"Here...it's here."

Dizzy with hunger, Lyn could feel herself wavering as she slowed Sain's horse to a trot; beside her, Kent slowed his own horse as well, the both of them always cautious with their precious cargo even though speed had been so important the last two days. Through the rows of yellowed adobe buildings, the reddish glow of the sunset cast an unearthly light upon them until they seemed to seethe a lurid orange. This haunting image, coupled with her unfamiliarity with this part of Bulgar, made Lyn feel as if she wasn't wanted in Sacae's capital city--Sacae's only city.

She didn't want to be here either, not to this place where the ruling tribe was filled with city-dwellers who knew nothing about life on the plains. But to save Sain, to see him up and about and flirting with his usual robustness once again, to avoid that other option...oh, what wouldn't she do?

She'd even acknowledge him again.

Dismounting from Sain's steed was more uncomfortable than she would ever admit, her stomach gnawing with a fierce hunger that she had been ignoring since she'd woken up this morning. In retaliation, the hunger had taken her legs away from her, or so it felt, as she stumbled and wobbled before shaking her head and making her way to the door of the closest building. With a strength borne more from desperation rather than anything righteous and pure, she pounded on the door three, four times before she was chastised for the effort with another wave of unsteadiness. Gritting her teeth, she reached out with one hand and gripped the bumpy, uneven wall. She could hear Florina's pegasus land with a swooping sound, then Wil's exclamation of relief as he jumped off, all the while her impatience threatening to boil over.

You chose to stay here rather than return to the plains, she thought with growing annoyance, so why aren't you here now?

She sagged in painful weakness, her breathing unsteady. The meager rations they had received from the Kutolah ran out at the end of the first day; the Kutolah had to think of themselves first and riding hard had worked up just as greedy a hunger as fighting. It didn't matter--all she wanted was someone to answer the door...

Lyn gritted her teeth, her headache worsening. Hurry up!

There were footsteps on the other side of the door, and then it was open, revealing Kana, Yune's wife. The shock on her pretty face didn't make Lyn feel any better, not when she was showing so much weakness. "Lyn! You've returned to us--"

"No," Lyn interrupted, her irritation making her curtness sound hostile. Right now, she couldn't say that it was not something she was feeling. "I have a friend. He needs Oyon-baba's help. You have to..." She stopped as another wave of dizziness assaulted her. Kana reached out to her, but Lyn backed away and turned her head to her friends behind her. "Kent! Wil! This is the place!"

"Lyn--"

"Is she here?" Lyn asked as she turned back to face Kana. "She's not dead, is she? She was fine when I left for Lycia!" The hysterical note at the end of her last sentence made her want to flinch in disgust, but she was so, so desperate and running on little more than hope. If Oyon-baba was gone, then so too was Sain's last chance.

Kana's face was grave. "Yes, and she's well. Bring your friend in, then. We are always willing to help those of our tribe...but we're not Lorca to you anymore, are we?"

"Thank you," Lyn said, ignoring the rest of Kana's words as she went back to her friends to help unload and carry Sain inside. The look on Kana's face meant nothing to her, the words even less.

Kana was right. Lyn was the last Lorca now.

Legion of Honor

(C) Intelligent Systems and Nintendo

-0-

10. Blood Money

There was something about buildings, whether they were made of adobe or stone or whatever else there was, that bothered Lyn. If her friends knew about her secret dislike she was sure they would find it strange, and privately she thought the same thing. How much of her life had she spent living in her family's ger, after all? But gers were made of wood and animal skins, once from living creatures who enjoyed the bounties of Mother the Earth and Father the Sky. They were dyed with colors made from boiling certain plants, and when it was cold the walls were reinforced with heavy blankets woven from the wool of the tribe's sheep. This had not changed since before The Scouring, and Lyn believed it never would. These beliefs were as eternal as the sky and the earth.

Buildings pretended at eternity. They felt sturdy, but they collapsed very easily. How many times had Bulgar been rebuilt after an earthquake? It was not a matter of simply raising the beams and stretching out the skins once again; to rebuild the buildings made from Mother Earth's castoffs and dead flesh required enough effort to put together a whole tribe's worth of gers! When she had been younger, Lyn thought that it could be nice to have a permanent home that didn't have to be moved with the seasons, but her mother had explained why it was better the plainsman way: the tribe was family, and family was home. Without family, even the biggest, most sturdiest building was nothing more than a soulless place in which to eat and sleep.

She knew that now.

What she hated the most was how it felt so hard to breathe inside these buildings sometimes. The wind didn't move well within them, and with such solid ceilings and nothing more than a window or two for light, it felt as if she was cut off from Father Sky. The floor was nothing like Mother Earth, either. And, even though her ger was not as big as the room everyone was in now, she felt anxious--and not all of it had to do with Sain's condition.

Kana had found blankets for him to lay upon before she left to find Oyon-baba; Lyn knew that she would also go and tell her husband about their arrival. The thought of having to see Yune again after almost a year of separation made Lyn's annoyance rise, but she couldn't avoid him this time. All she could do was sit with everyone else on the dusty, hard floor and eat cold flatbreads dotted with scallions to stave away their hunger while they waited--Father and Mother, waiting was all she had done lately!

"Lyn?" Florina whispered, at her side like always. Lyn shook her head, trying to hide her warming face from her best friend. To use Father Sky and Mother Earth's names in such a way made her feel ashamed of herself. No matter how stressed she was, that wasn't right.

A familiar sound floated into the room; metal dancing with modest grace against metal, a sound every Lorca believed was the sound of stars, the sound of legends being imprinted upon Father Sky's night-shrouded cloak. With a shiver of anticipation Lyn rose, knowing without having to turn her head that Florina was doing the same. She glanced at Kent and Wil, who were sitting on the other side of Sain's prone body, a little relieved when they both followed her movements even though Wil couldn't hide the confusion on his face. It wasn't as if they had to; they weren't Sacaean, they weren't Lorca, and no one would blame them for being ignorant. But it was good they did, because Lyn knew of no other in Elibe who deserved such respect.

Oyon-baba, grandmother of the Lorca, entered the room.

She was not an old woman, though Lyn didn't know her age; rather, she was a timeless one. Her long, white hair was plaited in the old-fashioned style and she wore loose robes because the knuckles of her fingers were swollen, but Lyn had never once seen her dark green eyes dull with age or indecision, her smile that of a person who truly knows the answers to life's questions. Lyn's father may have been the chieftain of the Lorca, but Oyon-baba--the honorific from an insult some foreigner in Bulgar gave to her for standing in his way, an insult transformed into the Lorca's highest title--was its soul.

She stopped, and so did the sound. Lyn never knew what made that sound, and every time she had asked she had received a different answer until she had given up. "Ah, Lyn," she said in her melodic, soft tones; inside, Lyn felt warmth spread within her as she always did at the sound of Oyon-baba's voice. "You look...alive."

Lyn didn't know what to make of that pause, as she knew that Oyon-baba's every word had a certain heft to it. She didn't want to think it was an insult, and so she took it as gracefully as she could, bowing her head in honest acceptance. "Oyon-baba, I wouldn't have come here normally, but it was an emergency. My friend--"

Oyon-baba nodded once, and the words stilled on Lyn's tongue. "This young man here, a son of Roland?" The woman moved with deliberate steps, kneeling just above Sain's head and placing her hands first along the sides of his head, then down to his shoulders. "Treated by the Kutolah," and there was a distinct strain edging along her words.

Lyn flinched. "Oyon-baba?"

"Don't worry about it," Oyon-baba murmured, her gnarled hands working at Sain's injured collarbone. "I'm sure you did what you had to do. Unfortunately, his initial treatment was not properly done. It would be a wonder if he recovered full use of his entire arm after this."

"Will he live?" Lyn asked. Oyon-baba seemed to pause, her hands making their way back to his temples, before nodding once.

"His body is weakened, but he is young and his soul has not fled his body yet. Hmm..." One wrinkled hand touched his throat, then moved down just below his ribcage. "There is a buildup of wind energy...a wind affinity, I take it? Father Sky, Mother Earth. There is someone of the anima affinity with you."

Kent stepped forward, and if Lyn didn't know any better she would've said he looked slightly bewildered. "That would be me, ma'am."

"Hmm...I see. I'd like your help in preparing a small ritual. His inner affinity is ready to consume him. If that happens, he will not recover. You'll be needed to lend balance to him." Withdrawing her hands, Oyon-baba laid them flat on her lap. "Do you understand?"

"Yes," Kent said, though Lyn could tell he was feeling unsure. There had been magic-users in Caelin who had attacked them during their escape, but she didn't think he knew anything about Sacaean rituals. "What would you have me do?"

"Wait a moment." Oyon-baba turned to Lyn. "Between you and the archer, there's too much wind in this room. I'll need you to leave...but if the snow flower wants, she can stay." At this, Lyn grinned at Florina, who ducked her head at being noticed.

"N-no, I'll go too..."

Chuckling, Oyon-baba shook her head. "At least some things haven't changed. Go now, Lyn will show you the way." As Lyn, Florina, and Wil began to leave the wide room, Lyn heard the woman say to Kent, "It would be nice if you could take off that armor."

"Yes, forgive my rudeness." This was followed by buckles being undone.

"Well, that is not exactly what I meant, but it will have to do..." and then Lyn closed the door, but not before she caught Wil's glance back at the room they had just left. She smiled; Florina had acted the same way during her first stay with the Lorca years ago.

"She's amazing, isn't she?"

"Yeah, she has a good feeling. I don't really know how to explain it, but it's good." Wil smiled for a moment, then he shook his head. "But how did she know we were with the Kutolah?"

Lyn shrugged. "I don't know. She's told me before that she can see things other people can't, and I'm sure she knows all the seasonal movements of every tribe."

"See things other people can't?" Crossing his arms, he nodded slowly. "I get it. It's like how she knew I was a wind affinity. And then there was that whole thing with Sain and the ritual, too. She's something like a magic-user, right?"

Lyn was about to say something when she noticed a flurry of movement out of the corner of her eye--Florina shaking her head. "N-not really...she's not like Erk or Lord Pent. She doesn't have, um...Fiora called it 'magical residue.' Grandmother is...something else, k-kind of..."

"'Magical residue'?" Wil smiled. "Wow, I don't know what that is, but it sounds mysterious. So you know stuff like that, huh? Pegasus knights must all be pretty smart then."

Blushing, Florina shook her head. "I-it's not...I-I'm still in training..." Florina never could take a compliment, Lyn thought in amusement as she put her arm around the smaller girl.

"Okay, let's get out of this hallway. There's another room down this way." Lyn put Florina in front of her and they all began walking, single-file, down the narrow corridor until they reached another doorway. She barely remembered it, as she had only voluntarily entered this place twice before, but this other room was more cluttered than she remembered it. That was another good thing about the nomadic lifestyle: she knew to take only what was necessary, and she was very neat with what little she did own. It seemed that Yune and the others were forgetting that, judging by the number of wooden chests and the couple dolls strewn around the small table and cushions in the middle of the room--it seemed Kana and her daughter, Tai, had been here when Lyn had begun knocking on the door. There were stairs that led to the second floor, but she had never let herself get that far.

The three of them sat on the cushions, but barely a moment had passed before Wil began talking again. "So, this was where you lived when you ran into Kent and Sain, huh?"

"No," Lyn said, frowning. "I lived in my ger a short ride south."

"Why didn't you live here?"

Sometimes Lyn really wished Wil wasn't always so quick to ask questions. Later she should tell him the story of Wassan and the clever snake. "Before the attack, the Lorca was a plains-dwelling tribe just like the Kutolah. I wasn't going to give up any part of my heritage just because it would've been easier for me."

"Oh?" Wil looked around the room. "So, who else lives here?"

"Other than Oyon-baba and Kana, there's Kana's husband, Yune, and their daughter, Tai." Lyn looked away, feeling disturbed. "That's it."

"That's what's left of the Lorca?"

With narrowed eyes, Lyn looked at the yellow wall past Wil's head. "No, I'm what's left of the Lorca. I'm the only one who can't forget that my family, that everyone died. I'm the only one doing something about it." She could feel Florina's eyes on her, could remember their last conversation before Florina returned to Ilia even better, but all she could feel inside of her was a wound that would not begin to heal until the splinter that was the Taliver had been burned away.

There was a strange look on Wil's face before determination set in. "That's why Lyndis' Legion has to stay together, right?"

"Right," Lyn said, smiling a little as Florina nodded her agreement. "Once Sain has recovered, that's when we'll strike."

Wil's smile became smaller. "Yeah. Sain's going to be okay, so..." She watched him glance at her, and when he looked away she felt guilty. She knew what was on his mind, because how could she ever forgotten what she was going to do to Sain? How could she ever forget mercy, and murder?

Father Sky, Mother Earth, she was going to hate telling Sain about that.

The uncomfortable silence that had fallen over them was interrupted by two sets of footsteps, one of them shuffling along the unnaturally-hard floor. Kana appeared, holding the hand of her daughter, who Lyn remembered should be celebrating her eighth year this summer but seemed smaller than her age. "Lyn, my husband would like to talk to you," Kana said, her eyes averted.

Lyn stood, hands clenched at her sides until she felt she could calm down the emotions that churned inside her. She knew she would have to talk to him, she knew that, but now it felt like that knowledge was the first summer thunderstorm, new and a little frightening. "Fine." To her friends, she waved and said, "I won't be long."

Wil, who was as usual supremely himself, grinned in return. "Have fun!" She sighed inwardly at this as she left the room, staring apprehensively at the stairs that greeted her further down the hallway. Tall hills and steep mountains were just fine, though she much preferred the flat plains, but this was different. Taking the steps one at a time, she reached the second floor and looked around, then decided there was only one hallway to take. It seemed directly above the first floor's and was just as narrow, except there were more open doorways to peek into.

She found Yune in the last, its lone window allowing the dying sunlight to stain the room with the color of fire.

Once, Yune had been Uncle Yune, her father's childhood friend and second-in-command. When her father had decided to explore Lycia for no reason other than to satisfy his curiosity, Yune had gone with him as far as Khathelet before his horse fell ill to the wet humidity, forcing him to stay behind while her father went on ahead to Caelin. He had been the first Lorca to meet her mother, and his support for his best friend's new wife had been enough to soothe the few wounded by her father's choice in women. At her birth, he had performed in all the ceremonies, dressing in wolf furs to resemble a monster for her father to scare away, preparing the smoke that was Father Sky's breath under Oyon-baba's discretion. He took her on walks when her parents were busy, taught her about the edible and poisonous herbs of each region of the plains, and sparred with her once her father had decided she was ready to take up the sword. She loved her Uncle Yune.

It was Yune she hated.

That Yune was before her, sitting down on worn blankets with a straw mat in front of him. To Lyn it seemed like he had been writing before she entered, the scraps of paper on the mat filled with numbers. He looked up at her when she had entered, his gaze steady, and with the raisin-brown bandana covering his short hair he looked the same as always. It made her wonder--how was she supposed to feel about that? How was she supposed to feel about the fact that he refused to change when all that had happened to them was change?

"Lyn," he said, his tone neutral.

She nodded. That was all she could give him. "Yune." His brows furrowed as if her presence was already annoying him, and that in turned annoyed her.

"Sit."

Shaking her head, Lyn asked, "What did you want?"

"To see you."

"Then, are you done?"

Yune paused, his face now clear of any emotion. "Your friend will need to stay here to recover. You and your other friends can stay as well."

"...I appreciate it," Lyn said slowly, pinpricks of suspicion biting into her skin. "We'll only stay until he's well again."

"Yes." Again, his frown returned. "In return, we'll need payment."

Lyn flinched. It felt like she had just been struck in the face, and her first reaction was anger. "Is that your new Sacaean way? Have you adapted so easily to the Bulgar way, where only money forms the bonds between people?" He looked ready to say something, but she forged on, indignation a fierce, sword-making heat in the pit of her stomach. "Fine. I don't want to be indebted to you anyway."

He had the nerve to look frustrated. "It's necessary."

"It's always necessary in the city."

"Could the five of us have been a plains-dwelling tribe again?"

That he could speak to her with such heavy sarcasm strangely calmed her. He wasn't worth her time after all. However, she couldn't resist saying what had been on her mind during those six months by herself on the plains, the anger she had withheld from the remnants of her tribe coming forth with only the barest thought. "You weren't ever willing to lead a tribe. You were content with standing beside my father. But you couldn't stand beside a woman who was ready to lead, could you?"

He stared at her, his lips a flat line. "I don't see a woman before me. I see a child."

It was all she could do to only jab a finger at him. "I won't be told that by a coward," she snarled, and when he looked at her with wide eyes she knew she had him. "Father depended on you. He trusted you. It wasn't your fault your family was with Oyon-baba in the city when it happened, but when I found you and told you what I was going to do you turned your head and walked away. I waited in my ger the entire winter for you to remember yourself, to remember what it means to be Lorca, but like the coward you are you never came.

"Now it's summer again. The Taliver aren't trapped in the mountains anymore. They can go about freely, killing and raping without anyone willing to stop them. We could've gathered lots of people here and destroyed the Taliver in the winter, but you turned your back on your tribe and now the Taliver are still out there, ready and willing to hurt others. You shameless coward, you..." She swiped her arm over her eyes even though she knew it was useless, that she couldn't stop her tears anymore than she could've stopped the Taliver by herself that horrible night. "Maybe I'm a child, but at least I'm not the one who turned his back on his tribe! At least I'm not the coward who has to depend on a child to avenge his best friend! But it's fine for you to do nothing because your family is still alive!"

"Lyn!" Yune rose to his feet, his face no longer an impassive, emotionless mask. He was angry now, but no matter how angry he was Lyn was angrier, she had been angrier for a long time while he did nothing at all.

"Don't worry, you won't have to do anything. I'll earn the money and I'll avenge the Lorca. This child can do that much." With those words hanging between them she left the room, knowing that Yune wouldn't follow her. Yune wouldn't do anything at all. She had waited so long in the cold of winter for him to regain his senses, to remember his pride as one of the Lorca, but she had waited in vain.

He had never had any of that to begin with.

-0-

After a light meal of dumplings packed with seasoned mutton and its steaming juices along with more thin flatbreads, all washed down with the spiced teas popular to Bulgar, Lyn found herself anxious to repay her debt as soon as possible. Though she had wanted some time to herself after her argument with Yune, who remained upstairs throughout dinner, she couldn't help but feel better when her friends moved to join her when she began stepping into her boots after the meal. With Kent on her left, Florina on her right, and Wil moving wherever he pleased--including in front of them, walking backwards until he tripped over a long, carved stick someone had left behind in the road--and the cool, dry night breeze, it was almost perfect.

It was too silent whenever they passed by groups of giggling Sacaean girls, though.

Lyn thought she had remembered the freelancer mercenary office at the row of buildings just before the city gates; Florina knew the pegasus knight office was around the same area and wanted to send a note back to Ilia as well as update her location for their records. With the falling night it wasn't crowded, and so Kent's moderate tone seemed unnaturally loud as he asked, "Have you given any thought as to how many missions we should complete?"

"Ah...I only want to do one or two. All of us together, of course," she answered. Kent nodded, apparently satisfied.

"It's going to be our first real mission as Lyndis' Legion," Wil piped up. "I mean, if you ignore all the times we've been attacked everywhere we go."

"With all the experience we've earned in those fights, a mercenary job should be easy enough." Lyn smiled at Florina, her best friend's hunched shoulders showing that she was fretting over something. At those words Florina looked up, her wide-eyed look easy to see with the few lights set up against the buildings. "This is going to be the real start of your path to being as good a pegasus knight as your oldest sister," Lyn continued.

Florina smiled back. "A-actually, I've been logging our past battles too, since Fiora said it was okay..."

"How is she doing?" Kent asked. Lyn noticed, with some confusion, how Florina beamed at the question.

"She's doing very well...um, recently she was made into the commander of the fifth wing. She used to be the vice-commander, but the last commander died..."

"Um, I can't remember, but is she your only sister?" Wil asked. Florina shook her head, her thick locks of hair brushing against Lyn's arm, leaving behind a vaguely ticklish sensation that reminded Lyn of the wind brushing across her bare skin as they rode across the plains summers ago.

"No, there's also Farina." Florina's voice sounded smaller, sadder, and Lyn put her hand on her best friend's shoulder and squeezed comfortingly. "I-it's okay, I...just haven't seen her in a long time..."

Wil coughed, looking down. "Hey, I'm sorry. Stupid me always shooting my mouth off, huh..."

"N-no, it's okay!" Looking down, Florina said in a tiny voice that Lyn thought only she could hear, "It's really okay..."

Before the silence between them could stretch on for too long, Kent pointed ahead at the light streaming out of an open doorway. "Would that be our destination?"

"I'll go check!" Wil announced before he sprinted down the path; Lyn couldn't help but wonder if he was trying to run away from the awkward moment, and she shook her head in amused exasperation. What was more of a surprise was when Florina moved away from her side.

"I've got to go to the pegasus knight office, so..." Lyn waved her away with a smile, watching her friend walk ahead in her slightly gawky, uncoordinated way. Compared to when they first met, now Florina showed her true grace in the air; Lyn could remember the show Florina had unwittingly put on for the Lorca months before that horrible night, how Florina had swooped, spun, and bucked in the summer sky as if she had been a plainsman breaking in a wild horse. How embarrassed she had been when she had landed to cheers!

The force of the memory was like a punch to the gut, and Lyn only just remembered to catch herself from showing her weakness. "Milady?" she heard Kent say, his voice tinged with worry, and she quickly shook her head.

"It's nothing," she said, her voice a little rougher, a little more dishonest than she would've liked. Sacaeans don't lie, but over the years she knew that they all had things they preferred to keep to themselves--her included. "Please don't worry about me," she told him with a smile she meant to be comforting. The fact that his expression didn't noticeably change made her wonder if she had been successful.

"As you like." With the light that was available, she could see him pause, as if he were considering something. "Lady Lyndis, do you truly believe that woman's diagnosis?"

"Whose? Oyon-baba's?" Lyn laughed. "She's almost more reliable than day and night. Don't worry, Sain will be fine."

"If you say so, then I'm relieved to hear it. Although, the ritual she had me perform with her..."

Lyn laughed harder, drawing what she almost imagined was a long-suffering glance from him. "Sacaean rituals are nothing like what you have in Caelin, right?"

She heard him sigh. "Apparently."

"But if she said it was necessary, then it must be true. All we have to do is wait for Sain to wake up now." A curl of nervousness twisted inside her stomach at the thought, because her personal honor demanded that she be honest with him, no matter how much it would hurt him. To be hated by Sain...the very thought made her ill.

"Will you tell him?"

It really bothered her that it seemed Kent knew what she was thinking, but she nodded anyway. "I have to. I couldn't hide something like that from him, and I wouldn't want to. He needs to know that this is the 'lady liege' he wanted to serve, so he can make his own decisions..."

"Your sense of honor is admirable," Kent said, his voice quiet.

"Kent?"

"Yes, milady?"

"Why did you..." Lyn pursed her lips, the words she wanted feeling as if they were stuck in her throat. "Why did you really agree to help me then?"

There was nothing from Kent for a long moment, the open doorway so close ahead that he could simply dart in and escape the question if he chose to. She would never pry again if he did so, and she thought they both knew that. "Lady Lyndis, I serve you. Whatever your interests, I will do my best to further them. I suppose that is a poor answer, but I wanted to spare you if at all possible..."

She placed her hand on his upper arm, drawing his attention like a sudden moment would draw a wary look from any creature of the plains. "Kent, I appreciate it, but you can't save me from my mistakes." With a smile, she lowered her hand. "Let's go see if Wil found us a job, okay?"

"...As you wish," and neither of them said anything further as they entered the open office. Wil was in front of a desk, pleading with the burly, baldheaded man behind it.

"Oh, come on! There has to be a job--ah, there you are!" Wil waved them over. "Lyn, this guy says that he doesn't have any jobs for a group as small as ours. I told him we even have a pegasus knight and I think we're pretty good, but still--"

"Look, I don't care if you have the general of the pegasus knights herself, I don't have any jobs for you," the bald man nearly growled. Lyn pulled Wil by his shoulder away from the desk, putting herself right in front of the desk and forcing the bald man to focus on her.

"I'm the leader of this group," she introduced herself. "We may be a small one, but we've been tested and we're very experienced. We'll take on a job meant for a larger group and succeed, I swear it."

The bald man looked like he was calming down. "I do have a job if you put it that way, but..." He gave her a piercing, considering look that she appreciated little more than the leers she had received in Aquleia's arena. "Are you of the Bulgar tribe?"

Lyn stared at him. "I'm of the Lorca."

"Oh, sorry, I just figured because you're mixed..."

"It's fine." It wasn't in a way, but that was only because she knew the plains as her true home.

"Anyway, I'm sorry, but I can't. You're what, fifteen, sixteen? And those guys with you don't look much older. This mission is much too important to give to a new group." He was shaking his head when Lyn decided to just give in and try tomorrow instead.

"Thank you for your help," she said, turning to leave. A Sacaean man dressed in clothes that Lyn couldn't recognize strode through the door and ran into her, pushing her into Wil, who barely managed to catch her around the shoulders. To make it worse, the man glared at her like it was her fault before his gaze lowered--what was he looking at! "Shouldn't you apologize?" Lyn snapped, disgusted when his eyes widened at whatever part of her he was staring at.

"...I-it was my error," he stammered out before turning away from her. Irritated, she hurried out just as the man began arguing with the bald man, nearly running into Florina just past the door.

"Sorry!" Lyn cried out as she reached out to steady Florina, who almost fell over from her attempt in dodging Lyn.

Florina bit her lip as she glanced past Lyn, at the open doorway. "It didn't go very well...?"

"There's always tomorrow," Lyn said, trying to sound as optimistic as possible. The feeling lasted until she felt someone tap her shoulder, only to find herself face-to-face with the man who had leered at her just moments ago. "...What do you want?"

"You're the new wielder of the Mani Katti, am I right?"

Lyn blinked. "Yes, that's me. You know about it?"

"We heard a rumor about a young Sacaean plainswoman being able to draw it. I was surprised to see it hanging on your belt." The man looked around at her friends, then back at her. "If Father Sky has chosen to bestow upon you the power of one of his eyes, then we can do no less. We of the Bulgar tribe have a job for you, if you want it."

She only had to glance at the faces of her friends to know that they all felt the same way she did. "Tell us more."

-0-

Wil thought to himself this: What am I doing here?

He knew why--he had been paying attention, really--but it was just something he'd gotten used to asking himself ever since he left Lycia that very first time, when he was twelve and believed that somewhere out there was gold just waiting for him. All he had to do was get out of his nameless little village and take it for himself! And, well, there kind of was if he was willing to work for it, and he saved it up so he could show his parents that, yeah, he actually had done something with his life for the last four years, and then he got mugged and suddenly he just--y'know? It was like all his efforts from the last four years was nothing in the end.

That's not fair.

He was still struggling with that, and he knew it was part of the reason why he'd been clinging to the whole idea of Lyndis' Legion; safety in numbers, if they would only stop being attacked. And with Sain and all...well, it wasn't really that safe, huh?

And...there was something off about Lyn. Not that he knew her really well like Florina did, but just things about her recently had been bugging him. He just couldn't put it into words. He kind of thought the other Sacaeans, the last Lorca, knew that too and that was why all of them except for the grandma were keeping their distance from her. He still felt he could trust her, because Lyn at her best was really kind and nice and strong, but...

Well, he wasn't going to leave. He was going to do his best to help her, what little he could do. That's what it meant to be the perfect support, right?

Things were okay right now; they were out of Bulgar, but pretty close by. Apparently, the holy bow Miurge--Lyn said it meant something like 'shooting stars' in the old Sacaean language--was hidden in some ancient booby-trapped shrine deep underground. However, some greedy, rich son of a Bernese noble wanted it for his weapon collection, so he'd gone around and hired some top-notch mercenaries, including a pegasus knight, to plunder the shrine. The Bulgar tribe didn't want to charge in with all their forces because not only did they want to keep the location of the legendary weapon a secret, they also didn't want to start an international incident with Bern. So, that was where Lyndis' Legion came in.

It wasn't a bad mission, not that he'd gone on so many of them before. It was protecting something. Wil could totally get behind that. He kind of had a bad taste in his mouth when he thought about helping Lyn annihilate the Taliver bandits, though he thought he shouldn't because they'd killed Lyn's parents and tribe. The world wasn't like the way he thought it'd been when he was twelve, and he guessed it never had been. Maybe 'an eye for an eye' was the best way.

"They're already there," he heard Lyn say; they were riding Sain's horse and for once he didn't feel like his life was in danger, even though it was kind of weird holding onto her waist. Still better than riding with Florina; he had clung to the sides of the saddle and tried not to look down or scare her, which basically meant he barely breathed the entire time. The problem with riding with Lyn was, he'd noticed the looks Kent and Florina had been giving him and they were weird ones, like they were checking up on him or something. So, he already decided he was going to ride back with Kent rather than deal with that again.

Looking past Lyn's swaying ponytail proved that she was right; he could see a few people--two on horseback, one not--at the cliff face that was the entrance to the shrine of Miurge. "Yeah, I see them," he replied. "Should we dismount now?"

"Yes," she said, slowing down the horse. He jumped down when it was safe and she looped the reins around the trunk of some scraggly old tree. Florina swooped low and Kent trotted back, everyone ready to receive their orders. Wil was feeling nervous already, that pre-battle worry that he was going to mess everything up and they'd all lose because of him--that usually went away, oh, near the end of the battle. Not that he was going to admit that to anyone!

"Florina, I want you to take the first one on horseback, and Kent takes the other one. Wil and I will go for the foot mercenary." Lyn glared at the mercenaries at the cliff side, the sight of her annoyance on her profile really striking to Wil. "Where's the pegasus knight? Anyway, as soon as she comes out, Wil should--"

"I know," he interrupted. He knew that arrows were a pegasus knight's worst fear because of the way Florina looked at him sometimes, when he had his bow drawn. Like now, actually. It kind of made him wish he'd chosen a different weapon. "I don't think they've noticed us, so..."

Lyn nodded. "Let's go."

Of course, Wil knew he'd been wrong when the three mercenaries faced them down as they charged along the red-brown cracked earth, but it didn't matter because Lyndis' Legion wasn't going to lose! He forced down all his nervousness as he stayed a few feet behind Lyn, waiting for an open shot as she clashed with the sword-wielding mercenary while watching his back to make sure he didn't get speared by the horse-riding mercenaries. He really wanted higher ground or a forest to hide in, but he had to settle for his own speed as he awkwardly ducked a spear aimed for his head, twisting his ankle in the process--but better his ankle than his hand, right?

It was somewhere around actually being able to fire off an arrow at the mercenary Lyn was fighting and hearing the soldier Kent was fighting gurgle up blood when Wil noticed the pegasus knight coming in from the east, Kent's side. Nocking an arrow, Wil watched the easy grace of the pegasus knight as she slowly turned towards Kent's direction, the pegasus' full wingspan out in a controlled glide. By then Kent had killed the mercenary he had been fighting and was breathing hard, bleeding from his left arm.

It's funny the things you notice, Wil thought as he watched the pegasus knight pull out a javelin. With all his strength he drew the bowstring, aiming for the pegasus' right wing. From her height, the pegasus knight would probably die from the fall--

He bit his lip. I can't think about that.

And he also shouldn't have thought about the way her short blue hair was tousled by the wind, how a lock flew upward like exaggerated surprise just as he fired the arrow, but he did anyway. If he could think about nothing at all, if he could feel nothing at all every time he let loose an arrow, maybe he'd be a better mercenary archer.

But he couldn't. Because every arrow has a meaning. Because every life has a meaning. Because--

"Noooo! Sister! FARINA!"

--you see?

-to be continued-

I love writing from Wil's POV, probably because it feels so very refreshing at this point. The next time it shows up is a moment I've been replaying in my head for years now, so I'm growing more excited the closer I get to it, though it's not for a while. Which reminds me that I should make a more concrete schedule for this fic; I want to finish the Sacae/Revenge arc before NaNoWriMo. The next update will be on 9/11...huh.

Some comments:

-Yune is an OC who first appeared late in Shadows Under the Oak Tree, more just to connect that story to the timeline of the game than a character in his own right. Of course, things are going to be different here. All other OCs are tied to this fic only.

-According to Rutger in FE6, much of the Bulgar tribe is mixed, mostly with Bernese blood. Sacaean traits (dark green hair/eyes) are dominant except in the rare case of Rutger, something which saved his life when the Bern army began the Bulgar Massacre. I'm thinking that Lyn was created with this in mind to show what is typical of mixed Sacaeans.

-The flatbreads with chopped scallions are Cong You Bing, a Northern Chinese staple which you can find at any place that serves Chinese Islamic food. Think of them as Chinese tortillas. Northern Chinese food shares some qualities with Mongolian food, and since Sacae is an analogue of Mongolia it seemed appropriate to me.

-Adding to that, I've basically followed the games' direction when it comes to naming Sacaeans, but Oyon is a Mongolian name--it means 'wisdom.'

Thank you for reading! Please feel free to send me your comments and questions!