ATUHOR'S NOSE: I won't waste your time with a lengthy note here. :)

"I was mostly bluffing," Magnius said, still clutching Chocolat's Exsphere, "but if you're willing to force the issue —"

"Meteorite!" I jumped at Magnius and tried to snatch the Exsphere out of his hand, but he batted me aside like a toy. "Stabilize her, Raine!" I had no idea if Raine could do that, but if anyone could, it'd be her.

"I'll do my best, but her mana is already going out of control —!" Raine had her staff held to Chocolat's body. Her skin was already boiling and I thought I could see tinges of green.

"What's happening to me‽" Chocolat said, terrified. "It hurts —"

"We're going to try to stop it," Raine assured her.

"Sonic Thrust!" Magnius twisted out of the way of Lloyd's attack.

Kratos was keeping the pressure on, though. "Sonic Thrust! Follow it up -" ""Cross Thrust!""

"It's too late, you stupid worms!" Magnius cackled. "There's nothing you can do for her now!"

"Shut your putrescent face-hole, Misfortune!" I wasn't sure if this spell could rob Magnius of the ability to speak, but I was certainly gonna try. "I hope you choke to death on your own stinking blood —"

"Ice Tornado!" Genis cast, saving everyone from having to hear more of my invective.

"Mana Block!" Magnius hastily tossed up a shield. I couldn't tell whether his grimace was from my curse or the portion of Genis's ice magic that made it through the barrier, but either way it was grimly satisfying to see him in... well, discomfort, at least. "You're wasting your time, you know! The transformation takes less than a minute —" ignore his taunts, don't let him distract you —

"Double." I only partly remembered this technique and wasn't quite certain I'd cast it correctly, but I felt mana tensing in my soul and I was pretty sure it was prepared to do what this spell was supposed to do.

Magnius swung his axe at me and I jumped back. "Flame Lance! Face it, worms, she's already lost!"

"Pow Pow Hammer!" Colette tossed a swarm of little red hammers at Magnius, and he shielded himself again, and just as the shield dropped I cast again —

"Misfortune — Misfortune!"

Magnius winced once, and then

clink!

He was completely still as the Exsphere fell from his hand. Without waiting, I grabbed it.

"Whoa, you petrified him," Lloyd said, awed.

Chocolat didn't look good, and putting her Exsphere back didn't immediately seem to help. "Raine?"

"I've been holding back the transformation, but I don't know how to reverse it. A Key Crest might do it." Raine scrutinized the area near Chocolat's hand, where the Exsphere was. "The process has already begun, but I think the Exsphere is now preventing it from accelerating further."

I dug through my bag for one of my many spare Exspheres and pulled one out —

"Petra Eyes."

Everyone turned in shock to the scientist we'd all forgotten as she put her glasses back up over her eyes, the last flares of magic fading into wisps. "You stole those Key Crests from guards at the Iselia ranch, correct? They won't help this host body. They're already attuned to their current Exspheres and won't function on hers."

"What did you do to Chocolat?" Genis exclaimed.

"I petrified her. Obviously." She rolled her eyes as Genis growled at her. "No need to be rude... Petrifaction should halt the transformation. It will continue unabated if you restore her, but as long as you don't, you'll have time to figure out a solution."

I frowned loudly. "... why, though?"

She shrugged. "She's a perfectly good host body. Normally I don't interfere when Lord Magnius wishes to punish some upstart human, but... I don't think he's going to complain about this one."

I looked at Magnius, still solid stone. "I suppose not." An image flashed into my head, of pushing him over and watching him shatter into a million pieces. I wanted to, after what he'd done. I considered it. It wouldn't be choking to death on his own stinking blood, but...

"Leaf," Raine said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "We need to figure out what to do with Chocolat."

And with that I was thoroughly back in the real world. I turned back to face the petrified girl, trying to put my thoughts back in order. "Uh — okay, so we need to get her out of here before we set off the self-destruct."

"Self-destruct?" Lloyd asked, confused.

"A Desian in the back mentioned it," Colette said.

"Yeah, but what is it?"

"A system to make the ranch destroy itself?" Raine asked, sounding curious. She was already on the computers, fiddling around with various buttons and menus. "It would certainly solve Palmacosta's Desian problem, and possibly our problem with Dorr as well. Though, why would the Desians need to install something like that?"

That seemed like something the scientist would know, so I turned back to her — "What the hell? They're gone!" Not just the scientist, but Magnius too. "How'd she do that‽ I only took my eyes off her for thirty seconds!"

"I've found some kind of ranch surveillance system," Raine said, "let me have a look." She flipped through several screens of cameras, all showing the ranch was completely deserted. "Hm. I think they've already made their way out."

"Already? How did they go so fas- teleporters, it's the teleporters." I shook my head. "How could I have been so stupid as to forget that— gah, it's too late now. They're gone." Either they'd already made it out of the ranch, or they were hiding somewhere and would die when the ranch exploded, and there was no way at this point for me to change which one of these was the case. "Do we have any method of tracking them?"

"Palmacosta will have to keep watch for them," Raine said. "Once I set off the self-destruct, we'll be asking Neil about a road pass and heading north immediately."

"What if he can't get us a pass immediately?" Lloyd asked.

"Then I guess we'll be camping until he can."

"So... how do we get Chocolat out of here?" I asked.

"Oh, I can carry her," Colette declared cheerfully, lifting Chocolat with no difficulty.

I blinked. I hadn't known Colette was that strong. I'd have to reevaluate future battle ideas. "And you won't drop her?"

"I won't!" Colette shook her head. "I'll be extra careful holding on to her, and I can't trip if I have my wings out!"

I nodded. "Good. Let's blow this place and get out of here." But not in that order, some clown part of my brain supplied, but I wasn't in the mood to joke around.

...

Raine set the timer for twelve minutes. We made it out in eleven.

Even a good way past minimum safe distance, the explosion shook me to the core.

"We really did it," Neil said. "We've defeated the Desians..."

"The Desians here," I reminded him. "And Magnius slipped out of sight, so he's probably still at large."

Neil nodded. "I understand. I'll have the watch on alert for him."

"Are they not suborned by Dorr?" Raine asked.

"They're not," Neil said. "He's... acting entirely alone, as far as I can tell."

"Weird," I said. "Well, with the Desians out of the area, maybe he'll be able to get out from under whatever their leverage is."

"I'll keep investigating him," Neil said. "Um... do you know what you're going to do about Chocolat?"

"Not... as such," I admitted.

"We need to find the cure, then come back, unpetrify her, and apply the cure," Raine explained.

"But it's not obvious what to do in the meantime," I said. "We don't want anyone unpetrifying her too early or breaking her or something, but beyond that... like, where do we put her? Hell, is she aware in there? Is she at this moment mentally screaming in terror that she can't move and even if she could she'd immediately —"

"Leaf, calm down," Kratos said, glaring at me. After a second to let me shut down that spiral, he continued. "I've been petrified from time to time in my work as a mercenary. While I did retain some degree of awareness, I believe certain higher-order brain functions responsible for the terror you're imagining are suppressed by petrifaction, because I only ever felt mild boredom even after several days."

"Days‽" I exclaimed. "I mean, good to know, given we have no clue how long Chocolat is going to wait, but — why were you petrified for that long?"

"Someone had a very stupid plan," Kratos muttered. "She'll only be aware of time passing when she has a reason to pay attention to it. In any case, I believe Neil here might have an idea?"

"Yes, um," Neil stammered. "I... think it would be safest to leave her with the chapel at the Thoda dock. The House of Salvation to the east is going to be very occupied with all the prisoners we just freed from the ranch and might lose track of her."

I nodded, at this point wanting just any decision because I couldn't see a reason to pick one over the other. "Yeah, I'm sure they can keep watch over her. I think... our business here in the Palmacosta area is pretty thoroughly done until we find a cure for Chocolat. We need a road pass and then we can head north."

...

The sun was beginning to set as we brought Chocolat to the Thoda dock, so we decided to stay there for the night.

Everyone else was getting settled into their rooms for the night, but I was at the closet Chocolat was to take up "residence" in until we came back with a cure for her. Or preventative treatment, I guess, since technically she hadn't transformed yet.

"Kratos told us you're aware in there," I said. "... which you already know, if you are, cause you were there when he said it..." I sighed. "... talking to a statue is so awkward. Probably worse for you, being the statue, but y'know."

I looked Chocolat over, for the first time since I'd yanked her out of Magnius's grip. She looked mostly fine, aside from being a statue, but her right hand, where the Exsphere was mounted, was mutated beyond recognition, and some of the arm was twisted and scaly. If Magnius hadn't been lying about the transformation normally taking less than a minute, Raine had done a heroic job of holding it back. I mean, hell, she'd done a heroic job either way...

"... I know there's a way to fix this, but I wish I had some kind of clues about it. Then I could hurry up and go get it right away. But nooooo, past me had to be a cryptic jackass and leave the vaguest notes she possibly could, no consideration at all for if I didn't just immediately remember every damn detail with barely a nudge.

"... er, try to keep quiet that I apparently knew stuff, though, whenever you get better. Even setting aside that I don't remember it anymore so it's useless anyway, I also suspect that some of this information might be dangerous. Somehow. I'm really not clear on that, but I left myself a warning and all.

"... I did come here to change things, though, I know that much. Hmph. Fat load of good I've done with that so far. Got your grandma and her friends killed, got Iselia invaded, got you almost mutated... if that random scientist hadn't petrified you..."

"What was up with that, anyway?"

I did not leap any number of meters into the air at the completely expected sound of Genis's voice behind me and nobody can prove otherwise. If he had startled me he would have then apologized for it and I would have admitted I was feeling on edge after all that. But none of those things happened because I definitely responded perfectly calmly.

"Yeah, that was weird," I said, immediately and not after aforementioned intervening startle-related events. "But she said something about Chocolat being a 'host body'. A host for what, I can't imagine, but..."

"It can't be anything good," Genis said, knowing exactly where I had been going with that. "I always wondered why the Desians even had human ranches. I didn't expect they were using humans to host something..."

"Petradi."

Magnius grimaced and flexed all his muscles as the stone faded away. "... You 'normally don't interfere'? What a joke."

"Hey, it was technically a true statement, and technically is the best kind..." The scientist frowned loudly. "That sounds wrong... whatever, it's a joke you wouldn't get anyway. One of Leaf's old — stories."

"Speaking of your so-called friend, she didn't have any reaction to you at all, did she? Are you sure you've got the right girl?"

"Course I am. She didn't recognize me cause this isn't my usual look." She reached up to the back of her head, pulled out a hair clip, and shook out her hair... and then continued shaking, her body shifting unrecognizably —

"What the — you're a human‽"

"Yeah, so's your lord Kratos, what's your point? My info was good, wasn't it?"

"Hrmph. Lord Kratos did seem completely unaware of any order to kill the Chosen. Rodyle really is trying to trick me..." Magnius turned to the girl, frowning loudly. "What does a human get out of revealing his scheme?"

"Partly, Rodyle in particular is a colossal dick and it'll be funny to watch his plans blow up in his face. But mostly I just want to see what happens if I poke things."

"Pah. Just like a human, no real ambition at all... But I let the cattle get away, so our deal is settled now. Unless you have any other traitors you'd like to expose?"

"Mm... nah, he's the only one. See ya, Mags — or rather, not. I got stuff to do."

"That's Lord Magnius to you, hu— oh, she's already gone. ... Hm, I could've asked her what Rodyle was even doing all this for... oh well. I'm sure it'll be just as fun to beat it out of him, and it won't cost anything either.

"... where the hell did this girl leave me, anyway?"

It was the next day, and the hike to Hakonesia Peak had been uneventful. Neil had sent a guard there with a message that he'd be getting us our road pass some time within the next three days. (He had nothing to say about the Dorr situation, presumably because Neil was still keeping that under his hat. The hat he didn't have. Presumably hung on the same rack as the one I would eat if a seal ever didn't have monsters in it.)

So we were setting up camp outside the gates, preparing to just. Wait.

... I wasn't looking forward to possibly-up-to-three-days of that, but at least Raine had some books I could read. Actually, a lot of books. I wasn't entirely sure how she carried them all, unless her knapsack was bigger on the inside like my backpack apparently was, and I was pretty sure she had mentioned concerning herself with carrying space at some point, so no.

In any case, books. I was starting with history books about Asgard and the Balacruf Mausoleum, which were our two most likely candidates for the seal of Wind.

I'd gotten about halfway through reading about an old political incident between Asgard and nearby Luin when Colette tapped me on the shoulder. "Um, hey, Leaf?"

I closed the book and leaned back, looking up at Colette with a friendly smile. "Hey, 'Lette, what's up?"

"Oh, not much, I just thought I'd check up on you."

I tilted my head thoughtfully. "Check up on me...?" I wasn't quite sure what she meant by that.

"Yeah, I wanted to make sure you're all right after what happened yesterday."

I considered that for a moment, grimacing slightly. "I don't like what happened with Chocolat, but... she's essentially safe for now, and we're on our way to getting a cure for her, somehow. So I'm... at peace with that, for the moment." I wasn't sure why she was talking to me about this and not Lloyd or Genis, who I had to imagine were also a bit messed up about that.

Colette nodded at that, and then just kind of stared expectantly. I stared back blankly, having no idea what she was waiting for. "Er... did something else happen yesterday that I've forgotten about?"

"Leaf, you nearly died!"

"What're you talking about? I handled Magnius fine, better than that assassin girl even —"

"No, I mean when you almost got shot in the head!"

That one took me a moment to recall. "Oh, that. Well. I didn't get shot. You saved me, and the Desian that did it is dead, and..." I frowned. "Y'know, actually, what's up with that? We still have no idea who did kill them."

Colette frowned. "I think you might've been right. I don't know who did that, but I think they're trouble."

"Sure feels like it, yeah... Is someone singing?" The sound was pretty distant, but it definitely sounded like a song.

"Hey, don't ch— oh, wait, someone really is singing." Colette tilted her head, listening. "I don't recognize that song... it's not any of the Martelian hymns..."

I couldn't understand the lyrics from here, or possibly they were in a language I don't know, but the melody... "Kinda sounds like a lullaby? Awfully loud, if that's the case. Kinda seems like it'd defeat the purpose."

"They're not singing it loud to make it extra-effective?"

"Eh? No that... I do not think that would work, no."

"You sure? I could try it out sometime."

My mind filled with silly images of Colette belting her lungs out while everyone tried to sleep. "That would be quite the sight to see, and you should definitely not try it."

"Hehe. Anyway, Leaf, aren't you bothered by almost dying?"

I blinked at the sudden rerailing of the conversation and took a moment to consider it. "Um... I mean, everyone dies in the end. I'm obviously not in a hurry to get there — especially now, I've got so much stuff to do! — but... nah, I'm not especially bothered about a close call."

"... I see. Well, if you say so. Whatcha reading?"

"Local history." I held up the book so Colette could see the cover. "We're headed to Asgard next, most likely, so I thought it'd be good to know about it. But there haven't been many mentions of either the Summon Spirit of Wind or the impostor monster, and none of them had enough context to figure out where it was. Or in many cases which."

"I wonder where that imposter monster came from, anyway...?" Colette grimaced suddenly. "Why is that person singing so loud?"

The song did seem to be getting closer. I yawned, a bit sleepy despite it being early afternoon. "Maybe we should ask them to cool it?"

"May..." Colette yawned. "Maybe. Why am I so sleepy...?"

"Well, how late did you stay up last night? I know I was up later than usual..." Though given how often I was up 'later than usual', one might question my definition of 'usual'. Still, I was definitely feeling particularly dozy today.

"No, that's definitely not the problem," Colette insisted, pulling out her wings and hovering up a bit. "... the guards are asleep at their posts. I think that song might be magic."

"What‽ It's..." I shifted a little bit, trying to stand up, but I was just... so... sleepy... I could barely keep my eyes open, and it didn't look like Colette was faring much better.

"We gotta..." Collete mumbled. "We... gotta... do... some...thing..."

The singer crooned once more, much closer now. " Tue Lei Ze Kuloa Ryuo Tue Ze."

That was it. I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. "What... the... hell..."

As my consciousness faded, I saw a pair of boots step in front of me. "Aww, poor Leafy. I bet you didn't go to bed on time, did you?"