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Tales of Symphonia: Flourish
See, Jason? It's perfectly innocent. It's all Genis' interpretations.
Zelos made several alarmed objections about going through Gaoracchia Forest (and Ozette, which he insisted was "not a place for civilized people") and Botta agreed with him freely (especially about Ozette) but said that there was no choice.
After that initial discussion the redhead quieted and went along peacefully. It was suspicious, as far as Genis was concerned, but none of the others were exactly relaxing their guard around him either.
"You'd think he'd be happy we're saving his life," Lloyd muttered after their break for lunch, when the Chosen had seemed in a particularly bad mood and made several caustic comments to the effect of letting him get back to his job. "Does he want to die?"
Colette would have reacted the same way if we'd tried to protect her like this, only with kinder words. We both know she would have chosen to sacrifice herself. But Genis couldn't say that when the memory was still so raw, when it would still hurt Lloyd so much, after how they'd abandoned her.
Instead he pointed out, "I think a lot of his complaints are just for show. He may say he wants to go back to his journey constantly, but he hasn't made any attempts to escape or get us in trouble at all." And it would be terribly easy, what with the way everyone seemed to recognize him.
It was actually very annoying. They'd taken so much care in the morning to cover his hair and hide his features and his bindings and pretend like he was nothing of interest, but some woman had wound up drawn to him -- apparently by his superior gravity -- and recognized him, despite all their efforts.
"You don't trust him, do you?" Lloyd said. He tossed a glance over his shoulder, to where Raine and Botta were speaking quietly, with Zelos between them. "I don't either."
Genis toyed with his kendama absently, trying to think. "I wonder," he said slowly, "why he was traveling alone."
His friend's attention returned to him. "What? Alone? Genis, he was traveling with like twenty armed guards."
"Well, yeah, but he wasn't traveling with... friends or anything. Like--" Like Colette did.
Lloyd looked away and Genis scowled at the kendama.
He applied his mind to issues he could tackle. Even if it hadn't been deliberate, Colette had wound up traveling with nearly every able-bodied protector in Iselia (the village guards didn't count and, in Genis' opinion, were slightly incompetent, because he could still beat the adults in word games on a regular basis) and certainly all of her most beloved friends. He suspected that Lloyd, at least, would have found a way to go with her, and he would have insisted on taking Genis, who imagined himself putting up a withering argument in lieu of any actual insistence on remaining in Dullsville with Bunz the Puppy.
If he had been going on a journey which he knew must lead to his death, why wouldn't Zelos want to surround himself with friends in his last days? Did he worry about hurting them in the end, the way Colette had worried?
"How do we even know where we're going?" Zelos wanted to know. His drawl greated on Genis' nerves. "Mizuho is called the hidden village for a reason. Even the Renegades had to come to the King before they could get an assassin sent after the Chosen of Sylvarant."
Genis almost dreaded the reaction to that, but he gave thanks for his best friend's limited attention span as Lloyd turned around and said with interest, "Oh yeah? Do you know Sheena?" His clunky boots struck a stone awkwardly and he almost fell over.
The redhead raised his eyebrows in silent disdain, so with it thus expressed he didn't bother to comment aloud. "Oh yeah. Good old Sheena. Raven hair, long legs, huge rack."
"That's disgusting," Genis said, unable to help himself. Maybe there was a good reason why the people of Tethe'alla didn't want to make friends with their Chosen.
"So she tells me." Zelos sounded vaguely smug, as if that was exactly why he said it.
Someone should hit him.
"Are you sure we want to save this guy?" Genis muttered to Lloyd, but the steely look that came over his eyes even at the somewhat wry joke convinced the younger boy that Lloyd was not going to be swayed. With a sigh, Genis returned to his kendama and didn't try to fix the unintentional damage that had already been done.
Although his own voice was tight with what Genis assumed approvingly was a difficulty restraining dislike, Botta answered the original question, "Since we have a vested interest in recovering the summoner's services, we have applied a great deal of manpower into determining the location of the village. We have its approximate area narrowed down to a few square miles. It shouldn't be hard to find from there."
"Shouldn't it be easy to find with your advanced technology?" Raine asked curiously. She had been talking to Botta incessantly since he had joined up with them, to the point where she had neglected checking on their homework (Lloyd was a lost cause anyway), asking him so many questions about Renegade technology and knowledge that Genis thought his head would explode just from the overflow. She was thoroughly enamored of it, although not so much of Botta, in Genis' private opinion, and the way he was obviously holding back some of what he knew.
They couldn't quite trust the Renegades, but they had no other allies in saving Colette. And allies were what they desperately needed.
The tall half-elf waved one hand in vague illustration. "They have a network of primitive projectors disrupting all incoming signals set up around the boundaries of Gaoracchia Forest -- no one knows exactly where it ends and the village begins. They are at least in part responsible for the alleged haunting of the forest. It hasn't really been our concern before, so we never investigated too closely."
It was Zelos who drawled, "Then why not go directly to Mizuho when you needed an assassin? Why go through all the tiresome bureaucracy in Meltokio? It takes a month just to get a tour of the castle."
"Obviously, we did not have to wait a month to see the King." Botta seemed to have no intention of shushing him, although it was what Genis dearly wished would happen. "I think we waited a collective ten minutes before we were ushered in to meet with him. You, I recall, were a half-hour late and not fully dressed."
"Without your scintillating presence I was forced to find other venues of entertainment." Genis envisioned smacking him in the head with the kendama and felt much better. "But do go on. Why bother with His Majesty, again?"
A beat of silence, rustling clothing. "We flew overhead and an area scan didn't locate the village, and it couldn't be seen by the eye from the Rheairds. Two men went into the forest to attempt to locate it, but never returned. We believe assassins from the village were dispatched."
"Right. And you think we'll survive so much better, why?"
It hadn't occurred to Genis that not surviving to see Sheena was an option.
Botta said simply, "Because they're expecting us."
--
"You can't be serious," Zelos said, voice flat. Genis was surprised to see that he, himself, was being perfectly serious for a change. "Plunging into Gaoracchia is one thing. Settling down for a sleepover inside it? That's suicide."
The redhead had been delighted to share all manner of ghost stories with Genis and Lloyd throughout the day, who had asked Botta for reassurance each time like clinging children to a patient mentor. Lloyd would not have been flattered if he was aware of the comparison, but Genis didn't mind for his part; as patient mentors went, there were far worse than Botta. Even if he had each time promised them that the stories were only that, powerless myths, it was hard to deny that this time Zelos was in earnest.
But so was Botta. His broad shoulders were set like stone in the sunset as he waited at the crossroads. "I think you overestimate your urban fairy tales, Chosen," he said coolly. "There has never been any basis in truth to any of them."
"Yeah, you keep saying that, but I didn't notice you touching the creepy black chest either."
"I don't know why you feel this incessant urge to tamper with everything. Why should I risk my health trying to collect a handful of shattered relics from an old chest that doesn't want to be opened?"
"Relics?"
"I misspoke myself," Botta retracted immediately, his posture easing up slightly as he turned away from the challenging Zelos and towards Raine. "There can be absolutely nothing of any historical or cultural value in that chest. This side of the continent wasn't even populated, except for the people of Mizuho, until a good five hundred years ago when extensive sea routes were developed. Likely it's only someone's hidden weapon cask."
Genis had to admire the recovery, an effortless derailing of Raine's archaeophilia from a man who hadn't even experienced the full brunt of it. He didn't have time to admire for long before Zelos interrupted his train of thoughts with an annoyed, "Whether or not there are ghosts in the woods more menacing than the walking coffins you've been sharpening your swords on, it is fact that no one has ever returned from a night in these woods."
"Probably stoned to death by the people of Ozette," said Botta, and promptly changed the topic. "And thus we return to my plan. We'll settle down here and make camp for the night, and Lloyd, you will go into Ozette for us and make the purchases we need. ...if you don't mind."
Admiration or no, Genis couldn't help noticing how that bit of politeness sounded forced.
Lloyd looked startled. "You talk about savages stoning people to death and then try to make me go and talk to them in the same breath? By myself? No way!"
"I'll go with you," Genis offered, and was startled when Botta snapped, "No!"
A beat passed. The tall half-elf sighed. "It has to be Lloyd," he said wearily. "That's just how things work in Tethe'alla."
"Because he's human," Zelos chipped in. Genis half-expected him to ask why he wasn't allowed to go, but apparently he was smart enough not to bother. "But why not the brat and the Professor?"
When did I become the brat! The comment over lunch about starving himself to impress women with his trim figure evidently hit home.
Zelos continued, "Only half-elves get the ugly welcome in Ozette."
The words struck Genis like ice. He couldn't help a sidelong glance at Raine, who was pale suddenly but hadn't even blinked.
"It's true that I'm technically the only one who would create a stir," Botta admitted. "But I'd rather not take chances, and the people of Ozette have never encountered elves before. There's no telling if Raine and Genis would be treated with the same sort of persecution as I would."
"I think Botta is correct in saying that it's best for Lloyd to go alone," Raine seconded.
Lloyd was looking a bit shell-shocked at the idea of persecution so bad that Botta would shy away from it, but it was hard to argue when even their obnoxious guest said so. "Okay," he said solidly. "Give me a list of supplies."
Genis made a grocery list for him and lectured him soundly on what exactly constituted the kind of carrots he wanted to cook with, but once Lloyd had whisked off he was surprised and a little dismayed to find that he felt very much alone. It was growing dark in Gaoracchia as evening deepened and the forest around them rustled and chittered like a living thing. It was odd to think of it that way, but without Lloyd around, it really felt like there was no one for him to talk to.
If Colette were here, I could talk to her.
He curled up in a blanket and leaned against Raine to wait for Lloyd's return, hiding the tear he couldn't hold back in her coat. Botta remained awake with them, sitting across the fire from the pair of them, but Zelos took a hunk of bread for his supper, proclaimed his grand disinterest in waiting for the night's full six-course meal, commanded his butler to wake him if any lovely hunnies showed up on the doorstep, and retired to one side in his bedroll.
When the sounds of his breathing had evened out, Raine said quietly to Botta, "I was curious... The Renegades must know a lot about the geography and history of Tethe'alla, is that not correct?"
The big man looked up, startled, and nodded simply, his features stark in the firelight. He seemed wary of the question. Genis couldn't blame him. They had already come across boundaries of topics he wouldn't answer more than once.
Raine looked pensive. "You must know all their major ruins, then."
Oh man. Not the ruin nonsense again! Genis sighed with such exasperation that Raine smacked his head in gentle reprimand. She must still be thinking about what he said earlier about relics...
"There are a good many," Botta admitted. "But I think you will find that Tethe'alla is not so concerned with preserving its culture in locked boxes. Many of their greatest historical evolutions live side-by-side with modern advancements."
"That's outrageous!"
"But true. They tend to be practical here."
Botta did not seem to think it was a crime and Raine clearly disagreed, but she shelved her anger for the moment, which Genis thought was oddly unlike her. She was rarely one to let minor concerns like 'appropriateness' or 'decency' get in the way of her mania.
Instead of bursting into a rant, she asked him, "Are there any in particular... stone ruins, dating back to before the period of the Balacruf Empire? Perhaps featured in myths or fairy tales?"
"What?" Genis wanted to know. She hushed him, a gentle hand smoothing his hair from his forehead.
After a long moment of thought, Botta volunteered, "I can think of several off the top of my head. Before the Balacruf Empire... There are three, maybe four, all of which have prominent legends that have grown around them. Why do you ask?"
Only because he was peering up at her did Genis notice the slight sigh, an unwinding of the line of her shoulders. She sounded very much like herself when she answered, "Perhaps when all this is over, if you don't think there would be a conflict, I could get an escort from the Renegades to take me to those sites. I'm curious to make a comparison, myself."
"Of course." The tall warrior smiled. "I will see to it myself. I think that my father would have enjoyed speaking with you on the matter."
"A fellow scholar?"
"Of course."
"An elf?"
"A Desian, as was my mother."
An awkward silence fell for a beat. Perhaps it was the smile, which had seemed almost unfamiliar on the severe planes of his face, that gave Genis mischievous ideas. They seem to be getting along so well... he thought. Raine never gets on this well with men her age!
He didn't realize exactly how well until suddenly she said, "Genis and I are half-elves."
"Raine!" Genis gasped, horrified, expecting at any moment that Lloyd would appear or Zelos would awake or the combined population of Iselia and Ozette would descend upon them in fury. Botta himself was visibly surprised.
"I know what I'm doing, Genis. We can't hide something like this from someone we need to be looking out for our best interests. In Tethe'alla," she addressed this to Botta, "they have technologies that identify half-elves, don't they?"
"Yes," he confirmed after a moment. "It would not have remained a secret very long if Papal Knights had caught up to us. I assume... this secret was because of the Desians...?" She nodded. "Then it was partially our doing," Botta said, grim.
Genis remembered, almost with a start, that it had been Botta that first attack in Iselia, and only their ignorance of the greater forces at play had caused them to confuse the Renegades and the Desians time and again.
"You weren't the ones torturing people into Exspheres," Raine said coolly.
Botta hesitated another moment. "You do look much like elves," he admitted. "Your coloring is perfect. But I had my suspicions."
"You did?" Genis demanded.
"Of course he did." Raine smiled as well -- a tired, sad expression. "There are no elves in Sylvarant."
But then, Genis wondered, as Botta nodded, where did we come from?
All of a sudden the tall half-elf shot to his feet, tearing his broadsword free of the cloth he'd been covering it with, his face set in hard angles once more. Raine slapped a hand over Genis' mouth before he could exclaim.
"Do you hear someone?" she whispered.
Then, in the straining silence that followed, suddenly Genis could hear it too; footsteps, gentle and near-silent on the forest paths, slipping closer effortlessly. For a moment anxiety seized him, and he remembered all of Zelos' stories, but rationality had the boy reaching for his kendama instead of panicking. He had to shake Raine's grip off him, but he had no sooner pushed himself to his feet than a half-dozen thickly shrouded men in dark clothing stepped from the nighttime shadows. The only skin that could be seen was around their eyes, narrowed and mistrustful.
"We already have your companion," one announced boldly. "Wake this one and come. The Vice-Chief wants to answer your question and get you away from here."
Lloyd!
Taking out his frustration on someone, Genis kicked Zelos in the shoulder. The Chosen's eyes snapped open, but in the next instant he only groaned. "Are they killing us?" he asked.
Zelos made several alarmed objections about going through Gaoracchia Forest (and Ozette, which he insisted was "not a place for civilized people") and Botta agreed with him freely (especially about Ozette) but said that there was no choice.
After that initial discussion the redhead quieted and went along peacefully. It was suspicious, as far as Genis was concerned, but none of the others were exactly relaxing their guard around him either.
"You'd think he'd be happy we're saving his life," Lloyd muttered after their break for lunch, when the Chosen had seemed in a particularly bad mood and made several caustic comments to the effect of letting him get back to his job. "Does he want to die?"
Colette would have reacted the same way if we'd tried to protect her like this, only with kinder words. We both know she would have chosen to sacrifice herself. But Genis couldn't say that when the memory was still so raw, when it would still hurt Lloyd so much, after how they'd abandoned her.
Instead he pointed out, "I think a lot of his complaints are just for show. He may say he wants to go back to his journey constantly, but he hasn't made any attempts to escape or get us in trouble at all." And it would be terribly easy, what with the way everyone seemed to recognize him.
It was actually very annoying. They'd taken so much care in the morning to cover his hair and hide his features and his bindings and pretend like he was nothing of interest, but some woman had wound up drawn to him -- apparently by his superior gravity -- and recognized him, despite all their efforts.
"You don't trust him, do you?" Lloyd said. He tossed a glance over his shoulder, to where Raine and Botta were speaking quietly, with Zelos between them. "I don't either."
Genis toyed with his kendama absently, trying to think. "I wonder," he said slowly, "why he was traveling alone."
His friend's attention returned to him. "What? Alone? Genis, he was traveling with like twenty armed guards."
"Well, yeah, but he wasn't traveling with... friends or anything. Like--" Like Colette did.
Lloyd looked away and Genis scowled at the kendama.
He applied his mind to issues he could tackle. Even if it hadn't been deliberate, Colette had wound up traveling with nearly every able-bodied protector in Iselia (the village guards didn't count and, in Genis' opinion, were slightly incompetent, because he could still beat the adults in word games on a regular basis) and certainly all of her most beloved friends. He suspected that Lloyd, at least, would have found a way to go with her, and he would have insisted on taking Genis, who imagined himself putting up a withering argument in lieu of any actual insistence on remaining in Dullsville with Bunz the Puppy.
If he had been going on a journey which he knew must lead to his death, why wouldn't Zelos want to surround himself with friends in his last days? Did he worry about hurting them in the end, the way Colette had worried?
"How do we even know where we're going?" Zelos wanted to know. His drawl greated on Genis' nerves. "Mizuho is called the hidden village for a reason. Even the Renegades had to come to the King before they could get an assassin sent after the Chosen of Sylvarant."
Genis almost dreaded the reaction to that, but he gave thanks for his best friend's limited attention span as Lloyd turned around and said with interest, "Oh yeah? Do you know Sheena?" His clunky boots struck a stone awkwardly and he almost fell over.
The redhead raised his eyebrows in silent disdain, so with it thus expressed he didn't bother to comment aloud. "Oh yeah. Good old Sheena. Raven hair, long legs, huge rack."
"That's disgusting," Genis said, unable to help himself. Maybe there was a good reason why the people of Tethe'alla didn't want to make friends with their Chosen.
"So she tells me." Zelos sounded vaguely smug, as if that was exactly why he said it.
Someone should hit him.
"Are you sure we want to save this guy?" Genis muttered to Lloyd, but the steely look that came over his eyes even at the somewhat wry joke convinced the younger boy that Lloyd was not going to be swayed. With a sigh, Genis returned to his kendama and didn't try to fix the unintentional damage that had already been done.
Although his own voice was tight with what Genis assumed approvingly was a difficulty restraining dislike, Botta answered the original question, "Since we have a vested interest in recovering the summoner's services, we have applied a great deal of manpower into determining the location of the village. We have its approximate area narrowed down to a few square miles. It shouldn't be hard to find from there."
"Shouldn't it be easy to find with your advanced technology?" Raine asked curiously. She had been talking to Botta incessantly since he had joined up with them, to the point where she had neglected checking on their homework (Lloyd was a lost cause anyway), asking him so many questions about Renegade technology and knowledge that Genis thought his head would explode just from the overflow. She was thoroughly enamored of it, although not so much of Botta, in Genis' private opinion, and the way he was obviously holding back some of what he knew.
They couldn't quite trust the Renegades, but they had no other allies in saving Colette. And allies were what they desperately needed.
The tall half-elf waved one hand in vague illustration. "They have a network of primitive projectors disrupting all incoming signals set up around the boundaries of Gaoracchia Forest -- no one knows exactly where it ends and the village begins. They are at least in part responsible for the alleged haunting of the forest. It hasn't really been our concern before, so we never investigated too closely."
It was Zelos who drawled, "Then why not go directly to Mizuho when you needed an assassin? Why go through all the tiresome bureaucracy in Meltokio? It takes a month just to get a tour of the castle."
"Obviously, we did not have to wait a month to see the King." Botta seemed to have no intention of shushing him, although it was what Genis dearly wished would happen. "I think we waited a collective ten minutes before we were ushered in to meet with him. You, I recall, were a half-hour late and not fully dressed."
"Without your scintillating presence I was forced to find other venues of entertainment." Genis envisioned smacking him in the head with the kendama and felt much better. "But do go on. Why bother with His Majesty, again?"
A beat of silence, rustling clothing. "We flew overhead and an area scan didn't locate the village, and it couldn't be seen by the eye from the Rheairds. Two men went into the forest to attempt to locate it, but never returned. We believe assassins from the village were dispatched."
"Right. And you think we'll survive so much better, why?"
It hadn't occurred to Genis that not surviving to see Sheena was an option.
Botta said simply, "Because they're expecting us."
--
"You can't be serious," Zelos said, voice flat. Genis was surprised to see that he, himself, was being perfectly serious for a change. "Plunging into Gaoracchia is one thing. Settling down for a sleepover inside it? That's suicide."
The redhead had been delighted to share all manner of ghost stories with Genis and Lloyd throughout the day, who had asked Botta for reassurance each time like clinging children to a patient mentor. Lloyd would not have been flattered if he was aware of the comparison, but Genis didn't mind for his part; as patient mentors went, there were far worse than Botta. Even if he had each time promised them that the stories were only that, powerless myths, it was hard to deny that this time Zelos was in earnest.
But so was Botta. His broad shoulders were set like stone in the sunset as he waited at the crossroads. "I think you overestimate your urban fairy tales, Chosen," he said coolly. "There has never been any basis in truth to any of them."
"Yeah, you keep saying that, but I didn't notice you touching the creepy black chest either."
"I don't know why you feel this incessant urge to tamper with everything. Why should I risk my health trying to collect a handful of shattered relics from an old chest that doesn't want to be opened?"
"Relics?"
"I misspoke myself," Botta retracted immediately, his posture easing up slightly as he turned away from the challenging Zelos and towards Raine. "There can be absolutely nothing of any historical or cultural value in that chest. This side of the continent wasn't even populated, except for the people of Mizuho, until a good five hundred years ago when extensive sea routes were developed. Likely it's only someone's hidden weapon cask."
Genis had to admire the recovery, an effortless derailing of Raine's archaeophilia from a man who hadn't even experienced the full brunt of it. He didn't have time to admire for long before Zelos interrupted his train of thoughts with an annoyed, "Whether or not there are ghosts in the woods more menacing than the walking coffins you've been sharpening your swords on, it is fact that no one has ever returned from a night in these woods."
"Probably stoned to death by the people of Ozette," said Botta, and promptly changed the topic. "And thus we return to my plan. We'll settle down here and make camp for the night, and Lloyd, you will go into Ozette for us and make the purchases we need. ...if you don't mind."
Admiration or no, Genis couldn't help noticing how that bit of politeness sounded forced.
Lloyd looked startled. "You talk about savages stoning people to death and then try to make me go and talk to them in the same breath? By myself? No way!"
"I'll go with you," Genis offered, and was startled when Botta snapped, "No!"
A beat passed. The tall half-elf sighed. "It has to be Lloyd," he said wearily. "That's just how things work in Tethe'alla."
"Because he's human," Zelos chipped in. Genis half-expected him to ask why he wasn't allowed to go, but apparently he was smart enough not to bother. "But why not the brat and the Professor?"
When did I become the brat! The comment over lunch about starving himself to impress women with his trim figure evidently hit home.
Zelos continued, "Only half-elves get the ugly welcome in Ozette."
The words struck Genis like ice. He couldn't help a sidelong glance at Raine, who was pale suddenly but hadn't even blinked.
"It's true that I'm technically the only one who would create a stir," Botta admitted. "But I'd rather not take chances, and the people of Ozette have never encountered elves before. There's no telling if Raine and Genis would be treated with the same sort of persecution as I would."
"I think Botta is correct in saying that it's best for Lloyd to go alone," Raine seconded.
Lloyd was looking a bit shell-shocked at the idea of persecution so bad that Botta would shy away from it, but it was hard to argue when even their obnoxious guest said so. "Okay," he said solidly. "Give me a list of supplies."
Genis made a grocery list for him and lectured him soundly on what exactly constituted the kind of carrots he wanted to cook with, but once Lloyd had whisked off he was surprised and a little dismayed to find that he felt very much alone. It was growing dark in Gaoracchia as evening deepened and the forest around them rustled and chittered like a living thing. It was odd to think of it that way, but without Lloyd around, it really felt like there was no one for him to talk to.
If Colette were here, I could talk to her.
He curled up in a blanket and leaned against Raine to wait for Lloyd's return, hiding the tear he couldn't hold back in her coat. Botta remained awake with them, sitting across the fire from the pair of them, but Zelos took a hunk of bread for his supper, proclaimed his grand disinterest in waiting for the night's full six-course meal, commanded his butler to wake him if any lovely hunnies showed up on the doorstep, and retired to one side in his bedroll.
When the sounds of his breathing had evened out, Raine said quietly to Botta, "I was curious... The Renegades must know a lot about the geography and history of Tethe'alla, is that not correct?"
The big man looked up, startled, and nodded simply, his features stark in the firelight. He seemed wary of the question. Genis couldn't blame him. They had already come across boundaries of topics he wouldn't answer more than once.
Raine looked pensive. "You must know all their major ruins, then."
Oh man. Not the ruin nonsense again! Genis sighed with such exasperation that Raine smacked his head in gentle reprimand. She must still be thinking about what he said earlier about relics...
"There are a good many," Botta admitted. "But I think you will find that Tethe'alla is not so concerned with preserving its culture in locked boxes. Many of their greatest historical evolutions live side-by-side with modern advancements."
"That's outrageous!"
"But true. They tend to be practical here."
Botta did not seem to think it was a crime and Raine clearly disagreed, but she shelved her anger for the moment, which Genis thought was oddly unlike her. She was rarely one to let minor concerns like 'appropriateness' or 'decency' get in the way of her mania.
Instead of bursting into a rant, she asked him, "Are there any in particular... stone ruins, dating back to before the period of the Balacruf Empire? Perhaps featured in myths or fairy tales?"
"What?" Genis wanted to know. She hushed him, a gentle hand smoothing his hair from his forehead.
After a long moment of thought, Botta volunteered, "I can think of several off the top of my head. Before the Balacruf Empire... There are three, maybe four, all of which have prominent legends that have grown around them. Why do you ask?"
Only because he was peering up at her did Genis notice the slight sigh, an unwinding of the line of her shoulders. She sounded very much like herself when she answered, "Perhaps when all this is over, if you don't think there would be a conflict, I could get an escort from the Renegades to take me to those sites. I'm curious to make a comparison, myself."
"Of course." The tall warrior smiled. "I will see to it myself. I think that my father would have enjoyed speaking with you on the matter."
"A fellow scholar?"
"Of course."
"An elf?"
"A Desian, as was my mother."
An awkward silence fell for a beat. Perhaps it was the smile, which had seemed almost unfamiliar on the severe planes of his face, that gave Genis mischievous ideas. They seem to be getting along so well... he thought. Raine never gets on this well with men her age!
He didn't realize exactly how well until suddenly she said, "Genis and I are half-elves."
"Raine!" Genis gasped, horrified, expecting at any moment that Lloyd would appear or Zelos would awake or the combined population of Iselia and Ozette would descend upon them in fury. Botta himself was visibly surprised.
"I know what I'm doing, Genis. We can't hide something like this from someone we need to be looking out for our best interests. In Tethe'alla," she addressed this to Botta, "they have technologies that identify half-elves, don't they?"
"Yes," he confirmed after a moment. "It would not have remained a secret very long if Papal Knights had caught up to us. I assume... this secret was because of the Desians...?" She nodded. "Then it was partially our doing," Botta said, grim.
Genis remembered, almost with a start, that it had been Botta that first attack in Iselia, and only their ignorance of the greater forces at play had caused them to confuse the Renegades and the Desians time and again.
"You weren't the ones torturing people into Exspheres," Raine said coolly.
Botta hesitated another moment. "You do look much like elves," he admitted. "Your coloring is perfect. But I had my suspicions."
"You did?" Genis demanded.
"Of course he did." Raine smiled as well -- a tired, sad expression. "There are no elves in Sylvarant."
But then, Genis wondered, as Botta nodded, where did we come from?
All of a sudden the tall half-elf shot to his feet, tearing his broadsword free of the cloth he'd been covering it with, his face set in hard angles once more. Raine slapped a hand over Genis' mouth before he could exclaim.
"Do you hear someone?" she whispered.
Then, in the straining silence that followed, suddenly Genis could hear it too; footsteps, gentle and near-silent on the forest paths, slipping closer effortlessly. For a moment anxiety seized him, and he remembered all of Zelos' stories, but rationality had the boy reaching for his kendama instead of panicking. He had to shake Raine's grip off him, but he had no sooner pushed himself to his feet than a half-dozen thickly shrouded men in dark clothing stepped from the nighttime shadows. The only skin that could be seen was around their eyes, narrowed and mistrustful.
"We already have your companion," one announced boldly. "Wake this one and come. The Vice-Chief wants to answer your question and get you away from here."
Lloyd!
Taking out his frustration on someone, Genis kicked Zelos in the shoulder. The Chosen's eyes snapped open, but in the next instant he only groaned. "Are they killing us?" he asked.