Palmacosta is defenseless now," I said.
"The slimy jerks must've been waiting for an opportunity to strike!" Genis exclaimed.
"Can we intercept them?" I knew how far away they were and how far away we were, but I didn't know how fast we could go.
"Unlikely," Kratos said. "The Chosen could maybe catch them by flying, but she'd have to leave us behind, and she's not equipped to face an entire Desian regiment on her own."
I snapped my fingers as a thought occurred to me. "Colette flies over to alert the militia, we head straight for Palmacosta to run interference until the cavalry gets back to handle the Desians properly. Since we're not trying to defeat them on our own, only waste their time, we can fight more defensively."
"That's still a risky plan," Raine said. "... but if you're going to insist on intervening at all, this might be the best possible way to do it." She nodded to Colette, who immediately pulled out her wings and took off flying, and the rest of us hustled back to Palmacosta.
...
The Desians hadn't killed anyone yet when we arrived, because apparently they were opting for the spectacle of a public execution. Tied up in the town square, standing on a gallows, was none other than Cacao.
"Mom!" Chocolat shouted, charging in.
"This is already really bad," I whispered. "Things could break out any second."
"Just be careful," Raine advised. "It would take the executioner less than a second to pull the lever."
But while we'd been conferring, things had continued escalating.
"You disgusting little vermin!" the big redheaded Desian shouted at some kid, marching with intent to kill.
"Stop right there!" Lloyd shouted, interrupting him with a Demon Fang.
We didn't exactly have a plan here, but I knew now was the time. Without waiting for a reaction, I jumped over to the gallows and sliced the noose off its beam.
"I recognize those wanted criminals! Number 0074, Leaf Saito, and 0076, Lloyd Irving!"
"The wannabe rebel and the boy with the Exsphere! Perfect! Get them!"
"Wannabe‽" ... okay, yes, that was a bit petulant of me, but come on, I was indisputably an actual rebel at this point. Not that it mattered, as the handful of Desian mages that answered the guy's command had nothing to say to me as they chanted their spells.
I grabbed my spear for a counterattack, then suddenly realized that with Cacao right next to me I'd need to be a bit more defensive in my response. "Damage Guard!"
"Link Shield!"
Their fireballs splashed harmlessly off my barrier here and Genis's barrier over by the others. Genis smugly walked back behind Lloyd, muttering "Amateurs."
"'Scuse me, miss," I said, scooping Cacao up and channeling a bit of magical energy so I could jump us to safety. In a leap, we were back with the group.
"Worthless idiots!" the redhead shouted. "Enough of this crap!" He pulled out a bigass axe and charged us as Cacao fled.
"Uh-oh, I think we provoked him," I remarked lightly.
"We hadn't planned on fighting a Desian leader," Raine said.
"Nobody makes a fool of Lord Magnius!"
"Oh, that's your name!" I said, dodging an axe swing and counterattacking with a jab to the face. "You coulda mentioned that a lot earlier, I've been thinking of you as just 'the redhead'! Which is obviously a little silly when we have the same hair color!"
"Infuriating little vermin! Take this — Flame Lance!" Somehow, without even chanting, he unleashed a spell, sending red-hot mana up into the sky.
I didn't bother waiting to see what it would do. "Damage Guard!" I winced as the incoming pillar of flame didn't quite bounce off harmlessly like the fireballs had, instead seeming to phase slightly out of existence, heating up the air around me to a deeply uncomfortable temperature... instead of instantly incinerating me, so good job shield magic.
While I was occupied with that, Magnius wound up for another swing. I couldn't release the magic quickly enough to properly dodge, but I managed to get my spear up to deflect the blow and then jump back. With some distance between us, I quickly chanted a counterattack — "Mirror Move — Flame Lance!"
"Mana Guard!" Magnius said, putting up a shield of his own. While he was stuck doing that, Lloyd managed to get behind him and deal a quick potshot to his back once the shield fell, but he didn't get a chance to follow up before Magnius whirled on him with a growl, slamming his axe into the ground where Lloyd had just been a second ago.
"Icicle!" Genis interrupted Magnius's attempt to retaliate with a nice little shard of ice under his feet.
Magnius stepped back, snarled, and hurled his axe directly at Genis —
"Link Guard!" Colette shouted, swoocing in from above to deflect the flying blade.
"Those wings!" "An angel‽"
While everyone had gotten distracted, Kratos had gotten between Magnius and his axe, and the way he was pointing his sword made it clear he didn't want Magnius changing that. "Let us respect the wishes of the Chosen."
"She's the Chosen!" "The Chosen herself has come to save us!"
The militia swarmed in behind Colette, quickly driving the Desians away from the citizens.
"Infuriating group of pests... I've had enough of this." Magnius reached into his back pocket and — activated a teleporting device of some kind, I presume from the fact that he then teleported away.
... somehow he brought his axe with. "Aw, no trophy of our victory," I joked.
"We'll just have to be content with having saved the day," Kratos responded. I thought I saw a hint of a smile on his face.
...
We escorted Cacao back to her shop, along with Chocolat, who thanked us profusely for saving her mom. "I don't know what I'd have done if they'd murdered my mom as well..."
"As well‽" Okay, that came out a little more shocked than I'd intended, but look, you know where my mind went. That wasn't what she meant, though —
"My husband was killed in battle against the Desians," Cacao said. "And my mother was taken to the ranch."
"It was Grandma who originally founded our shop," Chocolat said.
"The shop named 'Marble's'."
"That's right. Marble is Grandma's name. We have to keep the shop going, for when she comes back to us. I'm sorry, but I'd better get going soon, it's almost time for the next Asgard pilgrimage."
There was a brief talk of religion, during which I kept my mouth politely shut, and then Chocolat left for her job at the travel agency. We headed downstairs to leave, and...
"Are we not gonna tell her, then‽" Genis whispered.
"Is now really the time? 'Sorry you almost got executed, by the way your mom's dead'. That sounds like a great way to give her a heart attack!"
"Is there ever a good time to hear this type of news?" Raine countered.
I grimaced. "I suppose not. But there are times and there are times, y'know?" Give her time to recover from this before hitting her with her mom's death, I almost said, and then imagined actually doing that and realized that intentionally withholding the information didn't seem particularly less insensitive. "... damn it, I don't know what to do. Every option seems bad."
Almost instinctively, I turned to Lloyd. He didn't look any happier than I felt, but he managed to speak up:
"We have to tell her now. Otherwise we'll just keep finding reasons not to."
The prospect was immensely unappealing, but then, so was the prospect of telling her later. At least this way we'd be getting it over with. I headed back to the stairs and knocked loudly on the wall. "Um, before we go..." oh god oh fuck how the hell do i say this...
...
I was in too much of a haze to remember the exact words, but somehow, despite my terror, I managed to get across the basic information — that Marble had been taken to the Iselia human ranch and, due to Desian action, had been killed. I did leave out what the Desian action was and why they took it — I wasn't ready to admit that and I didn't think Cacao was ready to hear it either.
"... I see." Cacao was sad, obviously, but — I had been expecting her to look completely shattered, which she very clearly wasn't. I was about to ask, but she explained without prompting — "I had been expecting this, if I'm honest. Most people who get taken to a human ranch die there."
"Chocolat doesn't seem to have the same perspective," I said. "She was acting like Marble's return was just a matter of time."
"Yes, she does have a great deal of faith in the Governor-General and his resolve to strike back against the Desians. I did hope Mother would be able to hold out long enough, but I knew she would likely be taken to another ranch before any rescue could be planned. I didn't have the heart to tell Chocolat that, not when there was still even a sliver of hope. But you don't need to worry about that, not when you have the journey of regeneration to focus on — I'll tell her."
"Yeah... um, is there anything more you want to know about... what happened? Or would you rather leave it at this?"
"I... think I would prefer not to know the details."
...
At this point, our day was basically over. There wasn't enough time left after that detour to get going before sunset, so we just rented rooms in the inn in town. Raine and Genis in one room, Lloyd and Kratos in another, and me and Colette in the third.
I flopped down into my bed, exhausted. I didn't have the energy to rotate the day's events in my mind, but I also didn't have the energy to stop. Lloyd's comment from earlier, about the Desians, was sticking with me.
By all indications, I too had come here with technology beyond the local level and the intent of just doing whatever I wanted with it. Sure, my notes suggested that "whatever I wanted" was primarily meant to be averting some impending dooms, as well as various other ways of making people's lives nicer than they'd have been without my involvement, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions and all that. Also, even if the plans themselves had been sound and everything, having amnesia was probably hampering them somewhat in ways I couldn't even comprehend on account of the amnesia.
I wasn't sure what to think about all this, and it's not like I could talk to Colette about it. She had enough on her plate with the world regeneration, she didn't need my extrauniversal problems on top of that.
Though there was one thing I was questioning that wasn't so extrauniversal...
"You think we did the right thing, defying the Desians here?" I asked. "I mean, obviously it's good that Cacao is safe, but now we have to worry about potential retaliation..."
"I think that was already going to be a problem," Colette said. "They were already retaliating today. We just stopped them."
"Mm. That makes enough sense here after the fact, but at the time I wasn't really considering that..."
"And the city does have their own militia to deal with things after we leave. It won't be like Iselia. Besides, Chocolat and Cacao and everyone were grateful to you, Leaf, and to Lloyd and all of us."
I had to grin a little at that gratuitous mention of Lloyd. Colette's crush on him was as obvious as his crush on her. "You're right, Colette. Thanks."
...
My phone buzzed just as I was dozing off. Instinctively, I grabbed it and pulled down the notifications (thankfully I could do that without unlocking it) —
"Wait. Who in this world even has my number? ... How is their text even getting to me, there's no service here‽"
The text itself...
Did you like my little present, Leaf?
... just raised more questions.
And another buzz. There's more where that came from :)
I didn't sleep well that night.